RIEAch

HISTORY

PAST / PRESENT / FUTURE

COMPLEXITY, SOCIAL CONFLICTS, ECONOMY, POLITICS AND TECHNOLOGY UNDERLAY PERMANENT CHANGE, THE PHILOSOPHY OF RIEAch DOES NOT

The Research Institute for Experimental Architecture RIEA was founded in 1988 by Lebbeus Woods, architect, theorist, critic and professor of architecture, who is considered by many the most visionary and radical architect of our time.

RIEA is a non-profit institution with the purpose of advancing experimentation and research in the field of architecture, in response to changing political, economic, technological and cultural conditions in the contemporary world. RIEA has conducted several conferences and workshops.

RIEA researches new territories of space and species of inhabitation. The institute promotes a type of experimentation that deals with the concept and perception of architecture itself. It operates outside the well-established rules and classifications of mere “problem-solving” architectural design activity.

CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS
1988 Oneonta, N.Y, RIEA, The first Conference
1989 New York City, The Conference on Antigravity
1994 Sarajevo, Reconstruction and Resistance Workshop
1995 Innsbruck, Austria, No place to Hide Workshop
1996 Hüttenberg, Austria, The Space of Thought Workshop
-1999 „The Power of Contemporary Architecture“
(Academy Editions Ed; Peter Cook, Neil Spinner)

1996 RIEAeuropa was founded by Ekkehard Rehfeld in response to the Institutes increasing presence in Europe.
1997 Kraljevica, Croatia BorderLine Workshop
1998/99 RIEAeuropa leads the school of architecture in Vico Morcote, Switzerland, the former European campus of the Southern California Institute of Architecture in Los Angeles

1999 RIEAch was founded by Guy Lafranchi as a non-profit institution in Switzerland, based in Bern.
2000 Bern,Switzerland, Postcard Workshop
2001 Taormina, Sicily, Histaormina Workshop
2002 New York, Gr(o)und Workshop

RIEA produces the RIEAbook-series and the RIEAconcept-series on experimental Architecture published by Springer Verlag WienNewYork.