Open call: Participatory Architecture Interventions 2024

Join experimental hands-on workshops this spring 2024 to learn how to sustainably transform your cultural space, aided by our mobility grant!

What if our cities embraced the richness of nature rather than excluding it? What if urban spaces became prototypes for coexistence, fostering an environment where all living beings, including humans, could thrive together? These are the central questions driving our workshops, where we aim to stop merely building and start rebuilding a world by embracing what we often overlook or abandon.

In the face of contemporary crises, including recent health emergencies, we recognize the need for new spaces of coexistence. Our workshops propose to explore these possibilities in three  exemplary locations: Aarhus, specifically in the spontaneous settlement along the railway known as "Institute for (X)";  Zilina, around the once-abandoned railway station transformed into the self-managed community space "Stanica-Truc Spherique"; and Athens with the community based center Communitism.

 

WHAT ARE RTL INTERVENTIONS?

The Rebuilding to Last Participatory Architecture Interventions (PAI) are immersive hands-on workshops organized and hosted by three cultural spaces - Institut for X (Denmark), Stanica-Truc Spherique (Slovakia) and Communitism (Greece) - who received a small grant from the Rebuilding to Last project to implement environmentally- and future-oriented solutions in their spaces and neighborhoods. 

The workshops will be facilitated by the RTL partners who are also experts in sustainable transformation practices: Manifatture Knos (coordination), Coloco, Todo por la Praxis and the University of Liege. 

The aim of the workshops is to provide participants with a unique opportunity to explore and discover innovative concepts, engage in hands-on architectural interventions and collaborate with peers from around the world!

 

WHEN ARE THEY TAKING PLACE?

Dates for the upcoming interventions:  

• Workshop - Conquering the Highway
  • Dates: April 25 - May 1
  • Location: Zilina, Stanica - Slovakia
• Workshop - Recycling in a Circular Economy (TBC)
  • Dates: May 23 - May 27
  • Location: Athens, Communitism - Greece
• Workshop - Becoming a Forest
  • Dates: June 12 - June 15
  • Location: Aarhus, Institute for X - Danemark

 

WHO CAN APPLY?

Call is open to anyone interested in the topic, but we particularly welcome architects, artists and creatives who are staff members of independent cultural centers across Europe.

Extra plus if you are working at TEH member centre!

 

PRACTICAL DETAILS TO KNOW BEFORE APPLIYING

Selected participants will be invited to sign a letter of agreement, setting out the terms of collaboration. The mobility grant will be paid out in two transfers:

• a 1st installment of 80% as much as possible before the travel takes place
• a 2nd installment of 20% after the workshop, dependent on the attendance sheet signature and submission of travel proof and short report.

The PAI interventions are co-designed and led by the host organisations, together with the RTL partners mentioned earlier, and will have an additional learning element by Eurecat. The day-by-day programmes of the workshops will be shared with participants in the week before the intervention.

 

TIMELINE

• 1 Feb 2024 – Call for applicants opens
• 29 Feb 2024 – Deadline for applications
• 1 March 2024 – Review of application and pre-selection
• 4-5 March 2024  – Pre-selection results and sign letters of agreement
• 6-8 March 2024– Payment of mobility grants 1st installments
• 25 April -01 May - Workshop in Zilina with Stanica
• 23 May -27 May - Workshop with Communitism in Athens
• 12 June -15 June - Workshop with X in Aarhus
• 1 July -15 July – Payment of mobility grants 2nd installments

 

HOW TO APPLY?

To participate, please fill out this registration form, the latest by 29 February at midnight

We offer 10 mobility grants to visit one or all workshops scheduled in 2024. Each grant is a set amount of 500 EUR per person per workshop.

This amount is meant to help ease the costs of travel, accommodation and subsistence during the interventions. However, it might not cover 100% all the costs!

  

MORE ABOUT THE INTERVENTIONS

• Conquering the Highway (Stanica, Slovakia)

• Becoming a Forest (Institut for X, Denmark)

• Recycling in a Circular Economy (Communitism, Greece)

 

ABOUT THE PROJECT

The Rebuilding to Last project will research how cultural spaces are implementing (or aim to implement) sustainable solutions in their spaces and practices and test fit-for-purpose ideas. The ambition of the project is to build capacity of independent cultural spaces to address sustainable renovation of their buildings and champion sustainable transition among their teams, audiences, communities and cities. More about the project here.

 

The project is funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union.