72 HOURS URBAN ACTION
“Places are fluctuant, adaptable and transformative. They witness spatial dynamics, store history, welcome new stories and blur borders”
The 72 hour urban action festival is an international real-time architectural competition that has been going on around the world since 2010. In this event, participants coming from different countries are selected, merged into teams and given a mission to accomplish: “Design and build a public installation in 72 hours”. On top of being international and architectural, 72HUA welcomes people with different knowledge and cultural backgrounds. Hence, multidisciplinarity, creativity, cultural awareness, teamwork and time management skills are challenged while keeping participants active, focused and entertained. Huasipichanga´s representatives collaborate with participants from Syria, Indonesia and Germany to form the team “HAPPY PLATTE FRIENDS” (in allusion to the history of the place and the construction technology used there).
the place
Lobeda is one of the districts of Jena, a city located on the banks of the Saale river in the state of Thuringia. During the cold war, this city was part of the German Democratic Republic but under the Soviet rule. Within that setting and once the war ended, Lobeda was seen as a place where industry workers could live in affordable and high-quality built neighborhoods where Plattenbau technologies were used to develop quick, cheap and ideal socialist housing solutions. Even though after the reunification of Germany many residents of Lobeda moved out of this zone, in the past years this district has experienced an important development, updating the living conditions of residents to make it more attractive, livable and inclusive.
Amid a Plattenbau built neighborhood in Lobeda, there is a flat space made of stone floor with a metal ventilation outlet in the back wall (the “iron curtain”). The Döner located in the one end of the square is a popular and often busy place where people stop to take some food and leave. In the stone ground, there are draws with popular games meant to invite children and families to play and use the space. However, spatial dynamics have made of this site a pedestrian transit corridor which, apart from the foot traffic around the Döner stand, is mostly unused.
Our project, whilst recognising major historical events (the iron wall), aimed at showing how people are able to shape the meanings commonly given to places within which they interact. By acknowledging and respecting the actual use of the space and the social dynamics built around it, the concept of our installation intended to build an element that could make the rapid pedestrian transit through the site more enjoyable for all. Furthermore, it aimed to bring together the past,present and the future of the place so an ownership feeling can be develop.
METHODOLOGY
SCREENING
Happy Platte Friends visited the site, interacted with neighbours living around and brainstormed about the potential of the place. This simple, however complex exercise, allowed us to built up further on the context and analyse the space from both physical and social angles before defining the installation design and the place to locate it. The main insight that raised from the screening phase was to learn about the many attempts to change the spatial dynamics of this area during the past years, from implementing a market to doing a playground.
PICTURING
Once the first evaluation of the site was done, the design process started. Our proposal consisted on building a wooden structure composed of three mobile frames, each one representing, respectively, the past, the present and, a space to imagine the future of the place. The criteria used was: simplicity, interactivity, inclusiveness, meaningful for neighbours, mobile structures.
In that line, the first frame was a mobile structure with a playful facade that was divided in two parts to trigger both adult and children curiosity. The upper part worked as a shelf aimed at becoming a public space for gadget exchange. The lower part consisted on a sensorial interactive wooden game for kids.
The middle frame was fixed to the floor. Its design was inspired on the market that used to work in the site but got taken over by supermarket chains that opened their doors in the neighbour. Inside this frame, a stepped pattern to place edible plants sowed by neighbours was built.
The third frame, as the first one, had wheels to make it mobile. Inside, it had wooden shelves strategically located to serve either as benches and/or tables for both adults and kids so they can stay at the place and eat the food prepared at The Döner.
ZOOMING IN
The proposal was submitted to the local authorities and event organisers for approval. Once the design was endorsed, the team started the building process.
CAPTURING
Running against time, Happy Platte Friends team worked non stop at both the site and at 72HUA camp to assemble the frames. While building the installation, residents engagement played out in different ways; all being highly meaningful. From kids inspiring important reflections on gender stereotype-related issues regarding construction jobs, to residents opening the doors of their houses so the team could analyze the space from different angles.
As a result, the team managed to bring the frames to the site and assemble its interior designs to complete the challenge on time.
REVEALING
Time was running out, every member of the team was drilling, varnishing and nailing while a family living in the neighborhood were hand-weaving ropes to sustain the hanging plants in the middle frame.
After spending 72 hours working the countdown finally started and, before the team could realize, over fifty residents gathered around our installation to count down from 10 to 1 with us. WE ALL MADE IT ON TIME!
ZOOMING OUT
Challenge completed with results that went beyond the installation of a structure to transform an underused public space. Happy platte friends managed to:
Co-create a place upon residents needs and expectations, which was reflected on the immediate interaction people had with the structure. The concept was clear for users. There was no need of explanation for them to understand how to use the space and the installation placed.
Working under pressure and time constraints do not exime placemakers to take the moment to think with and trough users before designing or delivering over urban interventions.
Our interventions showed how participatory practices can happen in different ways and in moments during the process of transforming public spaces. In this case, by considering residents perspectives from the beginning, the team could assemble a structure that, once built, people could constantly interact with. This installation was edge-friendly and flexible enough for users to be able to shape the space and use the frame´s functions in several ways.
The project was inclusive. The versatility of the structure responded to the diversity of users living in the neighbourhood.