Transforming a truck weigh station to a green community space through the power of urban activation.
tunstadtmachen stands for collective urban activation of no-places. Translated as “to do”, “city” and “to make” it creates an active wordplay. “Stadt - City” could also be read as “statt - instead”. We strengthen the processes from the bottom up and balance the forces between formal and informal participation. In our real laboratory, the “Waage”, we research the potentials of empty urban spaces. Together we form a counter culture that takes responsibility for its city and its public spaces.
Local
Germany
{Empty}
Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
As an individual
URL:https://www.instagram.com/tunstadtmachen/ Social media handle and associated hashtag(s): #tunstadtmachen #kulturhofkalk #abenteuerhallenkalk #cityleaks #starkeveedelstarkesköln #kalk #kalkselbermachen #hallenkalk #allenkalk #sharingiscaring #köln #urbangardening #commonspace #placemaking
All in all, an interactive approach to the public space is to be aimed in order to explore various potentials together. In a real laboratory approach which makes strong use of DIY culture we test different models for various empty urban spaces. Having our roots deep in urban culture, we have the opportunity to fall back on a wide network in the field of citymaking. In between architecture, (social) design and urban art we deliver an empathetic view on the city and its people. We use instruments such as urban gardening or agriculture, cultural events, urban sports in order to gather up various people. We revitalize public spaces by just living it. We believe that obstacles are chances for growth and that sustainable transformation is made from above and underneath. We know that if there is no input, there will be no output. That’s why we like to get our hands dirty and give power to the people in order to form real basic democracy. Together with the local communities we build, plant, play on and much more the public space. We form a lively interdisciplinary forum and network for citymaking and transformation and create spaces where that can happen. This follows the idea that (meeting) spaces are not given, but have to be produced together in order to create a authentitc identity and identification with the new space. Our approach is dedicated to the joint, interdisciplinary production of knowledge and explores how a use of unused, urban open spaces can counteract the challenges of climate change and thus contribute to an ecological and sustainable transformation of the contemporary city. In addition to the major fields of action in construction, transport and energy production, the transformation of public space and civil society engagement play an important role. For the construction, recycled or up-cycled materials are used to the greatest possible extent.
Placemaking
Bottom Up
Common Space
Participatory (Social) Design
Ecological Architecture
One of the core principles of tunstadtmachen, as a community place-making project, is to rely only on recycled materials for building the temporary (ecological) architectural structures. All of the wood and metal, even the screws, are resourced locally through neighborhood networks, second hand websites and finished furniture fairs. Our strategy to turn an unused parking lot into a green and activated public space involved building raised beds on tarmac from old water tanks, planting a variety of resilient vegetation donated by a local inclusive plant nursery and neighbors.
Water became an important resource during hot European summers. In order to counter the heat-island effect of the parking lot, tunstadtmachen collects water from the roof of the building into donated water tanks, creating a local source for watering plants but also for people to refresh themselves, for kids to play with or even to clean your bike.
By announcing dedicated “planting days”, local citizens worked the soil and took over the planting process, taking ownership over the complete greenery, turning it into a community garden. Building the garden together allowed for citizens (and gardening enthusiasts) to generate a collective intelligence on caring for plants.
Markus, one of the early passing by neighbors, understood the idea from the very beginning. He was so eager for the project that he shared his knowledge and skills as a sculptor, carpenter and gardener. On the next day after his first visit at the “Waage” he brought along his private tools and leftover plants. His motivation to get the plants into the soil was so high that he started breaking the tarmac and designed new beds on his own which led to the expansion of the garden. In a short time he became one of the main figures of the project, received full access to the “Waage” and organized workshops for the community on his own. Through his ideas and his skills the whole place evolved on another level.
Being a community project, it depends fully on the participation. In order to lower the threshold for people of various ages and skill levels to participate, tunstadtmachen chose deliberately for a DIY mentality and aura, conveying the message that everyone can join building beautiful spaces without needing the best materials, professional tools and skills. This way, we created an open space allowing everyone to express their sense of aesthetics, creating a beautiful mix that represents the diversity of the neighborhood. Starting from the principle of „working with what is already there“, we resourced materials that can be found in a street and construction site context, repurposing those to build public furniture, designed to facilitate new encounters. Hacking and appropriating those unusual objects such as metal fences, concrete blocks, pallets and lost traffic signs, contributes to the feeling of an unfinished and ongoing project, inviting locals to take ownership, bringing themselves into the space. In such an open placemaking project, creating a recognisable but simple brand becomes very important. We used the activating color yellow in the branding as a contrast to the gray concrete and green plants. Hints of yellow serve as the minimum amount of identity, which slowly spread through the whole district, necessary to create a recognisable place that can unify a diversity of built objects and spaces. The main goal of the project is to create new inviting spaces together where people can experience the city in different ways, showing that we can make the city together. And that, without having to spend money.
