Reassembling diaspora through production and projection of audio-video.
The Otherworldliness creates spaces for an informal and dynamic symbiosis of production and projection for Nollywood movies. It is located in the biggest European greenhouses agglomeration in southern Spain, Almeria. The project manifests in a sequence of artefacts, which tenses the voids within the homogeneous polyethylene landscape of the largest concentration of greenhouses in the world, covering 26,000 hectares. Artefacts bring together displaced immigrants from Sub Sahara.
Regional
Spain
Almeria
Mainly rural
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
My concept, called “The Otherworldliness” creates various spatial gestures for an informal and dynamic production and projection of Nollywood movies. The proposal is placed in the biggest European polyethylene greenhouses agglomeration, covering 26,000 hectares, in southern Spain. It brings together displaced immigrants from Sub-Sahara offering spaces for leisure, healing, and digital pleasures. Proposed structures are positioned between immigrant settlements and the beach.
Structures consist of huge, tensile billboards that serve as camouflage while creating Silver Screens on which Nollywood movies are projected after dusk. Billboards' tensegrity has a dialogue with plastic, tensile greenhouses, but the message it brings- its freedom. Structures are constructed as an envelope, out of thick panels, which are cast horizontally in dips and the traces of this construction process become Gardens and Pools.
Structures are made out of “Thermo-Plastic Sediment” panels, an entity between two realms: greenhouses and sediments. They grow from topography, which is terraformed, creating dips as the light from projectors enters space. Panels are cast horizontally into dug sediments. The mass consists of recycled plastic and soil from greenhouses. In the end, panels are raised with manpower by their users. Thus already the construction process brings the diaspora together. The after-casting concaves are planted with Silver Gardens, which are plant species with thick, shiny, blueish leaf structures. They are growing on terraced topography and are irrigated with rainwater.
Therefore, the proposal creates multi-layered experiences where spaces for leisure are sharper and the movie production is hidden. Structures regenerate exhausted bodies while having nocturnal screenings regenerate homesick souls.
Video for the project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpgmFQgO2sk&t=212s
Reassembling displaced diaspora
Ecological architecture
Healing bodies through air, water, scent and cinematic experiences
Re-using locally sourced materials
Restoration of native vegetation and culture
Breaking preconceptions. By providing a novel, cultural functions, the concept takes a step to change racial preconceptions and show the importance of immigrants' work. It brings an understanding of a rich culture through all-night-long screenings that are open to all. Additionally, it provides a safe and resilient public space for the discriminated community. It has a great potential to bring additional income opportunities for underpaid greenhouse contract farmers. Showcasing examples of immigrant culture (Nollywood screenings) can break taboos and attract the local community to understand and engage with immigrants. As history itself shows us, cultural events and artistic practices very often take the first step to bring the disconnected inhabitants together (example: Kino no Granicy/Hranicy in polish-Czech border city Cieszyn/ Český Těšín).
Well-being. The structures will promote well-being and self-care which is very often forgotten and leads to mental breakdowns and health disorders. The water, air, and scents are designed to cool down overheated bodies and serve as aromatherapy after hard work in-between pesticides.
Using locally sourced materials. The structures are made out of Thermo-Plastic Sediment. A material that I created by mixing shredded polyethylene with sediments waste. On the site, in places where the soil has become infertile, the greenhouses are immediately abandoned after shredding them. The remaining waste ends up in the sea and in landfills. Therefore, the structure is made out of waste material. The fascination from my site visits, about drapes, wrappings, wrinkling, and compacting of plastic led to studies, which showcase the prototypes for the topography of the structure's envelope which reflects sun rays and manipulates acoustics. The material is extremely robust and durable therefore does not need extensive maintenance and can withstand extensive use and climate conditions.
The concept is a sequence of structures, which aim to fill the voids in the polyethylene landscape, bringing joy, culture, wellness, thermal comfort and entertaining immigrant farmers. They create sleek greenscreen studios for movie production and plastic screens for movie projections. They offer open spaces on the terraces with Silver Gardens, which are planted in the traces of the construction process of the structure's envelope.
