Students co-design “Wildspots” in Amsterdam Science Park
T-Lab 4 has supported T-Lab 3 cycle in the process of developing a “wild spot”, a hotspot for ecological placemaking and wellbeing that exposes and releases the tensions of the smart city.The cycle aims to explore the concept of wilderness and its value for humans and non-humans in our highly digitalised society, where it is increasingly rare to preserve a sense of intimacy and closeness to nature, tech-free space and off-the-record experiences.
The wild spot is an area for unplugging and rewilding in ways relevant to the local community because they are established through a collective process.
After the workshops activities led by TLab3, a co designing workshop has been organized on site, involving anthropology students. Participants were asked to work on a plot surrounding a pond nearby the University building and try to imagine how they could plan some prototypes for meanwhile uses in this plot by enhancing non-human perspectives and biodiversity increase. Participants received 4 inputs;
- Address the non-human
- Shape the experience around the absence of tech
- Consider accessibility as an ideation support
- Keep in mind to use organic and recycled materials
Students worked in groups with different tasks, some dealing with intimate dimension, some dealing with collective one, and one group faced the topic of communication. Each group developed more than one idea and then some similar ideas were merged. They had the opportunity to build and realize their ideas during the “Landscape festival” in June.
One interesting part of the process was to open a space for practical activities for students mainly working on conceptual level and to see their abilities flourishing and their group building as a team. This process initiated also the animation of the place, so students organized activities as meditation, yoga session, wild garlic pesto bread on the meadow, drawing session on the concrete surface and so on and they opened an Instagram account to involve more colleagues. It worked very well as a laboratory for meanwhile uses developing a sense of belonging among the participants.
As a first result it was also possible to discuss solutions which are more “fix” on the place with University Board in order to explore possible funds and bureaucratic ways to realize them.