One evening, we organized a concert night. Before the official band started playing, Aliya, a local girl, took over the show, while the DJ edited effects on her voice. She started vocal jamming, inviting her friends to join along. It was a swell summer night and a big dark cloud approached us. That was when the band “Aliya und die Schwarze Wolke” was born.
As the community garden of tunstadtmachen extends into the public space, anyone can enjoy it at any given time. Together, we want to create free alternatives for activities that usually cost money such as an outdoor cinema, workshops, urban sports or planting moments. Whenever drinks are served, it happens on a donation basis. To make the space accessible and enjoyable for all kinds of people, the public furniture and other structures are designed at different heights and levels. They are moveable and modular meaning the space can be changed according to different needs with enough room between objects for anyone to navigate easily. One important agenda of the concept was to always keep the actual “Waage” as free as possible so an open multi usable space emerges and the historical background of place is still visible. tunstadtmachen is about extending the living room, building a non-commercial common area, a public space acting as an intergenerational forum where citizens can exercise direct democracy by building things together, experimenting and practicing new ways of interacting and living with each other. Regular visitors of the garden have been a Syrian family who have been quite new to the area. The garden provided the needed safe space to arrive to their new world. Fawad, Aliya and Amina understood the garden as their new home. It was here where they first started to get in contact with other people from the district through play, watering the plants and sharing food on the once abandoned and now lively “Waage”. On a long night by the fire, baking stick bread, Fawad shared his heartwarming story about escaping the Syrian war and pushing the wheelchair of his daughter Amina over various borders. It was the night after we played running table tennis pushing Amina’s wheelchair around the found ping pong table. It was their first time playing and Amina enjoyed it so much that she euphorically shouted. She shined bright like the yellow color of the raised beds.
tunstadtmachen is a participatory project by design. Having only one original initiator and a few collaborators who kickstarted the project, it relies completely on the involvement of citizens, participants and volunteers at all stages.
The project takes place in Kalk, a deprived district in Cologne with the least green space per inhabitant. By claiming and regenerating an abandoned weighing station (die Waage) which was used as a parking lot after the industrial decay of the former KHD engine factory, tunstadtmachen looks to balance out access to green and public spaces across the city. Building a non-commercial common area and extending the living room of the neighborhood.
To motivate citizens to participate in the project, we create openings in two ways: 1) By being present in the space and building basic structures to make passing locals and playing kids curious, inviting them to take part. 2) By formally introducing the project to local associations, administrative services and citizen initiatives that are active in the district, inviting anyone who is curious to take part.
As an established ritual, every Thursday, a group of locals and volunteers come together in the space to not only discuss what the best next steps are for the project, but also to spend time together and to actively shape its future. The name “Rödeltag” from German “rödeln - to work with fun” became a phrase that spread out to the whole district. People not only startet to “rödel” at the Waage but also at other forgotten places in Kalk. One could see “Die Waage” as an intergenerational forum, the oldest type of space for citizens to exercise democracy. By reclaiming and re-building those spaces together, we are experimenting and practicing new ways of interacting and living with each other.
tunstadtmachen started by seeing the potential in an underused space, a parking lot that could possibly become a community garden and new public square. Beginning with few resources and no official involvement of the city, the initiators relied on the support of neighbors and local associations to get going.
But as more and more citizens got involved and the project started growing, tunstadtmachen drew the attention of the city, becoming a story of successful city/placemaking in the district. Through the real bottom process and active involvement of local actors, the project managed to kickstart a discussion across the city board, becoming a visualization of what locals can achieve together with few resources, if given the space.
The current location of tunstadtmachen is part of a bigger, unused former industrial site. Together with other associations and the city administration, we are looking at how the successful approach and practice of the project can be reproduced and scaled to a larger area (Kulturhof Kalk e.V.).
By working with local citizens and allowing space for them to express their wants and needs, talking about frustrations but also opportunities that the neighborhood offers, a project like Tunstadtmachen can become a portal for the city administration to better understand their inhabitants The long term aim of the project is to create a solid collaboration with the city, developing the project together and becoming an entity between citizens and public authority, without losing the grass-roots energy and becoming over institutionalized.
