INSA DE LYON (National Institute for Applied Sciences) – CAMPUS LYONTECH LA DOUA
by Javier Monclús and Carmen Díez
ARCHITECTURE AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT BASED ON ECO-HUMANISTIC PRINCIPLES & ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES WITHOUT LOSING IDENTITY
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Last week in Lyon the second meeting of the Tempus Program took place. Tempus is one of the European Union’s programs in which the Department of Architecture of the School of Engineering and Architecture (EINA) of the University of Zaragoza is involved. This program supports the modernization of higher education in the partner countries of Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Western Balkans and the Mediterranean region, mainly through university cooperation projects. It is one of the programs supported by the EACEA (Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency). In our specific program seven European and seven Ukrainian universities are involved, all of them coordinated by Milan Polytechnic.
The first meeting took place in Milan in December 2012. During these 14 months we have had the opportunity to realize that these cooperative programs are part of a very slow and complicated process. The complexity of coordinating both the administrative and the academic issues is huge and a great willingness and commitment of every partner is required. This Lyon meeting has facilitated a more efficient manner of working together in the development of the academic contents of the various modules.
After the warm welcome from our hosting colleagues, represented by Marie Pierre Favre, the Ukrainian partners opened with a series of presentations on the functioning of a data base sharing system that has been created specifically for this project. Tatiana Sergeyeva offered a very comprehensive explanation of the structure of several books that are going to be published as a result of this project. She also gave us all an overview of the various work packages that give structure to the program. Afterwards, Alexandra Kolesnikova carefully explained the organization of the dropbox for our sharing of materials. These two presentations were highly informative.
The evening session was devoted to the discussion of administrative problems that required immediate solutions. Thanks to the professional responsiveness of the administrative team of POLIMI, these issues are going to be resolved capably.
In the course of the next two days, the representatives of the various universities had the opportunity to discuss the academic contents in small groups. This was a very effective method of proceeding. The decision of organizing in the near future bilateral meetings between the authors of the seven modules was taken as a result of these discussions. These meetings will surely contribute to achieve an enriching exchange of knowledge among the European and the Ukrainian partners. Regarding these new procedure, the Zaragoza team will meet next May in Odessa the Ukrainian authors. It will be a very important occasion to discuss about our various approaches and points of view.
In the plenary session that closed the meeting on Wednesday 19th afternoon we received the visit of José Gutiérrez Fernández, so far Deputy Head of Unit, ERASMUS Mundus & External Cooperation of the EACEA and recently involved in Tempus projects. Mr. Gutiérrez kindly found a slot in his travel schedule to make a stop in Lyon. He expressed his support to this project and his availability to answer any questions that might be necessary to clarify. His presence in our meeting and the confidence he showed in the overcoming of all the difficulties that such a complex project brings with it were highly inspiring for all the working teams.
We would also like to show Nora Lombardini our gratitude for having expressed to the Ukrainian colleagues on behalf of all the European partners support for Ukraine in these difficult moments and a wish of a peaceful resolution of the political conflict.
Let’s finish with the link to an article by Timothy Garton Ash published today by The Guardian (English) and El País (Spanish). We think it might be interesting for you:
We will keep you informed of the further development of this project.
Javier Monclús and Carmen Díez
Zaragoza Tempus Team
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