CONTENT / The urban fabric is interwoven with specific places such as urban gardens, parks, river banks, semi-public or semi-private green areas. Those little lungs of the cities, often play a role of informal gathering spots, where inhabitants can undertake various activities from picnics and barbecues, through sports, yoga, leisure up to everyday walks with pets or simply reading a book. Some of those actions are taken by individuals, while other require the group effort. The beauty of these spaces lies in their appearance in the form of (more or less) well-kept greenery, accompanied with equipment, seats, playgrounds and specific meeting places such as garden houses or sheds.
re: cultivation means a response, a cultivation of the plants in urban gardens as a social activity, but also the process of trying to acquire or develop a quality or skill. The “re:” refers also to re-fuse, re-duce, re-use, re-purpose and re-cycle (the 5R principle). Therefore the topic concern designs that will enhance social interaction, which lately was damage by COVID-19 pandemic, but also will pay attention to the eco-friendly materials and their multiply use or recycling.
AIMS / The aim of the workshop is to research and find the social potentials in the small green areas in the cities and to propose the factor that enhance social interaction and local community cooperation. The participants should take into account the environmental impact of the proposed architectural objects, as well as their simplicity (understood not as an object to which nothing can be added, but from which nothing can be subtracted in order to fulfil its intended role). The objects what can be retransformed, recycled or re-purpose and are made of local, recycled, unobvious materials will be of high demand.
The workshop will be an initial step to the summer school of architecture, during which participants will develop further their concepts, create shop drawings and finally will build prototypes of those social boosters for public spaces.
Have a look at the previous Summer School of Architecture workshops: https://youtu.be/k_NDe6ka-bo
METHOD / The participants of the workshops will gather into group of 5- 8 members from different universities and cooperate in order to create a preliminary conceptual design of an architectural object that will answer for the need described above. The work on the project will include the research on certain areas (online and onsite – by the students from chosen location), research on the needs of users and potentials of the space, preparation of scenario for actions and social activities, preparation of conceptual design. Next, the concepts will be discussed during the mid-term presentations and further developed in terms of structural design and materialisation with the respect to the mitigating their negative impact on the environment.
THECHNIQUE / The presentation of the projects can have a form of sketches, notes, diagrams, CAD drawings, visualisations, collages, mock-ups, animations, videos, and other visual techniques that will support description of the assumed project idea, functioning and materialisation of the architectural object.
The object may have varies forms and functions, and the authors should not limit themselves at the first stage of design.
SCHEDULE / 2-Week Workshop. Weekly 4-hour class arranged with the students:
Introduction / 11 March 2022.
Mid-term presentations / 18 March 2022.
Final Presentation / 25 March 2022.
Optional consultations 15 and 22 March 2022.
EVALUATION /
– Quality of the research on the potential spots and needs of local community.
– Originality of the concepts.
– Innovation in social and material solutions.
– Use of materials and solutions that mitigate the negative impact on the environment.
– Clear and comprehensible project content and presentation.
Wroclaw University of Science and Technology (POLAND) /
Jerzy Łątka (jerzy.latka@pwr.edu.pl)
Agata Jasiołek (jagata.jasiolek@pwr.edu.pl)
Yasar University in Izmir (TURKEY) /
Mauricio Morales-Betran (mauricio.beltran@yasar.edu.tr