Category: Workshops

First Aid Training Prepared FAST 2025 Volunteers for High-Capacity Festival Days 

Simona Serban

Ahead of FAST: Festival for Architecture Schools of Tomorrow 2025, student volunteers participated in a dedicated first aid training organized in partnership with the SMURD Foundation through the Arhitecți pentru Viață (Architects for Life) program. The workshop was conceived as a concrete preparation step for a festival that brought together large daily audiences and required a responsible approach to safety. 

Led by SMURD specialists, the training combined theoretical instruction with hands-on exercises focused on emergency response, critical decision-making, and essential life-saving techniques. Participants learned how to recognize high-risk situations, how to assess a scene safely, and how to intervene until professional medical support arrives. The practical component allowed each volunteer to rehearse procedures individually, building confidence through guided repetition. 

This preparation proved especially important given the scale of FAST 2025. Each festival day welcomed over 700 attendees across talks, exhibitions, workshops, and public events. The presence of trained volunteers strengthened the organizing team’s ability to respond calmly and efficiently to unexpected situations, reinforcing a shared culture of responsibility within the festival community. 

For the student volunteers, the course offered more than technical knowledge. It created a sense of readiness and reassurance that extends beyond the festival context. The ability to act in critical moments is a transferable skill, relevant in both professional and personal life, and aligns with FAST’s broader commitment to forming responsible future architects. 

The FAST team extends its sincere thanks to the SMURD Foundation and its volunteer instructors for standing alongside us and supporting this initiative. Their continued collaboration helps cultivate a culture of preparedness and care within our community and contributes directly to the well-being of everyone involved in the festival. 

Through partnerships like this, FAST 2025 demonstrated that architectural education goes beyond design and theory. It also includes learning how to care for the people who share our spaces. 

 

 

Photo credit: Costoaea Anghelina 

 

Register to attend the 3rd edition of FAST in Iași!

Silviu Vultureanu

TALKS – Tuesday, 4 November 2025

Join us for the opening evening of the TALKS at FAST 2025 — a curated night dedicated to collaboration, trust, and the evolving role of architecture. With only 250 tickets available, we invite architects, students, professionals, and curious minds to register now at the link below.
On stage: Muromuro Studio (Ioana Chifu & Onar Stănescu), Ingeborg Christiane Hau, and Gideon Maasland (MVRDV) — three voices shaping contemporary practice through diverse lenses and scales.
The evening marks the start of a three-day series exploring how architecture connects people, disciplines, and ideas. Expect an inspiring setting at the National Theatre, Iași, where thought meets atmosphere and dialogue unfolds in front of a live audience. Don’t miss your chance to secure one of the 250 seats — register now via the link below.
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Registration link – TALKS – Tuesday, November 4
UPDATE: Registration is now closed.
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TALKS – Wednesday, 5 November 2025

The second evening of FAST 2025 TALKS brings together two acclaimed figures in contemporary architecture. With only 250 tickets available, we encourage you to register via the link below.
On stage: Francesca Torzo (Francesca Torzo Architetto) and Pablo Allard (Universidad del Desarrollo / Allard & Partners).
Each will share perspectives shaped by their practice and research, offering insight into today’s architectural culture and its wider social impact. Join us for an evening of ideas and inspiration at the National Theatre, Iași — a space where reflection meets performance. Seats are limited to 250 — please register now at the link.
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Registration link – TALKS – Wednesday, November 5
UPDATE: Registration is now closed.
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TALKS – Thursday, 6 November 2025

The closing evening of the FAST 2025 TALKS concludes the festival with two renowned architects whose work bridges academia, research, and practice. Only 250 tickets are available — register now through the link provided.
Speakers: Jonas Janke (bplus.xyz) and Andrea Deplazes (ETH Zürich / Bearth + Deplazes).
The evening wraps up three days of discussion and exchange, bringing together voices that define how architecture can remain credible and relevant in times of change. Join us in the grand setting of the National Theatre, Iași, for a memorable finale to the 2025 edition of FAST. Seats are very limited — secure yours now via the registration link.
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Registration link – TALKS – Thursday, November 6
UPDATE: Registration is now closed.

Sign up for The Broken Telephone (with images)

admin

In a world where images circulate faster than ever, The Broken Telephone (with images) offers architecture students a playful yet critical reflection on how visual meaning changes through repetition, reinterpretation, and mediation. 

Facilitated by Laurian Ghinițoiu, architecture photographer, and Marius Vasile, architect and photographer, the two-day workshop (4–5 November, Baia Turcească) transforms the children’s “telephone” game into an experiment in image communication. Each participant receives an image, reinterprets it freely, and passes it along. As the chain continues, the visual story gradually shifts, revealing how meaning can blur, mutate, or reemerge through perception and intention. 

The entire sequence of images will be exhibited on 6 November, exposing both the distortions and poetic reinterpretations that occur in the act of visual translation. 

Open to 15 participants, the workshop encourages curiosity, playfulness, and a critical eye toward image-making and perception.
Applications are open until 20 October via the online form. 

 

 

Sign up for the Transformations Workshop

Simona Serban

The Transformations Workshop invites architecture students to rethink the potential of existing buildings in the context of today’s environmental and social challenges. Led by Betty Drăgan (Senior Project Leader, MVRDV), Miruna Dunu (Senior Visual Communications Designer), and Ciprian Buzdugan (Architect & 3D Specialist), this hands-on program explores circular design, adaptive reuse, and carbon awareness in architecture. 

The process begins with an online preparatory session for installing and testing CarbonScape, MVRDV’s interactive tool for visualising embodied carbon, followed by two in-person days (4–5 November) at Baia Turcească. Students will attend presentations, conduct site visits, and work in teams to develop transformation concepts for selected locations in Iași. 

On 6 November, their proposals will be exhibited as part of the Transformations Exhibition, presented alongside MVRDV’s curatorial materials Carbon Confessions and ABC of Sustainability. 

The workshop is open to architecture students in their third year or higher, with up to 20 available places. Applicants must submit a short motivation text and a visual portfolio fragment relevant to the theme.
Applications are open until 20 October via the online form. 

 

 

Sign up for the Affective Cartographies Workshop

Simona Serban

The Affective Cartographies Workshop (4–5 November, 9:00–13:00) invites students to explore the city of Iași through emotion, perception, and memory rather than plans and measurements. Guided by assist. prof. dr. arch. Tiberiu Teodor-Stanciu and assist. prof. dr. arch. Ramona Costea, the two-day experience (4–5 November) aligns with the festival’s theme, Convergence, and encourages participants to sense and map the city in a personal way. 

The workshop begins with a guided walk through the city centre, combining photography, quick sketches, and written notes to capture atmosphere and affect. In the second phase, participants will create a 50×50 cm plexiglass collage, layering cut-outs, drawings, and text to form individual “affective maps.” These will merge into a collective installation presented on 6 November, offering a multi-perspective geography of emotions and memories. 

Open to 12 architecture students, this workshop provides a poetic method of mapping — one that connects spatial experience with human perception. Applications are open until 20 October via the online form. 

 

 

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