ASF International

Naomi Shinkins

guruprasad rane — 2012-04-22T10:45:37Z

ASF-UK

Guruprasad Rane

guruprasad rane — 2012-04-22T10:38:44Z

ASF Society, India

General Assembly Minutes 2012

guruprasad rane — 2012-04-22T09:18:14Z

Architecture sans Frontières-International General Assembly meeting Saturday 14 April 2012 At Arkitekternes hus, Copenhagen, Denmark.

1. Welcome address and opening of the meeting

Sofie Wäborg, chair of ASF-Denmark and host of the GA meeting, welcomed the participants to Copenhagen and to the GA meeting. The Chairman of ASF-Int, Stéphane Plisson addressed the audience, greeted everybody welcome and opened the meeting.

2. Nomination of persons who will assume the positions of President and Secretary of the General Assembly

It was proposed to elect Sofie Wäborg and Peter Burk to chair the GA meeting. The proposal was accepted. It was proposed that Dick Urban Vestbro will be the secretary of the meeting. The proposal was accepted. It was decided that Anne Gramtorp of ASF-Denmark shall verify the minutes.

3. Introduction of everybody present

Each person present introduced her/himself.

4. Approval of the agenda by the General Assembly

The proposed agenda and work schedule were approved.

5. A vote on whether the GA was convened in accordance with the statutes

Dick Urban Vestbro explained that the invitation to the GA meeting had been sent out more than 12 weeks in advance and that the Board Activity Plan and other documents had been sent out within the stipulated time limits. It was decided to consider the GA meeting to be appropriately convened.

6. A statement on the representation of members and voting rights

The list of participation was circulated and everybody was asked to fill in the list of participation. The chairs read the list of names of those having the voting right of each member organisation. It was decided to approve the names as those having the voting right (see attachment).

7. Approval of the Annual Report drawn up by the Board

Dick Urban Vestbro made an oral presentation of the report, which had been sent out prior to the meeting. After a few questions and comments it was decided to approve the Annual Report (attached).

8. Approval of the verified financial statements

Rune presented the economic report for 2011. It was decided to approve the economic report (attached).

9. The audit report

The report from auditor Jenny Andersson was displayed on the wall. The issue of accounting program was discussed briefly. It was decided to approve the audit report (see attachment).

10. Granting discharge to the outgoing Board

It was decided to grant discharge to the outgoing Board.

11. Election of members of the Board for the next period

Beatrice de Carli of the Election Preparatory Committee presented the proposal for the new Board. It was decided to approve the proposal, namely: Rune Asholt, ASF-Denmark (re-election); Valeria Sciaretta, ASF Italian Network (re-election); Dick Urban Vestbro, ARC●PEACE (re-election); Naomi Shinkins, ASF-UK (new); Guruprasad Rane, ASF Society, India (new). (In the earlier paper Xavier Codina was by mistake included in the proposal). Board members with mandates to 2013 are: Stephane Plisson, ASF-France; Pawan Shestra, EWB, Nepal; Anna Engvall, ASF-Sweden; Richard A Losalajome, ASF RD Congo; and Xavier Codina, ASF-Espaňa.

12. Election of auditors for the next period

Beatrice de Carli of the Election Preparatory Committee presented the proposal: Beatrice de Carli, ASF-Italia; and Melissa Kinnear, ASF-UK. It was decided according to the proposal.

13. Appointing the preparatory committee for elections in the next period

The following persons were proposed: Beatrice de Carli of ASF-Italia (Milano); Sophie Jopling of ASF-UK and Niclas Dunnebacke of ASF-France. It was decided to appoint the proposed persons.

14. Decision on membership subscriptions and the budget for the next period

Rune Asholt presented the proposal about membership fee. The meeting 2011 had decided to increase the fee to Eur 300 effective from 2012. Jordi Balari presented a proposal for a scaled membership fee proportional to the budget/turnover of each member organisation, as commissioned by the GA meeting 2011 (see attachment). It was proposed to take away one zero (0) from each step in the scale to make the proposal more realistic. It was decided to accept the proposal with this modification, to be effective from 2013. Stéphane Plisson and some others wanted to keep the fixed membership for all.

