School's Everyday Life
The faculty participates at least once a year in conferences, either national or international, organised by the school, in order to present and update the body of research available to their students and peers alike. One of the AEEA conferences was held here in 1999, and proceedings were being published afterwards.
'The Afternoons of the City' is a series of lectures given by prominent Romanian and foreign scholars that are invited to talk to the students on their preferred topics. Artists are sometimes invited over to perform in concerts or open debates with their public. In time, a certain number of personalities from various fields were our guests, and their lectures are being brought together in books to commemorate their presence in the school of architecture. Among the personalities that visited us recently are: philosophers like Gabriel Liiceanu and H-R Patapievici, theologians like +Archbishop Chrysostomos of Aetna, California, and various artists.
There is a long tradition in our school for students to take study trips in Romania and abroad, usually during Easter vacations and the end of the academic year. It has been revived lately, and they have the chance to encounter first hand the most prestigious historical monuments and architectural achievements. The most appreciated destinations are those crossing Greece, Italy and Turkey, but visiting the more remote regions of Romania is also a destination of choice.
Either following such study and research trips, or independently, certain exhibitions are being opened for the public. The school has a rather large gallery located at the ground floor of our premises. Students and alumni present their work - architectural as well as from various other fields, personally as well as collectively. The most important architectural exhibitions in Romania, such as the Biennial of Architecture Bucharest (BAB) take place here.
Undergraduate students have their own institutions and places of meeting and debate. The Association of Students in Architecture and Urbanism (ASAU) is the one most recently initiated. It publishes students' magazine reflecting their needs, problems and suggestions for further improvements of the academic life.
There is also an Alumni Association that intends to keep together and close to their Alma Mater as many Romanian architects as possible. The alumni represent an important resource to the school, that finds in them support (ever so often sponsorships) and confidence.
The meeting places of choice for present and former students alike are the cafeteria and the Club A. Cafeteria has been the agora of our school ever since the construction of the new wing of the school (1971), its favourite meeting place and a place for debates, games meals and everything in between. Students from various other faculties did and do come to our cafeteria, not necessarily for the coffee (sometimes it sucks!), but for the friendly and elevate atmosphere.
The Club A has been founded by a group of students led by the then undergraduate student Emil Barbu Popescu in 1969. It is unquestionably the best students' club in Romania and definitely the most famous. Located on 14, Blanari str., not very far from the school, in the historic city centre of Bucharest, it has been from the very beginning a place of free speech and sparkling intellectual life before 1989, where students wanted to be invited by their peers from architecture for the Saturday evenings as well as for the Architectural evenings (usually on Thursdays, a tradition that is still around). The club and its famous Festivals of Club A of 1970's and 1980's were the place for launching some of the most radical music bands in Romania. Students are taking care of the cultural and, well, entertaining night life of the club. Any student in architecture can be a member of the club and may invite somebody from outside the school as her/his guest on certain evenings and programmes.
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