Project notes

STUDIOBASAR. Toward an engaged practice

Project notes

StudioBASAR.
Towards an engaged practice

text: Alex AXINTE, Cristi BORCAN

The increasing complexity of the problems facing the world today, fuelled by a globalized neoliberalism, generating economic, environmental, social and political crises, requires a paradigm shift in the formulation of solutions. The expert model, which relies solely on disciplinary knowledge, offering solutions to decision-makers for top-down implementation, no longer corresponds either to the scale of the problems or to the dynamics of society. They call for an interdisciplinary approach, whereby solutions are built in the context of their application, in a participatory framework that allows affected actors to engage, act, validate and co-produce change. In this way, we can re-learn as professionals and citizens alike how to be part of the solution, not just part of the problem.

Including users in the design process as a means of empowerment in his practice, Giancarlo de Carlo warned us that "architecture is too important to be left to architects"^1. Fifty years later, the lessons of the '68 generation seem not to have been learned, and his appeal takes on a new meaning in the contemporary global context, including the Romanian one. In the end the architecture was shared, but rather with market forces and socio-economic elites, becoming a vehicle for consolidating and validating inequitable power relations. In a practice centered almost exclusively on form, space and expression, the public interest has become under-dimensioned in relation to the needs of society. In this context, projects such as 'City School' and 'Tei Community Center' assert the need to regain social relevance and articulate alternative ways of producing and managing space together with users and stakeholders.

Schoolin the city. Learning by doing

Launched by studioBASAR since 2011, the "Public Space Workshops" functioned as in Paolo Freire's vision of education, where "student-teachers with teacher-students"² learn from each other, mediated by context. The workshops engaged us together in 'live' exercises in the production of urban public space. The urban micro-situations demanded applied responses that had to take into account the needs of the real actors, the constraints of the working material, while relying on team solidarity. Thus, we discovered the pedagogical potential of urban interventions and their capacity to generate public participation, where co-production is not just a method but an end product of the design process.

Following on from the Workshops, the City School project started in 2015 with an expanded format, in which we diversified applied research methods through an interdisciplinary team approach. We aimed to build the School's themes based on partnerships with actors who do not usually benefit from either the resources or knowledge associated with design or a strong voice in the public sphere. One such actor is the Bucharest Metropolitan Library (BMB), one of the few public space institutions and resources that, by producing and distributing culture and education in neighborhoods, has the potential to activate and coagulate the community. At the same time, the BMB is in the process of going out into the community, needing partners, support structures and expertise in this endeavor. Therefore, public libraries have become for the School the object of study and classroom, the framework of understanding and even a work site.

Between 2015 and 2017 the first two editions of the project took place, hosted by the "Gheorghe Lazăr" and "George Topîrceanu" libraries, behind Veterans' Square, in the Militari neighborhood of Bucharest. During the second semester of an academic year, tutors and students from Architecture, Sociology and Landscape Architecture went through field research, activation, consultation, idea workshops and construction workshops. At the end of the 2015-2016 edition, after several years of inactivity and as a direct consequence also of the School's actions, the "Gheorghe Lazăr" Library reopened. The result came as a result of a participatory process managed by the project team, which involved neighbors, library users and librarians in transforming the interior space of the institution. During the 2016-2017 edition, the School stepped outside the library and, through a series of participatory actions, gave back to the neighborhood an area adjacent to a concrete walkway and a fenced-in green space, setting up an outdoor playground and a socializing space in the garden. The process has materialized with the active ownership of the interventions by the nearby residents and, for the first time, by the local administration. The next edition of the School aims to transform the garden near the library, in response to the library's spatial need to interact with the community, but also to the local people's desire to manage and landscape the green space.

The "City School" is an experimental space, a place for beginners, a setting where lessons were learned in context. One of them lies in the potential of tactical interventions in neighborhood public spaces to activate even more diluted communities around the production and management of shared resources. Another lesson was the pedagogical format's capacity to build a safe, intermediary space for collaboration between actors that are usually ignored or in conflict. At the same time, the interdisciplinary approach to the context provided tailored responses to the problems studied, but proved difficult to sustain in the long term, requiring dedicated practice.
In conclusion, the School has affirmed the potential of applied education to function as a civic institution committed to initiating and sustaining participatory processes that valorize public infrastructure, acting as a model for urban regeneration on a larger scale.