15. Decision on planned activities for the next period

Stéphane Plisson and Dick Urban Vestbro presented the proposed Activity Plan and the suggestions for group work. The participants divided themselves into seven groups. The groups reported orally and were asked to submit notes on paper for compilation by the Board. It was decided to compile all group proposals for the Board to use as a basis for elaboration of the Activity Plan, which should then be sent out to members for comments before the Board decides about the final version of the Activity Plan

16. Topics and other proposals for the next period

No motions had been submitted so there was nothing to discuss under this point.

17. Any other points

Jordi Balari informed the GA meeting about the work of an UIA project in the form of an exhibition, which can be made available to all ASF members.

18. Closing of meeting

Stéphane Plisson thanked Sophie Jopling for her work in the Board and handed over a little gift. The Danish group got standing ovations from the assembly for its excellent organisation of the meeting.

ASF-INDIA

guruprasad rane — 2012-04-21T10:30:45Z

INDIA

Challenging Practice

Edouard — 2012-03-15T13:14:57Z

website: http://www.challengingpractice.org

Who?

We are an Architecture Sans Frontières (ASF) European partnership funded to develop a training to teach built environment professionals to work and engage with the low-income majority in the urban context. The Leonardo project involves five European ASF organisations: Arquitectos Sin Fronteras-España, Architectes Sans Frontières-France, Architecture Sans Frontières-Italia, Architecture Sans Frontières-Sweden and Architecture Sans Frontières-UK.

What?

We have been partnering on this project for the past 18 months developing a training programme called Challenging Practice: Essentials fo the Social Production of Habitat. This training hopes to provide professionals with the appropriate competencies, skills and understanding of how to work effectively with margialised communities to ultimately address the problems of urban poverty. Why? This ASF European partnership recognises the growing desire of built environment professionals to engage with marginalised communities, and believes there is a need to train these professionals to equip them with the adequate competencies, skills and knowledge to engage effectively in this complex context.

For Who?

This course will be aimed at professionals working in the built environment (architects, engineers, builders, planners, urban designers, etc) and will be delivered in English, in every partner-country participating in the project. The training will be delivered online for working professionals to be able to study in their own time.

How?

We have developed different stages to this training integrating a short and long-term approach. Our short term approach is to deliver, test, evaluate and edit Stage 1 of the training, which will be completed by the end of July 2012. Each partner, specialised and experienced in particular fields, has selected specific modules to develop for Stage 1. We are seeking assistance from expert professionals to achieve and deliver the most relevant and successful training standardised across Europe. The graphic below outlines the overall training including the short and long-term approach.

STAGE 1

This stage is a composed of 12 modules (see next page) providing an overview of the knowledge required to engage with vulnerable groups in the urban context. At this stage, each module provides a summary text and compulsory readings which adds up to a total of 50 hours of learning. Further readings and videos are suggested to deepen the learning.

STAGE 2

The second stage is a weekend seminar and will be delivered 4 times a year (once in each partner-country). This stage will allow reflection and discussions on the learning from Stage 1, through interactive scenario building, and role plays.

STAGE 3

This stage is delivered online and will allow more in depth learning of each module. Each module will provide further literature and more technical data to complete the learning outcomes. This stage will also measure the learning of trainees through an evaluation.

PRACTICAL - INTERNSHIP OR WORKSHOP

The ASF partners involved are either specialised in running national and/or international workshops (ASF-UK and ASFIT) or in delivering projects nationally and internationally (ASF-Spain and ASF-France). This final stage will allow practical hands-on experience, to put into practice the theoretical learning of previous stages.

See online : http://www.challengingpractice.org

ASF-TUNISIE

Sophie Jopling — 2012-02-29T11:52:38Z

TUNISIE

Board meeting in Freiburg

Sophie Jopling — 2012-02-20T13:42:56Z

The board were welcomed to a very sunny but cold Freiburg, Germany. For minutes of the board meeting held on Saturday 4th February please see the document attached below this article. The main item that was discussed was the plan for the general assembly meeting in Copenhagen in April, which we are really excited about.

The setting was very beautiful and our hosts provided a full programme of sight-seeing and visits. These included a visit to the Vabaun district to talk to people about their experience of co-housing, to see some Passivhaus examples and also a house thats rotates with the sun. The board would like to thank AuG Dermany for a very well organised and extremley interesting visit.

