Przedmieście Oławskie district
23 - 25.06.2017
Let’s change the Wroclaw estate together!
Within 3-days workshop, along with 5 teams of architects from Italy, Spain, Germany and Portugal, we tried to change the muddy corners of Przedmieście Oławskie estate into an attractive public space to encourage the integration of its inhabitants.
The immediate environment for the architectural activities was the degraded nineteenth-century estate that is currently being revitalized.
The teams of architects, supplemented with students and volunteers, were invited to design and implement microarchitecture installations in four locations within the estate within 3 days. The outdoor activities were devoted to the issue of design on the boundary between architectural and building scale, as an alternative tool for revitalizing urban space involving its inhabitants and users.
The small scale of microarchitectural projects and the lack of commercial burden opened interesting areas for experiments: playing with the formula of architectural expression, form and technology. Simplicity and short lead time make it possible for inhabitants to be involved in the process of creating the space they use. Microarchitecture has also a significant influence on shaping the model of participation in space. It allows for its reinterpretation, thus providing a valuable alternative to the use of catalog solutions, which provide cohesion and spatial order, but with the risk of banalization and detachment from real needs. Microarchitecture is an important layer in the cityscape, it codifies behavior and rituals, and constitutes a material demonstration of locally recognized values.
An important point of reference for the project is the twentieth anniversary of the Great Flood that particularly affected Przedmieście Oławskie. The effects of the 1997 natural disaster were devastating, but had positive outcome at the same time. The Wroclaw nineteenth-century district east of the city center was one of the first to be flooded. The unexpected crisis also had surprising positive results - it fostered social bonds when complete strangers worked together to help themselves and each other. The 1997 Great Flood has been remembered as a time of extraordinary solidarity and civic heroism. During the Shift workshop, organized on the 20th anniversary of the flood, by involving architects and residents of Przedmieście Oławskie, we tried to create similar energy, working on installations that improve the quality of public space.
Participants:
Ora Collective (Porto, Portugal) The courtyard between Kniaziewicza, Hercena, Komuny Paryskiej and Dworcowa Streets
ConstructLab (Berlin, Germany) The area around Górnośląski railway station
Conjuntos Empáticos (Madrid, Spain) The area around Trzonolinowiec building
de Gayardon Bureau (Cesena, Italy)
Atelier delle Verdure (Milan, Italy) Dąbrowskiego Street
Ora Collective was founded by Orlando Gilberto-Castro and Tiago Ascencao. Both architects come from Porto and combine their experience in various fields working mainly on ephemeral interventions. They say that reality is interesting in itself - without props and superficial meanings. Ora wants to restore its value in everyday life and stimulate critical thinking about it.
ConstructLab is a platform created in Berlin by three architects - Alexander Romer, Joanne Pouzenc and Masche Fehse - working on both ephemeral and permanent projects that constitute an integral connection of concept and design. ConstructLab activities combine creativity with practical insight, building ideas with production, strive to maximally embed the design in a social and environmental context.
Conjuntos Empáticos is a platform created in Madrid in June 2012 by architects, researchers and scientists of various disciplines. Its founders previously worked in many studios of international renown, including Herzog & de Meuron and dosmasunoarquitectos. Their activities are based on the cooperation and participation of various social actors in all phases of project development - from conceptual to constructive. They have conducted workshops and lectures within a number of architectural projects, including Eme3, Arquitecturas Colectivas and EURAU16.
de Gayardon Bureau - a studio based in Italy run by Sara Angelini and Alessio Valmori that operates in various dimensions - landscape, architectural and urban. In 2016, the Bureau project was one of the four finalists of an international competition organized by Nordic Built. In 2015, the studio was one of the finalists of the Young Architects Program, organized by the MAXXI Museum in Rome. In the same year the architects won the second prize in the German edition of the international Europan 13 competition.
Atelier delle Verdure is involved in designing of both architecture and landscape. The studio was founded by Giulia Uva, Marco Sessa and Barbara Boschiroli in Milan. Their activities include the design of urban spaces, parks and playgrounds for private and public clients. Since 2009, Atelier delle Verdure has been exploring and developing new ways to improve the quality of public space through the active involvement of communities and citizens.
Curators: Małgorzata Devosges-Cuber, Michał Duda
Contact: shift.warsztat2017@gmail.com
Partner:
The workshop was organized as a part of the Future Architecture Platform - the first European platform to create events, meetings and publications on the most interesting topics in the field.