state of grace

introduces

ELa

The Ecole Libre d’architecture May 2018 invites free thought, dialogue, debate and dissent through exposure to a variety of practices in and around architecture. ELa as an event and as experience swerves around the body of the commodification of education moving beyond the idea of an institution. With pedagogical hierarchies eschewed, students and teachers become researchers, gathering participation from as diverse a base as possible, relying on Peer to Peer exchange as central to the strength the Ecole’s success and future.

Liberated from the constraints of traditional architectural education and professional dictates the research is enabled by free and critical enquiry of practices and trajectories. It is via the freedom of unscripted learning and of the exploration of conditions of life that the existential necessity of research is realised, pointing to the possibility of transformative experience.

Through workshops and exposure to the city - from within and outside architecture ELa aims to offer a critical understanding of the world. Employing the human, built and natural resources of Paris - as facilitators of discourse and collaborations.

The culmination of ELa involves a shift from Paris to Venice for a free Assembly at the vernissage of the Biennale of architecture.

ELa is free - not for profit, no fees, no tuition, no salaries, no assessment with no qualifications offered and It is much more, an open forum for free thought, for shared ideas, true learning and discovery.

Inaugural session to run 1 - 24 May 2018

The Sessions

The sessions will run on three days per week Tuesday to Thursday 

•  Week One                               May 1 (May Day – La Fete du Travail), 2, 3
•  Week Two                               May 8 (Fete de la Victoire 1945) , 9, 10 (l’Ascension)
•  Week Three                             May 15, 16, 17
•  Special workshop                   May 20 (Pentacote) & 21 (Pentacote)
•  Assembly in Venice                May 24 at the Vernissage of the Biennale. (optional)   

the first & second rounds of applications are now closed.

Congratulations to the researchers and facilitators who have been accepted.

They hail from :
Canada, USA, Spain, Morocco, Australia, Denmark, Italy, UK and France.

If you are interested in participating in ELa sessions but have not applied, please send us your details and clear request of what session/s you in which you may wish to participate to CONTACT

ELa was conceived following the experiences of FSA - The Free School of Architecture, founded in Los Angeles by architect and educator Peter Zellner, at its inaugural six-week programme in June and July 2017.

ELa the Ecole Libre d’architecture is run by and exists through state of grace (the research arm of robert grace architecture) , supported by the ELa advisors.

It is envisaged that the cohort of researchers in this the first Ecole Libre d’architecture will become the generators of further researches in its future iterations allowing for diverse and independent architectural voices to flower.

(Click the apply here link open the pdf in Adobe in the following link complete the form & send /envoyer)