In the proposal, Billboards create Silver Screens, and Nollywood movies are projected on them after dusk. The ratio of Silver Screens glorifies the digital shift from 9:16 to 16:9, which most often appears in the fast production of Nolly films. The films are mostly produced by amateurs, who use their smartphones. Almost everyone can become a director or actor in this unique film industry.
During the daytime, sub-Saharans are producing audio-videos in between greenscreens. After dusk, those spaces work as an audience for crowdy projections happening on translucent surfaces. The greenscreens create vertical continuous assemblages of spaces with different sizes and ratios. All studios are directed to the strong wind coming from African shores, which cools down the audience's bodies.
The spatial organization of Silver Gardens has its roots in Generalife Paradise Gardens in Alhambra, where stepped topography creates an assemblage of terraces with different atmospheric conditions. Although, in my concept, the intention is to multiply the reflections and expend sound on their shiny foliage. The whole scenery which surrounds Artefacts becomes an inviting and vivid public space.
The site, Campo de Dalias, is the reality that was just a dark vision of sci-fi film and novel creators for the last century. The site has developed as intensive agriculture under scaleless agglomeration of plastic greenhouses. The immigrants, who populate the area, end up working in overheated greenhouses, without access to leisure or freedom of expression. After arrival, they live inside them, and then they constructed plastic sheds, or refill aging structures, where the goal is to camouflage.
The concept offers meaningful and life-changing architectural structures. The proposal could also serve as emergency or temporary housing for immigrants. There are more than 120 000 thousands of immigrants working in EU agricultural lands. Most often they end up living within greenhouses, storages, or abandoned sheds.
Importantly, the proposal is not just a space of leisure but also a space where farmers can gain additional income, during the non-farming season. There will be five structures dispersed on the site, each of them in dialogue with the context of adjacent surroundings. For example, the structure inside the immigrant’s village will offer nocturnal screenings where flat roofs of housing units will serve as spaces for the audience. This idea will reflect on „home cinema”, which are existing practice. The habitats with TV satellites and monitor become gathering spaces, where everyone who wants to watch movies has to pay a small amount of money. So the proposal, not only brings new functions but also adds surplus to what is already there.
Creation. The concept developed from two-year field research which aims to be applied physically during the next years. The idea of the proposal came as a consequence of countless encounters with inhabitants, the African diaspora, and a group of film directors from Nollywood. Therefore the project has a participatory approach from the very early stages.
Construction. The construction of the first structure is planned to become a public workshop. The billboard on which the movies will be screened is constructed based on a similar technique as greenhouses. Therefore, here local know-how and materials will be used. Local knowledge will play an important role during the whole process. The workshop will gather future users, so already the construction site will become a public, collective event.
Usage & care. The Spaniards, who live in nearby towns will have access to a multitude of screenings. The opening will become a big event that will start to break boundaries with native inhabitants and newcomers from Global South. The festival is planned to take place, which will serve as an invitation to freely discover the World of Nollywood and other cultural phenomena of sub-Saharans.
The project was developed under the umbrella of the „European Slums” design studio, at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, Austria, where I currently work as a Professor Assistant. The work was centered on the extreme conditions of slums within the European Union. The one-year-long diploma process was abundant in encounters, which started in Pata Rat, Cluj-Napoka in Romania. My interest in polyethylene, the plastic world of agriculture, and third, digital cultures, directed my interest to southern Spain and located my proposal in Almeria. Architects and urban planners from European countries: Austria, Spain, Romania, Italy, and Latvia were involved in the design process and structured the work. The diploma project received the highest grade and additional distinction. After graduation, I continued working on the project. On the one hand, I started scientific research on the material - Thermo Plastic Sediment conglomerate. On another, I spent one year in Ghana, where I was researching spatial phenomena of fast film culture- Nollywood at its very core.
What is more, this year I am planning fieldwork in Almeria, where, I am in contact with local authorities, land owners, and farmers. I aim to take one step further for the future transformation and create a first-ever spatial billboard „Silver Screen” and a cameral film festival, where movies will be screened for three days. Creating an on-site event will help to bridge all local actors and explain the proposal before any hard transformation occurs. Therefore, winning the competition will allow me for an important step in the concept, and even more important for the community of African diaspora and Spaniards.