Activity report 2010

Sophie Jopling — 2012-02-08T13:43:34Z

This is the fourth Annual Report since ASF–International was constituted in April 2007. During 2010 ASF-Int has continued to consolidate its organization and to recruit new members. We have started to establish a permanent Secretariat that will permit a better coordination between members and we have created a new website which is being updated regularly.

GA Meeting in Stockholm 17 April 2010

In April 2010 the GA Meeting was held in Stockholm, hosted by ASF-Sweden and ARC●PEACE (which held its own biannual meeting just before the GA meeting). Due to the Icelandic volcanic ash clouds almost ten persons had to cancel their trips to Stockholm, but the GA meeting was nevertheless attended by 21 persons representing 12 member organizations, 4 of which had voting rights on behalf of other member organisations. The GA meeting was held in the premises of the Swedish Architect Association. Those remaining for Sunday were taken on guided tours either to the historical parts of Stockholm or to the urban development project Hammarby Sjöstad, to the ecovillage of Understens-höjden, to classical housing areas of the 1940s and 50s, to the famous Markus church and the cultural heritage site Forest Cementary designed by Gunnar Asplund. In connection with the GA meeting a seminar with project presentations was organized in the School of Architecture at the Royal Institute of Technology. The seminar attracted about 50 participants, including ten members of ARC●PEACE, students at the School of Architecture and members of ASF-Sweden. Thanks to the efforts of Guruprasad Rane, Gopal Shankar and Per Kraft the seminar was documented and complied for downloading at the ASF-Int website. The invited speaker Abe Hayem of Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine (UK) had his flight cancelled, but his speech was sent out to members afterwards.

Board

Jordi Balari, ASF-Espaňa, Chair until 2011
Stéphane Plisson, ASF-France, Vice-Chair until 2011
Valeria Sciarretta, ASF- ONLUS (Italia), Vice-Chair until 2012
Rune Asholt, ASF-DK, Treasurer until 2012
Dick Urban Vestbro, ARC●PEACE, Secretary until 2012
Ludovic Jonard, A&D, France, Member until 2011
Sophie Jopling, ASF-UK, Member until 2012
Per Kraft, ASF-Sweden, Member until 2011
Richard Losalajome, ASF-RD Congo, Member until 2011
Gopal Shankar, Habitat Technology Group, India, Member until 2012

During 2010 the Board had the following six meetings: 13 February in Paris; 13 March by email; 17 April in Stockholm; 23 June by email; 19 September in Barcelona; 17 November by email. Attempts were made to carry out meetings by Skype, but it turned out to be less complicated to carry them out by email. Meetings have been attended by five to nine members. Sometimes a Board member who could not be present sent a substitute person to represent her/his organization (without voting right). Between meetings the Board has communicated intensively by email and also taken decisions by email in certain cases. Travel costs in connection with physical Board meetings have been covered by each person's member organization.

Members

At the end of 2010 ASF-Int had 18 members after having lost two member organisations (ASF-Brazil and A&D India). In February 2011 applications for membership were received from Architekten Ohne Grentzen Österreich (ASF-Austria) and from ASF Bénin. They were both approved by the Board at its meeting 19 February. Applications are said to be on their way from Macau and Greece. During 2010 the Board has also made efforts to promote the establishment of new ASF organizations in Tunisia, Togo, , Uganda, Canada, Greece, Mauritius, Equatorial Guinea, Norway, Mali, Brazil, USA, Congo-Brazzaville and Argentina.

Secretariat

During the year ASF-Espaňa offered to use part of its administrative resources to the benefit of ASF-Int. The priority tasks are to file documents, send out information, keep an updated membership list and some other tasks of a future desired ASF-Int Secretariat.

Economic situation & Bank account

During the year ASF-Int has continued to rely economically upon membership fees, which means that resources for activities are very limited. The costs consist mainly of payment for creating and updating the website and of support for travel costs in connection with the GA meetings. The Board has started fundraising efforts by appointing a working group in charge of identifying suitable sources of funds, and by establishing a Paypal function on the website. The Board has also worked on a more long-term strategic plan, with the object to raise funds for a Secretariat, project coordination etc. During the year a new bank account has been opened in France with Credit Cooperatif/La Nef, a bank which fulfils ethical criteria.

