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The architecture residency in Valga brings together architects, urban planners, designers, builders, artists and other practitioners-theoreticians of spatial design, providing them with a venue to focus on creative, research or community-driven activities free from market pressures.
Their interests include slow architectural practice, critical reflection of the field, material circulation, experiments in everyday life as well as testing and developing forgotten or undiscovered methods. In its activities, VARES aims to enliven the public space in Valga and introduce playfulness, spatial experiments and new discussions, making use of the particular features of the inspiring town.
VARES officially opened in early 2024 and in the past two years, it has hosted over 50 residents from Estonia and abroad. In addition to the residents’ activities, VARES has also organised short-term summer and winter schools, vision competitions and various public events enticing interested audience away from the capital city.
All its residents are marked by their sensitive and economical approach to materials. They make use of local sources that the 100-year-old building or the town in general has to offer. Projects vary in scale and form ranging from the reinvention of daily routines and the imaginative re-thinking of everyday spaces and objects to urban interventions, speculative utopias and social criticism – from art to science.
