RIBBON FOR WALBRZYCH IN #ARCHITECTOUR
Team I mentored got the case “Development of the area in front of the Museum and neighboring Primary School with proposals of the urban furniture coherent for the entire city”. 9 students 1 tutor in less then 3 days in small post coal mining town Walbrzych in Poland.
My personal objectives for this workshop was to open the eyes and ears of young architecture students and challenge their perception towards communicative methods and participatory design approaches to create meaningful places. Basically I wanted students to experience and live the place inside out, starting from very grassroots - questioning, experimenting, provoking, testing, prototyping and designing throughout all the creative process.
Witch lead to spectacular project that reached far beyond just design. It was a grid of experiences and memories dressed in interactive, appealing and engaging design which drafts the community development and economic progress for the whole city. The yellow ribbON is physical, mental and digital link of interactive design furniture and network of “good places”. The idea arised from overlap of several layers investigated:
1) partners - social/cultural players formal/informal groups, organisations and municipality entities, gathering all the information about their functions and operations
2) empty spaces - possible spaces of interaction, meeting points of “partners”, nodes within the network and visual landmarks
3) students spotted places in walking distance and investigated the viewpoints and visually connecting surfaces to serve as a communicative spaces
The area of the case became a density point of activities, however it was just a starting point to turn the city ON. The ribbon symbolizes the identity, the common space and community feeling. Ribbon space was filled with many creative furniture ideas designed by students, developed as intersection between social/cultural functions of partners.
I really enjoyed every second working with these super talented young ladies!
