Raumlaborberlin is drawing on its rich experience with participatory projects. By engaging workshop participants in the design and production processes it contributes to strengthening social networks, developing technical innovations, and the self-fulfillment of participants.
Team:
Axel Timm, Christof Meyer
RaumlaborBerlin´s ambitious “Micro-Factories” project proposal was selected for their Urban Incubator: Belgrade participation in June 2012. Initial ideas included a bicycle repair unit, possibly in a railway wagon, or some local artisan and handicraft workshops and product lines to be developed and made economically sustainable in bigger spaces, for example in a trafo-station underneath Brankov bridge. As applications to use these potential new spaces and creative industries´ incubator hubs of “micro-factories” failed, and due to other reasons such as budgetary restrictions and problems finding other, adequate, rather exposed and publicly accessible spaces for public workshops and interventions, RaumlaborBerlin took various other rather routes how to, with some small scale activities, directly and indirectly contribute to the project. First of all, they re-designed and renovated the then unused shop pace of Crnogorska 5 which was to become the shared project space and workshop basis for the community project of “School of Urban Practices” and “Design Support Studio Savamala” for their social design of a community space of the residential building “C5”. There, they designed and produced specimen furniture for other newly attained UIB project spaces and especially a series of community furniture which they designed, produced, and publicly displayed during a workshop including public presentations at the Sava River banks and in the Spanish House. In the meantime and parallel to the UIB project year 2013, Savamala has seen a variety of local “micro-factories” coming to the once derelict and underdeveloped city quarter – including a vintage bicycle repair and show-room, the pro Bike-shop, some small businesses like “Wurstplatz” or the “Perron” club. Various temporary initiatives, for example – the Remake-initiative during MIKSER festival – and also several legal or informal club and disco venues indicate the direction Savamala, for the better or the worse, might take culturally and economically as a future alternative tourism, entertainment, and creative district. A future project perspective arose when, together with the “School of Urban Practice”, RaumlaborBerlin shaped the idea of an independent, collaborative architects´ studio in Belgrade, possibly based at “C5”
Microfactories concept for Savamala by raumlaborBerlinvideo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk-pJ9g4mms
The Savamala Generator workshop is an experimental building workshop in public space. For this workshop we designed a set of modules that can be assembled to pieces of furniture as well as microarchitectures. The material used is collected material from abandoned apartments and second hand material from building sites. For the production of the different types of building elements the store front in Crnogorska 5 is further refurbished and converted in a little carpenters shop. From Wednesday 26th of June from 10a.m. – 10p.m. in Crnogorska 5 people are invited to build, bring in ideas for variations on the principle and uses. Possible uses range from private uses to the reconfiguration of the courtyard space in Crnogorska 5, Belgrade as well as placemaking in public spaces. On Thursday 27th of June from 10a.m. – 10p.m. the prefabricated modules are taken to the river banks of Sava close to the Spanish House, Braće Krsmanović 2 and the modules are tested as building material to create microarchitectures for the public space. A manual sketchbook with a variety of configurations is handed out to participants and further possibilities are developed and discussed. Raumlabor in Action – Open Furniture Workshop
