CiTyBee Workshop

We have during the years – also back with Supertanker – developed workshop formats that would give students a hands on experience in a local community while at the same time that community would benefit from the ideas and actions of the students.

Our goal is to develop open ended, interactive skills for the individuation of urban issues. With focus on the active involvement of locals through spatial and visible interactions. The workshop has a flexible format and can be stretched from the intensive 2 weeks that is described in the presentation to a longer period of time.

Read the presentation here

See photos from our last workshop with danish students here

See the movie the students made to present the workshop here

Read the Zine that the students published here

Visit from Sheffield

Friday february 22nd was spent in good company with 26 students from Sheffield School of Architecture. Instead of a presentation that showed our work in Hedehusene we involved them in a live presentation of CiTyBee.

In just 2 hours we went through all 3 phases: telling the stories about the spaces; engaging in a dialogue with the aim of identifying the most important of these stories; and acting on the outcomes of the dialogue to answer the brief of the day – How to make the station in Hedehusene more visible.

The result was impressive and played well into the activities in the afternoon when we held an open house for the local community to come and share their thoughts and ideas.

See photos on Flickr here and here

Mapping

We have used mapping as a tool in our work in many different ways, first with Supertanker and now with CiTyBee. Read more about the background for how we work with mapping here

In our prototype in Hedehusene in 2012 we used no high tech GPS or smartphones. Even though we would like to do that, we think that mapping starts with just being in public space using the best sensor for the rich sensory and emotional diversity of the city: ourselves and our senses.

We do 1 : 1 Mapping, Street Map and Patterns of Possibilities

1 : 1 Mapping

Our Street tool Box is an important instrument in our 1:1 mapping. It allows us to get around and be in public space, talk to local people and start to map the space through narratives and dialogue.

The mapping became both a way of documenting stories “in about urban spaces” but it also allowed us to meet the people on their “home turf”, giving importance to a particular space. Many of the people that we met through this interaction would later go on to being involved in future dialogue and offshoots.

By instantly putting up new signs or “Street Whiteboards” we would create a 1:1 map that documented the dreams, needs and interests for that space.

With the new signs and the Street Kitchen we also want to create a situation that shows how a space can be taken or appropriated in order to inspire people to dream of other ways this space could be.

Street Map

We use a big transportable map that can be moved around and stickers that function in a similar way to the “Street Whiteboards”.

The Street Map became a feature on the monthly market in Hedehusene. It was a popular occasion for people to tell stories and point out the places related to the stories. Again the stickers are used to immediately document what has been said and encourage those who arrive later to react on what has been said earlier.

Patterns of Possibilities

By the time of the first public meeting the map has become quite full with keywords that document the many stories. (This is where technology might come in handy)

The map shows how many views and stories different places have and that these stories often see the same place in different ways. The map visualises the many different voices of the community and most importantly gives people a way of acknowledging these other voices. This gives a more nuanced and constructive discussion based on a better mutual understanding…hence a dialogue is created!!!

People are given little blue stickers to mark what they think is important. The result is that “Patterns of Possibilities” start to emerge on the map showing the important areas and themes. This is the starting point for the rest of the public meeting that will look at what to focus on and how to act on it. Finally the new ideas and suggestions are documented on the map.

Phase 3: Offshoots

In the third phase we facilitated concrete actions based on the new localised ideas and networks. In this case the idea was to make an incubator for local projects in the empty train station. One of our actions was to design and build a module for the old train station that had a number functions.

A bench

A table

A stage

Our idea was that the flexibility of this design makes it less finished and more open for new ideas and discussions.

We did some practical things that made the Station function better like building a common storage

Some local musicians passed by and noticed the bad acoustics in the biggest room in the station – it used to be the waiting area. We made a large acoustic curtain that improved the discussion “climate” in the building.

We tried out a number of ways to use the building with local people; a cinema evening

Eating together

DJ Dr Jazz pLayed some of his records. This was also a test of the new acoustic curtain to see if it improved the possibility to play music there. It did.

Finally we organised a number of public meetings that discussed the use of the building so far.

As a result of the meeting and the prototyping before that, the building is slowly coming alive with a formal association, a local theatre group setting up their plays and more music arrangements.See all the photos here

In the third phase we also worked with the langauge that is used to talk about the local community. In our case we discovered the word offshoots which was used to describe a number of actions in the community like:

The many additions to the self build houses or how you move into an existing old factory building.

A new curated walk was organised to discuss the offshoots in the community and formalising the use of that word. We also choose to use the word offshoots to describe the third phase in the CiTyBee process:

Concrete spatial actions: either building and taking space in a visual and functional way but also changing the way we talk about space. Offshoots are ongoing changes to what is already there. Always leaving little seeds of imperfection that makes it open to new stories, discussions and offshoots.

Phase 2: Dialogue

The second phase starts with a public meeting where the map shows often conflicting interests or different views on the same place. This is our way of making the dialogue more constructive – to make people know about other peoples views and disagreeing in a civilised way.

We work out the important issues of the community and start seeing some patterns of possibilities. The dialogue and further stories are also taken to the streets in curated walks. People are free to join in and it usually leads to new stories.

A second public meeting is set in a place central to the local community – here it is a garden that used to belong to a old factory. We opened the garden for experiments before the meeting – inviting people to come with their ideas. Being, building and discussing it in the actual space makes the discussion about space more concrete.

For the actual meeting people would discuss new ideas and form networks around these – Or just build something themselves – for themselves.

Out of this second public meeting evolves a number of new localised networks and ideas.

Urban Process Design

For a number of years Supertanker has organised a workshop for 1st year Students at the University of Roskilde. The workshop tries to include a number of elements into an intensive 2 weeks: Sensing, talking and taking space, from appropriation of their own space (here the old train station in Hedehusene) to spatial interventions in public space.

We also started (again) to work with mapping using technology. In this case we let the students use Twitter and a mashup with bing maps

Street Whiteboards

Our “Street Whiteboards” have been very useful in our efforts to make the dialogue about space more spatial. Like the stickers it documents keywords from previous stories and thus make the dialogue more dynamic and concrete.

It is gradually taking or appropriating the space and in turn, making it possibile to make it (or another space) more real.

They can be used as our own signage in a way that starts creating a situation where people can see that something unusual is happening in an otherwise well known space.

Here we use it at an outdoor public meeting

And an indoor public meeting

Materials

We collaborated with the builders in the Cooperative Maj. On their recommendation we found some simple combinations of materials that are very easy to work with without being a skilled Craftsperson.

We work with 2 by 2 timber and special type of screws that partly drill themselves through the wood to avoid it from splintering. The timber is rounded on all edges and very fast too cut.

If timber and screws make the “skeleton” of a construction then Tarpaulin makes the skin. We both use recycled stuff (like the Freitag bags) and leftover pieces. Tarpaulin is an amazingly strong material. These materials can be combined in a number of ways and incorporate local materials.

Behind the practical aspects lies the wish to free the possibilities in a community by collaborating and communicating – building together. Appropriating or “taking” a space by actually building something on the spot instead of – or as a part of – discussing what could happen there.

Screws