Sustainability and circular economy. With sustainability experts, I tested a multitude of ways of approaching and processing every layer of the concept. From the ingredients of material, construction technique, involvement of inhabitants, and maintenance to the global challenges such as migrant and climate crisis. We conducted scientific tests on selected parts of the structure with handmade artisanal tools as well as digital tools to have the greatest understanding of our mission: to reduce CO2 emission, provide additional income for the highest amount of seasonal farmers and eliminate landfills that produce toxicity.
Climate engineering. With climate and energy engineering the healing aspect of my concept was developed. Together, we re-invented a specific building typology, which reassembles an ancient “wind tower”. Hence, the structure is ventilated throughout its whole length. As a consequence, the ubiquitous, unwanted humidity is removed. Water in the designed pools stays cold, which is thanks to the underground reservoir and extremely thick panels on the ground floor.
Film industry. Nollywood filmmakers, whom I met at several Nollywood festivals in Europe and in Ghana helped me to understand the very differences between classical cinema and the magic of Nollywood. Conversations and exchange with them created the atmospheric conditions of my concept. It is no longer an auditorium typology, but limitless ways of screening and watching. Therefore the designed structure has greenscreen studios and silver screens, which are production and projection, located in one structure. Thanks to this, films can be produced and screened same day or live and watch by the masses.
Gardening industry. The local gardener, who works in Alhambra Gardens, explained and detected the native, indigenous species that can withstand extreme heat. In the concept, I used only species with thick and silvery foliage with the aim of reflecting the colorful light from nocturnal projections
The current actions in the field are mostly concentrated on development, which, of course, is helpful but still provides underprivileged communities with basic needs such as clean water or shelter. My concept provides community, not the basic facilities but the augmented version of them. It is very sensitive to human needs: leisure and pleasure, which are often forgotten as well as cultural affiliations. It offers robust spaces for a multitude of actions connected with joy, healing, swimming, watching, and producing movies. It bridges fun, work, and wellness while appearing almost invisible in the landfills or in-between existing greenhouses.
Last year, I was invited by several institutions to give a lecture about the project and the approach, which proved that such a concept has never existed before. Additionally, the cinematic part builds upon the rich history of Spaghetti Westerns which were filmed in the region, which grounds the concept in the locally known industry. During my studies, I did not find a facility that connects the film industry with agriculture. Therefore my concept can become the pioneer in this field and can change the perception about the future of audio-visual culture in rural, immigrant environments. Hence, conservative cinema culture from urban areas can learn from the informal, experimental approach of European Nollywood.
For the last six years, I am working in sub-Saharan countries: Ghana, Senegal, and Nigeria. I conduct academic studies in northern Ghana where I study third nature and third culture, such as the informal film industry. I was always inspired by street screenings, which gather the social and become the most vibrant spots in town by night. Most often, because of the budget, the screens are too small to be enjoyed by everyone who is interested in joining. My concept, with its replicative character of construction and budget, second-hand materials would allow the implementation of such small-scale structures in the Global South as well as in other places inhabited by the African diaspora within Europe.
The new material, Thermo Plastic Sediment can be implemented in other countries with a high density of greenhouses such as the Netherlands, Italy, Cyprus, or France. A similar migrant situation occurs on the whole length of the northern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. The designed typologies and process of construction can be transferred almost immediately and serve many more people, who need it the most.
Refugee and migrant crisis. The concept proposes a small-scale, but big-impact prototypical space for immigrants who ended up working and living in precarious conditions. Therefore the concept refers to several challenges connected with the crisis of migration. During the research phase, the conditions of seasonal and permanent migratory paths were examined, under the scope of work in the agri- and horticultural sectors. Studies included the way, which is most often the Mediterranean Sea, and long stays in Detention Centres (for example in Zintan, Libya).
Climate crisis. Sending waste to lesser developed countries within the EU is very common. Additionally, most often happens illegally. The waste ends up in Poland, Romania, and other Eastern European countries. The project tackles the problem of growing landfills, and waste treatment. It offers a simple solution for the reduction of landfills- a new material, which is a mix of waste greenhouse foil and sediments.
