After intense winter and spring preparatory works to make it possible, the first Summer School of Alsace (ASSAC) has been a success! The seat of the Round Table of Architecture moved from Brugge, Vlaanderen, to Westhoffen in Alsace, France.
This small town made of typical half-timbered houses became the center of the School's activities now that Nadia & Noé, the big bosses, have moved there, buying a courtyard farmhouse whose first traces date back to c. XVI. And once again, for the fifth year in a row, I'm here to help them with students' projects and designs in the garments of tutor, and to participate as a student in the practical workshop (you know I love stone carving!).
Epigraph made by the stone engraving workshop with Rodolphe Giuglardo
Very dense weeks of design and hands-on work, for what I can assure you is the best independent, non-academic school of traditional architecture in Europe right now, crowned by The Great Estival Celebration where the students could display their projects to the otherwise sleepy village, which turned into a buzzing point of attraction for the whole region and beyond.
Craftsmen from all around flocked to the School to see what was going on, interacting incredibly positively with the students and the other craftsmen involved in the workshops. These workshops have as their goal to restore the farm and, combined with the projects we are developing with the students, create the spaces for a future resident, all-year-round school of Architecture and Crafts.
Craftsmen from all around flocked to the School to see what was going on, interacting incredibly positively with the students and the other craftsmen involved in the workshops. These workshops have as their goal to restore the farm and, combined with the projects we are developing with the students, create the spaces for a future resident, all-year-round school of Architecture and Crafts.
As always I'm deeply honored and excited to be part of all this, as I started my journey in Traditional Architecture thanks to N&N and their Table Ronde back in 2022. So what way to express my gratefulness than help them whenever possible to build this incredible school? I hope the students were satisfied of my tutoring.
Not much else to say, let the pictures talk!
And don't forget to visit the website of La Table Ronde, follow the Instagram account and participate in future activities, we are waiting for you!
I give you the farewell with a gargoyle from close by, on the spire of the Elisabethenkirche in Basel:
Posted: 17/08/2026 10:17 — Author(s): Riccardo Buratti