Website and Communications

During 2010 the Board decided to allocate Eur 2000 to pay for a new website. This has resulted in a well functioning platform. The new website gets an increasing number of visitors. By 10 March 2011 we had, for instance, received about 30 requests for internship, for participation in projects and for membership. Questions to ASF-Int have been replied within a few days (usually by referring people to member organizations or to the fact that ASF-Int does not have individual membership). The domain of the old website has been closed down. At the proposal of Guruprasad Rane the Board has discussed a communication strategy including mailing lists on Yahoo or Google for various levels of communications (Board, members, working groups). As a result of the construction of the new website functional addresses have been established for information requests, secretariat duties. The Yahoo/Google group may be activated when needed.

Development Architecture Education

During 2010 the Board has supported the application of several ASF members to the European Com-munity's Lifelong Learning Programme/Leonardo Agency for a project called Development Architec-ture Education, with ASF-España as the coordinator. Funds were approved to the Spanish, French, UK and Italian partners for ‘mobilities' (travel costs). ASF-Sweden was incorporated later. A start-up meeting was held in October. The project continues until 2012.

Brochure, Portfolio & PowerPoint presentation

The brochure about ASF-Int, made in 2009, was updated in 2010 and was used in Rio during the WUF 5 conference (see below). It will be updated again for the GA meeting in April 2011. At the beginning of 2010 the project portfolio was updated. A PowerPoint presentation has also been made about ASF-Int (to be presented at the forthcoming GA meeting). It can be used by member orga-nisations when presenting ASF-Int and when raising funds.

Contacts with other organizations

During the year the Board has discussed collaboration and contacts with Union Internationale des Architectes (UIA). Jordi Balari is working in an UIA work programme for education on informal structures. The Board also maintained its contacts with Habitat International Coalition (HIC) and United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG).

Participation to the World Urban Forum

At the beginning of 2010 the Board made efforts to arrange a network event in the 5th World Urban Forum taking place of Rio March 22nd-26th, but our application was not accepted. Thanks to the efforts of Anna Erlandsson of ASF-Sweden an event was carried out in the name of ASF at the Swedish booth however.

Final words

In conclusion, the Board finds that it has fulfilled the Activity Plan for 2010 with respect to increased visibility, establishment of a new website, recruitment of new members, opening an account in an ethical bank, establishment of a Secretariat, and the production of brochure, portfolio and a Power-Point presentation, but not with respect to achieving financial autonomy and starting common projects. We find that ASF-Int has consolidated its position considerably compared to the situation at the beginning of 2010.

Welcome to the General Assembly meeting 2012!

Sophie Jopling — 2011-12-07T14:00:59Z

All members and sympathizers of ASF are welcome to the General Assembly (GA) meeting of Architecture Sans Frontières International, to take place in Copenhagen Saturday 14 April2012. The venue will be Arkitekternes Hus, Strandgade 27 A, 1401 Copenhagen K, Denmark. Friday 13 April will be devoted to a seminar with selected speakers. The program for this event will be sent out later. Sunday 15 April will be devoted to a guided tour in the environment of Copenhagen. Please register your intention to participate with the Secretary Dick Urban Vestbro, dickurba@gmail.com.

Board Meeting in Lisbon

Sophie Jopling — 2011-10-26T13:02:59Z

ASF Potugal hosts the ASF International board meeting in Lisbon.

ASF Portugal organised a seminar and hosted the most recent board meeting in Lisbon from the 23rd - 25th September 2011. The seminar was held at the Ordem dos Arquitectos where a gallery space was also used to display the work of ASF Portugal.

The afternoon seminar was well attended and was kindly chaired by Pedro Ravara of the Ordem dos Arquitectos. Lectures were given by Stephane Plisson, giving an introduction to ASF International and Dick Urban Vestbro of ASF International on the role of architects and planners in the global housing crisis. In the second session Julian Salas spoke about his experiences of architecture helping to reduce poverty and he was followed by Pedro Lima Gaspar who spoke about the work of ASF Portugal and how the organisation has evolved. It was very encouraging to hear how ASF Portugal have worked so well locally with minimal resources and also the analogy of ASF organisations being like the cloves of a bulb of garlic and ASF International as the skin that holds them altogether.

The Ordem dos Arquitectos also kindly provided a room for the board meeting itself, the minutes will be avaliable on the website in due course.

The final day was an organised tour around Lisbon, which was fascinating city and a wonderful venue for the meeting. The board of ASF International would like to thank all those who put so much effort in to the organisation of a great weekend and are very to glad know so much more of our memebers.