Tei Community Center.
Spatializing the civic condition

In recent years, the constant degradation of infrastructure and public resources has led, in Bucharest and in major cities, to the emergence of citizen initiatives crystallized around common problems. Made up of "ordinary people - citizens with a sixth sense, the civic sense"³, these groups come to compensate for a democratic deficit in the current model, instruments and structures of local urban governance. As a new and unhistorical phenomenon in the local context, civic groups illustrate what Hannah Arendt called "the need for voluntary association that mediates between governmental distance and the isolation of individual citizens"^4. Expertly supported by "CeRe: Resource Center for Public Participation", these groups have become active actors in the Bucharest context. However, as Henri Lefebvre observed that "new social relations require new spaces and vice versa"⁵, the gradual crystallization of the groups led to an acute need for spatial resources that would facilitate their interaction with the community and the authorities, but also function as a workspace for the group.

The Civic Initiative Group "Tei Lake" is one such group that we have been collaborating with since 2015 as part of a participatory urban ^{intervention6}. In response to the spatial need identified by the group in internal and community consultations, together we developed the theme and the application for funding for the "Tei Community Center". Inaugurated in 2016, the Center is also a response to the disappearance of public spaces for socializing and cultural distribution and production in large block neighborhoods. Located in the Circus Park and housed in a converted shipping container, furnished and technologically equipped, the Center is the first community space managed by a group of citizens.
More than a year after its opening, the Centre has become a landmark in the geography of the local public space, functioning on the one hand as a socializing framework and collaboration platform between different actors and on the other hand as a catalyst for the group's actions. Perceived either as a "home" for the group or as a "statement" of civil society, the Centre supports the group's organizational and communication actions, but also functions as a "cultural centre"⁷ of the neighbourhood, hosting film screenings, exhibitions, workshops or debates. The Centre facilitates the intersection of the civic, cultural and educational dimensions, testing the public interest management of a shared resource by a group of organized citizens.
Thus, the "Tei Community Center" is not just a container in a park, and our contribution did not end with the inauguration. The construction of the Center is an ongoing process, requiring permanent co-production between the actors involved, who remain engaged in a mutual learning format. Here we have experienced what Doina Petrescu calls the architect's "loss of control" and his transformation into an architect-in-residence or architect-user engaged in design-by-doing, where use is no longer separated from the design ^process8. With a flexible and open format, the Centre facilitates the spatialization of new social relations based on participation and collaboration between the inhabitants of the neighborhood and between citizens and authorities. At the same time, however, the long-term challenge lies in the Group's potential to evolve into an inclusive community organization and in the Centre's replicability in the local urban context.

Towards engaged practice

The road to public participation is not free from risks, excesses and misappropriations, nor from limitations and contextual inadequacies. At the same time, it requires dedicated tools, structures and resources, but above all dialog partners. However, participation does not happen by itself and does not happen by textbook, but is developed through long practice and requires a sustained process. Projects such as the 'City School' and the 'Tei Community Center' affirm the community potential of upgrading public infrastructure through applied education or civic empowerment tools. Here it is possible to generate spatial situations of micro-participation that have the potential to spread both to everyday relations and, on a larger scale, to other areas and practices in society. Thus, in the context of the increasing complexity of global challenges and their effects at the local level, participation can re-engage the practice of architecture as a tool for spatializing democracy.

School of the City Credits
"School of the City 2015-2016: the Library of Militari" is an applied education program, initiated and coordinated by studioBASAR and funded by the Mobilize We Program

Excellence Program, created by Porsche Romania and developed together with the Bucharest Community Foundation.
Supervisors: Alex Axinte, Cristi Borcan (studioBASAR), Daniela Calciu, Anca Crețu, Diana Culescu, Tudor Elian, Bogdan Iancu, Ana-Dora Matei, Andrei Tudor Mihail, Alecs Vasiliu;
Participants: 1st Edition: Diana Beatrice Buța, Anca Crețu, Lucian Ștefan Călugărescu, Matei David, Magda Iulia Juravlea, Ana-Dora Matei, Anisia Mouhamed, Andreea Nicuț, Andrei Suhan, Iris Șerban, Alecs Vasiliu; 2nd Edition: Alexandra-Cristiana Comănici, Ionuț Alexandru Dima, Mihai Dobre, Irina Onicioiu, Bianca Maria Păun, Adina Popa, Cristian Popescu, Silvia-Georgiana Pușcașu, Ovidiu-Cristinel Ritco, Mihai Andrei Șom, Andreea Ștefan, Dragoș Ionuț Toaca, Anca Ioana Vedrami, Vlad Andrei Șomăcescu, Alina-Marina Stoica, Mihaela Stoean (UAUIM, year II); Ioan Cosmin Făgețean, Emilia-Alexandra Pribeagu, Mihai Ioan Surdu, Cristian Stamatin, Cristina Florentina Stancu, Ana Smărăndescu, Maria Trifon (SNSPA year I);
Volunteers and collaborators: Adi Bratu, Ana-Maria Bucur, Cosmina Balint, Anca Marin, Andrei-Florian Staicu, Alin Voitescu; Daniel-Paul Ciobanu, Anca Ivan, Cristina Popovici, Gabriela Toma, Anca Râpeanu, Liliana Radu; Cristian Stoian, Neagu Adrian Constantin, Binișor Andreea Daniela, Loredana Ardeleanu, Gina Roman, Mona Mihai.
Partners: Bucharest Metropolitan Library (BMB); University of Architecture and Urbanism "Ion Mincu", Bucharest (UAUIM); Department of Sociology, Faculty of Political Science, Bucharest (SNSPA).

