Student participiants:
Anita Farkas, Ewa Cempel, Viktor Toth, Dominik Grzyb, Alžbeta Barančíková, Marcin Derej, Stepanka Poucova, Dorota Kopania, Konrad Zaremba, Muhammed Furkan Kucuk
Location: Wilda Garden
The Wilda Community Garden is located at ul. Fabryczna 4 in the Wilda district, from which it derives its name. It is located on a plot between two tenements. More than a decade ago, this plot was also occupied by a tenement. After the building’s demolition, the plot became a meeting place for disreputable individuals. It was used as a dump site, public toilet, and was generally considered a dangerous area best avoided. In 2013, Generator Malta operating on behalf of the Malta Foundation became interested in the site. They decided to build a public garden and involve the local community (residents, associations and small businesses) in its creation. From the outset, great emphasis was placed on cooperation between different parties to involve local residents in the development of this project. The main goal of this project is not the revitalization of the district itself (that will be an additional benefit), but inspiring dialogue and cooperation between members of the community. The project is intended to give people a sense that grassroots activities are empowering and their greatest strength lies in the power of community.
ORGANIZERS
The Wilda Association maintains the Garden. Founded in 2013, its chosen goal is to become familiar the district’s problems and resolving them in cooperation with local institutions. The group teamed up with Generator Malta. The association is comprised of functionaries and activists.
ACTIVITIES
The activities taking place in the Garden of around creating a common space. Despite the many different types of the events, their common goal is to improve the quality of the local neighborhood. Weekly meetings help inspire people to take care of this area. Priority is given to creative workshops for children. Once a month they organize a big event, such as a concert or picnic, for the whole community. There are also non-scheduled activities associated with informal caregivers of particular parts of the garden. Attempts at planting or weeding out of regular meeting times are highly valued.
USERS
The Garden is primarily utilized by residents. For seniors from the surrounding tenements, it is the nearest green area. Most often they utilize the benches to rest and relax. The garden is often visited by children. A wooden house with an elevated entrance and a 4-person slide is used at various times of day and year by children.
NEEDS
It is important to improve the aesthetics of the garden. Often spontaneous action and the use of recycled materials is not always beneficial for good first impression. Hence the idea of renewal of several devices such as a house for children. This places needs an emphasis that this is a community garden and not a public park. Hence, it would be important to make a few elements that could immediately indicate this: edible plant pots, fences designating the borders, gazebo for storing tools, trellis for plants.
FINAL RESULTS
A nearly 3.5 m tall construction made out of pinewood boards and embedded in the wall of a neighbouring town house has been designed which can be modified and turned into a small scene by adding movable podiums. This construction can also be used as an area to hold art exhibitions, or as an additional sitting area when equipped with hammocks, or to hold various creative workshops for children.
Hello Wood- Csaba Banyai + Aron Losonczi
Educational platform from Hungary
Hello Wood is an independent, international educational platform in design and architecture. It teaches to think with our hands and learn through experience. It started as an art camp in 2010 with 40 people and it has grown into an annual summer school and festival for architecture welcoming professionals and students from more than 30 countries and 40 universities. In 2017 for the first time it was also organised abroad, in Argentina. Hello Wood is also a design studio, focusing on designing and building temporary, mobile structures, made primarily of wood. The studio does public space installations, festival projects but some more traditional architecture work, as well.