UPDATE: The Jury has selected Jeremy Jacinth and Luliana Teodora Amza as the winners of the £600 scholarship to participate in the GIPpy workshop at the AA Visiting School in Santiago, Chile.
What does Soviet Union architecture have to do with Chilean astronomy? A lot more than many realize. In the 1960s, the Soviet Union manufactured three Grand Passage Instrument telescopes (GIPpy), and their accompanying domes in Saint Petersburg. Unfortunately, they fell into ruin after the Soviet astronomical mission’s departure from Chile following the 1973 military coup d-etat. Now, however, the Architectural Association Visiting School in Santiago, Chile, in partnership with the Pontifical Catholic University, will host a 10-day workshop in January on the GIPpy telescopes. The workshop is organized by the team that was recently awarded the Silver Lion at the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale for their work on Soviet prefabricated housing in Chile, and we’ve teamed up with the Architectural Association Visiting School to give away two £600 scholarships to attend the workshop!
For more information on the workshop and to find out how to enter to win a scholarship read on after the break…
What: A £600 scholarship to participate in the GIPpy workshop at the AA Visiting School in Santiago, Chile from January 7-January 16, 2015. The scholarship does not include accommodation or travel expenses.
Deadline: To be considered for a scholarship, applications must be submitted by November 21st.
Applications: Applications should be sent to arq@uc.cl as a PDF file of five pages, comprised of a one-page CV and a four-page portfolio.
Jury: The applications will be judged by a jury comprised of:
David Basulto and/or David Assael. Archdaily Editor in Chief
Pedro Alonso. Programme Director, Architectural Association Visiting School Santiago
Emilio De la Cerda. Director, School of Architecture Universidad Católica
Course description:
Designed by Soviet engineer Yuri Streletsky early in the 1960s, three telescopes generically called GIP (Grand Passage Instrument) were built by the renowned LOMO factory within the workshops of the Pulkovo Observatory in Saint Petersburg. While two of them were sent to the Caucasus, the third one was installed in Chile’s National Astronomical Observatory at the Calán Hill in Santiago. The domes for the telescopes - also designed by Streletsky - were identical structures distributed across such distant places. In Chile the name GIP derived into GIPpy, but stopped to be used after the Soviet Astronomical Mission’s departure (following the 1973 military coup d’etat). Subjected now to recuperation and renewal, the 2015 AA Visiting School to Santiago will take the dome, the telescope and their various associated equipment as pieces of technological archaeology, towards developing an astronomical museography onsite. Collecting, classifying, inventorying, finding, editing and unravelling are part of the operations to be tested. Images, objects, historical and current photographs, buildings, telescopes, texts and videos, are all potential collections.By visiting the Calán Hill, the workshop will combine design and theoretical enquiry while investigating a panoply of architectural, technical, art historical, literary and cinematic images and references, all helping us to reimagine the cultural and political context for the installation of such technologies for space observation. We will propose design scenarios that will transform the site by introducing new programs associated to the recovery and revalorisation of derelict and obsolete equipment, in truly archaeological fashion. Organised in collaboration with Chile’s National Astronomical Observatory, the course will be taught by tutors from the AA, the Catholic University, and astronomers from the University of Chile who will offer lectures and seminars within the workshop. The ten-day course is open to engaging students, recent graduates, young designers and architects as well as professionals from other related fields interested in exploring alternative forms of practice.
For more information visit www.aaschool.ac.uk / www.aagippy.com or contact Program Director Pedro Ignacio Alonso at palonsoz@uc.cl.
