Architecture students address the challenges and problems of rural Galicia area

In the framework of the partnership agreement between the RIA Foundation and the Concello de Carballeda de Avia for the development of the revitalization plan of the village model of Muimenta, the creation of collaborative links with academic institutions, researchers and entities of the economic, civic and social fabric is promoted. This initiative allowed the development of an academic program with the School of Architecture of the University of Navarra, framed in the agreement CT Lab Carballeda de Avia, signed by the three entities. 

Led by the visiting professor Fermín Vázquez(B720 Fermín Vázquez architects) and the teacher José Ángel Medina, the students of Degree in programs of study of Architecture of 5th course developed the project, during the first semester of this course, attending to the challenges and problems of the rural area . Specifically, they have worked on the implementation of a functional program in the village model of Muimenta to boost its economic and social reactivation. 

On March 4, the act of presentation of the works was celebrated by the students and professors of the School of Architecture, inaugurating the exhibition that will remain open to the public in the town hall of Carballeda de Avia for several weeks. 

The event at presentation was attended by the institutions involved in the Aldeas strategy model and, in this partnership, and with the attendance of other invited institutions that face the demographic challenge through different initiatives, strategies and policies. The CT Lab of the School of Architecture has the goal to share academic solutions with society in order to face, together with the City Councils, the challenges of the growth of cities and the contemporary human habitat. Therefore, the cities become a laboratory where students work and develop their proposals. These works are then exhibited publicly.

Photo: Architecture students in one of the sessions organized during the first semester of the course at School of Architecture with architect and visiting professor Fermín Vázquez (left). Photo: Ana Belén Poza.

RIA Foundation and Aldeas model

The philanthropic initiative Fundación RIA, promoted by David Chipperfield, seeks to connect global challenges with specific environments, establishing links between public and private agents necessary for the implementation of projects aligned with environmental, economic and social sustainability in Galicia. As an independent agency, it contributes to the analysis, reflection and strategic territorial planning, structuring its activity in three lines of work: territorial planning and local identity; management sustainable territory; and culture of architecture and design. 

Aldeas model is a land management instrument promoted by the Xunta de Galicia under the Law for the recovery of agricultural land (2021) and aims at the productive reactivation, social and economic revitalization and the comprehensive rehabilitation of the 21 rural nuclei integrated in the strategy, which have more than 50% of the productive land and buildings in a state of withdrawal. The aim is to concentrate economic and operational efforts in a group of villages, through a comprehensive and coordinated action, to serve as an example for other locations in Galicia and beyond. The idea is to test, through strategies and pilot projects, different methodologies, processes, regulations, incentives or actions that will allow a positive change in the dynamics affecting the rural areas of Galicia and many other European regions.