Credits "Tei Community Center"
The Tei Community Center is the first grassroots urban grassroots community facility, the result of a partnership between the Civic Initiative Group "Tei Lake" and the architects studioBASAR.
The team: Alex Axinte, Cristi Borcan, Matei David (studioBASAR)/Elena Anghel , Vivi Cernescu, Silvia Cruceanu, Roberto Pătrășcoiu, Ioana Maria Rusu, Irina Sandu (Civic Initiative Group "Lacul Tei")/Vlad Cătună (CeRe: Center of Resources for Public Participation).

studioBASAR is an architecture and public space practice studio founded in Bucharest in 2006 by Alex Axinte and Cristi Borcan. Concerned with the dynamic side of urban culture and the disappearance of public spaces, studioBASAR initiates and develops actions and projects in public space. Ranging from temporary to permanent, these processes include applied research, participatory research, community activation, co-production and co-design, urban design, applied education and civic pedagogy.
studioBASAR's projects range from art installations, urban research, educational workshops, interventions in public spaces and community projects to competitions and different typologies of residential and public buildings.
In 2010, studioBASAR published, through the pepluspatru Association/Center for Visual Introspection, the bilingual volume "Evacuation of the Ghost. Arhitecturi ale supravieuirii/Evicting the Ghost. Architectures of Survival" (Editorial Concept: Alina Șerban, Design: Cătălin Rulea) which brings together the texts of several authors, architects, sociologists - Ole Bouman, Cătălin Berescu, Liviu Chelcea, Yona Friedman, Ștefan Ghenciulescu, Iulia Modiga, Damiana Oțoiu, Doina Petrescu, Lavinia Stan, Kai Vockler, Filippo M. Zerilli & Marie-Benedicte Dembour, Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss - for a more precise examination of a specific phenomenon of recent Romanian social history, that of nationalization-retrocession-eviction. The project by the group of architects studioBASAR (Alex Axinte & Cristi Borcan) presents and documents the multi-faceted reality of forced evictions, providing information on the legislative history of evictions and the uncertain status of private property in Romania in recent years, the stages of eviction, the story of several families subjected to these measures and the different housing typologies developed by the evicted, expressions of contemporary urban survival.
Other achievements: 2009, concept of the exhibition "Seduction of the Interval", Romanian pavilion at the Venice Art Biennale; 2014, the project "Public Bath" was finalist at the European Prize for Urban Public Space; 2016, curators of the exhibition "One Architecture Week" in Plovdiv, Bulgaria; 2017, winners of the "Social Design Circle" offered by Curry Stone Design Prize.

NOTES

1 De Carlo, G. (1992) Architecture's Public. In Blundell-Jones, P., Petrescu, D., and Till, J. (eds.), 2006. Architecture & Participation. London, Taylor & Francis (author's translation).
2 Freire, P. (2017) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. UK, Penguin Random House (author's translation).
3 Tei Lake Civic Initiative Group.
4 Hannah, A. (1958) The Human Condition. Chicago, The University Press of Chicago (author's translation).
5 Lefebvre, H. (1991) The Production of Space. Oxford, Blackwell.
6 The development "Place of Tei" (2015) was coordinated by studioBASAR, within the project "Urban Spaces in Action", coordinated by Komunitas Association.
7 Extracts from the testimonies of the group members contained in the publication: 'Tei Community Center. A center for the community in the Tei district of Bucharest". Authors: Vlad Cătună, Cristi Borcan, Alex Axinte.
8 Petrescu, D. (2006) Losing control, keeping desire. In Blundell-Jones, P., Petrescu, D. and Till, J. (eds.) Architecture & Participation. London, Taylor & Francis (author's translation).