This summer I took part in the Osthang Project together with other 60 participants and around 30 tutors. During the same dates there were other similar (building) experimentations I was interested in, but unfortunately, I couldn´t participate. But my curiosity of how they were working made me compare them in diverse aspects.
It seems that such building initiatives in public spaces are quite common and they aim the re-activation of the space, but do they really achieve such a goal? Aren´t they too short in time to achieve a real re-use of the space? What is the role of the students that arrive from abroad to the certain spot and context? Could they really feel the atmosphere of the place and react by building an object to the current needs of the local population? What is the role of the neighbours that will use the public space/object - visitors or participants? Is it possible to intervene with local small businesses and are these initiatives beneficial for them? and many other questions. Some of them were discussed during the Osthang Project in Darmstadt.
Also I could visit Villena for a day and talk to tutors and organizers of elCASC where I received a lot of precious information and good vibes from the participants and the neighbours.
The feedback of some participants, tutors and organizers is expected and that is why, this table is incomplete.
OSTHANG
PROJECT
Summer
School
|
elCASC
2014
|
EASA
2014_symбиоза
|
|
+
info
|
|||
What
is?
|
International
Summer School for experimental building and Festival for Future
Modes of Living Together
|
Festival
for urban and sociocultural regeneration
|
Festival
of workshops, lectures, social interaction and monumental
experiences (34th
European Architecture Students Assembly)
|
Where?
|
Osthang,
Mathildenhöhe
Darmstadt,
Germany
|
Historic
Centre
Villena,
Spain
|
Veliko
Tarnovo, Bulgaria
|
Who?
|
60
participants in 5 workshops
|
100
participants in 6 workshops
|
500
participants in 42 workshops
|
When?
|
7
– 27 July 2014
|
23
July – 2 August 2014
29
July – 8 August 2013
|
21
July – 2 August 2014
(annually,
in different places in Europe)
|
Why?
(goals
of the initiative)
|
Testing
the city as a sphere of action as experimental collective designs
become structural forms .
Building
becomes an active process that reacts directly to the location at
hand; the unforeseen represents not a nuisance, but rather:
potential.
Exploring
the questions: Living Together? What does community mean today?
What spaces does the community need? How will we build for the
community or how do we
build
communally?
|
The
Festival aims to revive the urban and social fabric, establishing
a small test-field to apply the study of urban, social, cultural
and technological problems and potentials of the town.
Considering
the example of the historic center of Villena as an alternative
way to study the heritage and its recovery in other historic
centres.
|
Symбиоза
aims to investigate architecture as part of a complex network,
where every element is substantially affected by the behavior of
all others.
Our
purpose is to involve (besides Architecture students)
non-architects in EASA 2014 – be it as tutors, participants or
lecturers – to share their views, and to rethink architecture in
symбиоза with professionals from divergent spheres of
activity.
|
How?
(strategies,
programme)
|
A very intense impact by international young building teams provokes a change in thinking of the neighbours and encourages them to take part in reviving the area, helped by the students of the adjacent Design School
|
Continuous summer interventions in the old town made by young people in the sphere of arts and architecture provokes interactions between neighbours and their environment and different social groups
|
A very intense action by European art and architectre students to showcase the values of different spots in town, by building objects or arranging performances to impact on neighbours so that they can be more active in town reactivation
|
Relationship
with
neighbours
|
Upper-class
residential area (general low activity)
visit
to the construction site
one
neighbour came and worked several days (there was not an open call for the neighbours to tae part in)
Hochschule
Darmstadt, Faculty of Design
|
People
at risk of
poverty or social
exclusion – participation in certain works, games and parties; Self-initiated meal preparation for the participants (small payment) Open call for the people of Villena |
General passivity in neighbours; some projects collaborated with local collectives in order to have a continuity in the use or maintainance
|
Relationship
with
the
city
|
Intense communication during the last months
|
Discount
prices in bars and restaurants for the participants
|
Participants were hosted in sports halls and the like
|
Resources
|
- Hochschule
Darmstadt, Faculty of Design – use of infrastructure - materials - tools and equipment |
- Colache
social centre - Municipality - materials - companies - tools - audiovisual equipment – Universidad de Alicante, UPV - volunteers, associations, entities |
- every workshop team looked for their own main sponsors
|
Long-term
effects
|
During summer 2015, some of the constructed pieces have been used for cultural or leisure events - exhibitions, talks, concerts, a place to relax...
|
Going
more interdisciplinary in its 2nd edition.
Support
by the Municipality
|
To
be evaluated
|
Personal
notes
|
|||
Participants´
Quotes
|
|||
Tutors´
Quotes
|
No comments:
Post a Comment