The project aims to start a discussion on the current situation of craftsmanship in the european south, where the economic crisis has proved long and lasting.
A sad but expected reality in Greece of 2016 is the shrinkage of construction. The limited workload seems to affect more deeply the craftsmen in comparison to other professionals, mainly because of the lack of resilience. Quite a lot of craftsmen in Greece have stopped practicing and shut their workshops down, focusing on other markets to make a living.
The project aims firstly to document the current situation of craftsmanship. More importantly though, will try to propose ideas for a more resilient future.
Will international exchange programs enrich the skill-set of craftsmen like they do for other professionals? Should craftsmen be supported more actively with lifelong learning? Should they participate in EU funded initiatives and projects and benefit from both industry and academia?
We think: YES.
Craftsmanship would be hard to organise in a top-down approach. The informality and quite often the illegality of the local workshops needs to be approached differently. We propose to document and analyse the structures that hold craftsmanship together, if any. Based on the outcomes, we plan to make proposals on the possible ways of self-organising.
How would craftsmanship benefit from EU funded projects and vice versa? We propose a qualitative research on completed EU funded projects regarding construction and materials and how local craftsmanship could have been involved in order for both sides to acquire knowledge and develop a status of interaction. Could local craftsmen be involved in the production of the EPS-milled formwork of TailorCrete (1), for example?
(1) http://www.tailorcrete.com/
We think that society needs craftsmen as active parts of it, equally as much as it needs research, development and bigger organisations.
Featured in the pitures is the workshop of Mr. George Karipis, in the Medieval City of Rhodes, Greece, active since 1956.
