The future is not only science fiction or science in the hands of some experts, but also the collective will, and imagination of the people who inhabit a place. The future must be humanistic, inclusive and ecological at the same time. It can be the subject of research, and of an exhibition as invoked by the 18th Venice Architecture Biennale under the title “The Laboratory of the Future”.
Such an effort is not very often a priority of the authorities and a genuine desire of the people, and is usually vented out through basic consultations or protests. If, however, the principles of democracy and self-management are important and non-negotiable values, then how people will participate in the decisions and in the process of planning, building and managing their own environment is of paramount importance and concerns us. In practice, there are few genuine opportunities, which provide an appropriate context, and method for this to happen.
How could a community talk about its future and begin to envision something new that takes into account and creatively metabolises the contradictory aspects of its past? Who could be considered to be legitimate representatives of a community? And who has the experience to undertake such an initiative? And how can the role of experiential experience emerge as an important factor?
With these questions and with various concerns and levels of involvement with Elefsina, the Constructing Futures workshop was set up and organized, invited by artist Jenis Marketou in the context of the Futuring Waters project in the context of Elefsina, the cultural capital of Europe 2023.
The ongoing MET workshop was conceived and initiated in 2014 during a nine-month Prometeo post-doctoral research period in Quito, Ecuador. It draws inspiration from the Peer-to-Peer research carried out during that time in conjunction with the FLOK Society project, coordinated by Michel Bauwens.
It examines three parallel case studies of three former airports and their evolution and impact in the urban life, society, economy, and politics of their three respective cities, Quito, Athens, and Berlin. It examines the potential of these spaces to be viewed as metropolitan commons and it initiates a first exchange between the three through three local workshops two-day workshops in each of the cities, with presentations and participation by actively involved citizens and researchers from the other two.
Πόλη_Κρίση_Έξοδος [City_Crisis_Exodus]
Ο Κύκλος Σεμιναρίων “ΠΟΛΗ-ΚΡΙΣΗ-ΕΞΟΔΟΣ” έλαβε χώρα σε 5+1 σεμινάρια την άνοιξη του 2016 στο ΕΜΠ. Ο κύκλος συνδιοργανώθηκε από την Ντίνα Βαίου και τον Νίκο Αναστασόπουλο ως εργαλείο διερεύνησης της κρίσης στην πόλη, των αιτίων, επιπτώσεων, αντανακλάσεων στον κοινωνικό και πολεοδομικό της ιστό, καθώς και των μηχανισμών σε εξέλιξη που ενεργοποιήθηκαν για να την αντιμετωπίσουν.
1η Συνάντηση (22.2.2016): ΠΤΥΧΕΣ ΤΗΣ ΚΡΙΣΗΣ ΣΤΗΝ ΠΟΛΗ
2η Συνάντηση (7.3.2016): ΔΙΑΔΙΚΑΣΙΕΣ ΣΕ ΕΞΕΛΙΞΗ Ι
3η Συνάντηση (21.3.2016): ΔΙΑΔΙΚΑΣΙΕΣ ΣΕ ΕΞΕΛΙΞΗ ΙΙ
The top-down vs bottom-up lecture at the Autonoma Conference at Onassis Stegi, July 2 2016. The Autonomy Conference was organized by NTUA School of Architecture graduates
studioa-arch.net 