Author: Simon

Platz machen! is a toolkit designed to reimagine urban or public spaces. Aimed at encouraging community engagement and creative exploration, this toolkit provides a structured yet flexible framework for exploring and transforming underused spaces. Central to the toolkit’s approach is a hands-on, collaborative method where participants use bamboo sticks and rubber bands to construct three-dimensional models of their ideas.

The workshop is organized into a series of creative sessions where groups work on specific questions related to space transformation. Each session begins with brainstorming and planning, followed by a building phase where ideas are materialised using the tools provided. The iterative process allows participants to reflect on previous ideas and develop new ones, ensuring a dynamic and evolving exploration of the space.

Platz machen! not only encourages participants to think critically about urban spaces but also promotes inclusivity by facilitating diverse group interactions. By the end of the workshop, participants will have collaboratively created a range of spatial interventions and a collective manifesto that captures their vision for the future of the space.

The project was developed together with Mirjam Bauer.

Bolzano is experiencing increasingly hot summers. Climate change means that heatwaves are becoming more frequent and intense. The project ‘Regreening Bolzano’ plans to transform the two asphalt areas at the Premstallerhof into a ‘green oasis’ with more trees and greenery, thereby improving urban biodiversity, social interaction, and the general quality of life in the city.

‘Da grigio a verde – Von Grau zu Grün’ focuses on the social aspects of the redesign, recognising the importance of involving residents, Premstallerhof associations, and park users. The project’s work includes analysing and understanding how people use the space, identifying needs and constraints, and creating tools that support people in collaboratively developing visions for the space to make Bolzano greener and more liveable together.

Together with the help of the project’s partner, a small initiative of three inhabitants, a number of citizens, stakeholders, initiatives, politicians and other individuals was activated. The communication between the different parties and actors was a main component of the initiative’s further development while the solely engagement of the singular citizens and families was the focus of the student’s project.

One focus was the creation of a tool that enables the initiative and the inhabitants around the Premstallerhof to envision the space together and bring their ideas and wishes to the table. In an intense workshop with the title ‘Immaginiamo Insieme’, individuals and the initiative took part in a collective discourse about the possible future and potential for addressing climate change factors in an urban area. The workshop was part of a bigger event that had the goal of creating a first connection between the initiative and the neighbourhood, in which also other workshops were organised to envision and interact with the space and see its potential.

Focusing on the largest publicly accessible and usable open area within the Don Bosco neighbourhood in Bolzano, the project concerns life in public space, its perception and inspiration for the use of a community.

“Tutto un passo – Alle einen Schritt” invites the neighbourhood community to rediscover space through dance and movement; it explores how the common can be experienced in alternative ways and how perspective on a place can be challenged. The fundamental objective is to transform squares into lively scenarios, making them stages of connections and creativity. Through the design of several activities, the Piazza Don Bosco becomes the central place of an artistic exploration, inviting the community to reclaim the often-underestimated resource of public space.

Dance can break social barriers and gather individuals of a diversity of age groups, ethnicities, and cultures. The interventions we did gave us just a glimpse of what the topic of movement and dance could achieve, when implemented into a certain context. We noticed people from all diverse backgrounds and age groups dance and interact together, creating a collective occasion that broke out of the everyday usual habits. Our aim was to enable situations like this and to research on the interactions we fostered.

While our research relied on past projects and theory, we allowed ourselves room for experimentation as well. For us this seemed the right method of working in an unfamiliar context and with an unfamiliar topic. The topic of dance, and individual expression especially, relies heavily on experience. Starting out in orienting us on past works we soon started to set foot in the Don Bosco neighbourhood. Spending time in the area with the project but also with the course helped us in gaining an understanding of the dynamics, the actors around and the community. After the midterm presentation we focused mainly on active project work in Don Bosco and developing the different interventions. The result was a constant progression and building upon our new learnings and experiences.

The project was developed together with Carlotta Gambino and Chiara Belpassi in winter of 2023/24.