European Architecture Students Assembly

European Architecture Student Assembly was founded in 1981 by architect students like Geoff Haslam and Richard Murphy and is closely related to the Winterschool concept, which organises similar events for UK students of architecture. EASA takes place each summer in a different country, with the event usually lasting two weeks. It is organised by students of architecture for students of architecture and the concept is operated on a cooperative basis. In fall at INCM, Intermediate National Contact Meeting, the location for EASA is decided one and a half years in advance. Typically 400 students take part in the event and engage in workshops, exhibitions, lectures and social events loosely based around a specific theme. These events are run by a combination of academics and students and encompass a wide variety of activities with a greater or lesser relationship to architecture. The event is funded through a combination of attendance fees (which vary for each country based upon ability to pay), grants and sponsorship, all arranged by the organising committee for each event.

EASA has little or no formal structure in that each event is organised as a unique occurrence- though a system of National Contacts, NC's, that ensures, that the event each year is well supported. NC's also typically meet once a year to discuss the previous EASA and prepare for the next. Students come from over 40 European countries to the event each year. Recent Assemblies have seen students participating from the USA, India and Central American countries.

The INCM is held every year in autumn. They are the main event next to the assembly to keep the continuity of easa. There have been such memorable meetings like Berlin 1990, where the "Lichterfelder statement" was made. The "Lichterfelder Statement" later became the "easa-guide" developed, which is updated yearly at the NC-meetings.

The SESAM is an event arranged by the EASA network. Like the basic idea of the EASA, a SESAM can give an addition and/or alternative to the education of the students. The independence and off-university-character creates an informal atmosphere. The SESAM is a workshop with a small number of participants. Through this concentrated character the SESAM allows to work on a tight theme. After a number of similar events in the year before in Italy, the Netherlands, Czechoslovakia, etc., the first EASA workshop with the name SESAM was realized 1992 in Villafames (Valencia, Spain, October 1992, 50 participants). SESAM2007 was held in Aarhus, Denmark on 23–25 November 2007.

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