Further, we want to set up exchanges with other grass-roots initiatives within Germany and Europe, visiting each other's spaces and sharing knowledge and practices. Thus far, we have been connected to initiatives in Stuttgart and Portugal but are looking to expand our network.
At the core of tunstadtmachen is the pedagogical belief that every human being is capable of learning something new just by trying. We believe that learning unfolds in dialogue and confrontation with each other. Therefore, we continuously practice an open attitude with a profound trust in people and their creative power, avoiding to establish distances in communication that only „experts“ can bridge. The trial and error mindset helps volunteers believe (who might have never built something or taken care of plants or …) that it’s about enjoying the process and doing it together. There are both formal and non-formal kinds of knowledge that contributed to the development of the project. Through the diverse profiles of participating locals with their individual expertise (carpenters, gardeners, social workers, mechanics, musicians, an accountant, …) we established a collective intelligence about „how to care for a common space.“ tunstadtmachen also collaborated with two different design universities. Students of Eco-Sign received the challenge to design and build structures from recycled materials that can facilitate encounters between people. Some made benches and tables from a fence they found in the area, turning an object that is designed to separate to an object designed to connect. Under the guidance of professor Carolin Höfler of the Köln International School of Design, students worked around the topic of „Open Universities: How public spaces can be used to exchange knowledge.“ On another movie night we showed a film about the traffic change in modern cities. After the movie the director and the neighbors had a real interesting discussion about the challenges of that transformation. It was so inspiring to see the different perspectives that were shared. An older lady from the perspective as a pedestrian discussing with a quite young boy in the perspective as a bicycle rider led again the conclusion that sustainable transformation can only be reached together.
tunstadtmachen does not see itself as „better“ than any other true grass-roots projects. But there are three dimensions that make it a successful case for placemaking.
1. The long term thinking and ambition. Where such initiatives usually exist in time-bound contexts (temporary occupation of a place), tunstadtmachen aims for long term transformation, trying to expand its activities to a bigger site.
2. The light and playful approach. tunstadtmachen consistently practices an inviting attitude, trying to make openings for anyone but especially children to participate, because if they believe that they can make and change the city, their enthusiasm will trickle down to their parents and will have an effect later in life.
3. Taking bottom-up seriously. To truly work bottom up is very challenging. tunstadtmachen makes a consistent effort to be open and make space for anyone who wants to get involved, sharing power over decision making processes.
Since tunstadtmachen is a combination of two german verbs that refer to doing (tun) and making (machen), we practice a proactive attitude with a focus on mobilizing people and spending time together, setting goals together and building the place we want to live in. Working with a diverse group of volunteers and participants, we always look for easy and accessible language. To counteract the result-driven society, we bring the focus to the process and less to the outcome. We strongly believe that if the process is enjoyable, good things will come out of it.
Setting up a participatory (bottom-up) placemaking project requires a lot of „people’s work“. This means investing a lot of time and attention into the people that want to participate. Not to only make use of their free labor but to make space to spend time with those that want to get involved. Every city district is different, every place has a new language and different local people so replicating a process that worked in one place to another place is difficult.
Yet there are some universal aspects that can be translated to other spaces. To engage in a reflective practice, we constantly gathering key learnings, trying to improve their process. These insights, especially at the interpersonal and community level, are being collected and formulated as principles for citymaking (stadtmachen). We are planning to create a „How To“ guide for citymaking, mentioning concrete learnings, stories and examples and possible pitfalls. Most of those insights seem simple, yet very crucial:
- Being present in the space at given times, bringing regularity.
- Establishing rituals together in the space
- Celebrating accomplishments and being thankful to each other
Currently, tunstadtmachen is hoping to expand its activity to a larger neighboring site. Therefore, we are in the process of gathering our learnings together with the participants, understanding how we can share and expand our way of working to a new space.
How do we want to live together? Can we take ownership of our living spaces? How to share common spaces in the city? Cities in Europe are experiencing challenges on many levels. The summers are getting hotter and drier. The housing markets are under pressure. Cities are becoming increasingly multicultural but also segregated. Most urban spaces are still dominated by motorised vehicles. But there is also a growing consciousness and willingness of both citizens and city administration to take action and invest in those domains.
At tunstadtmachen, we situate our project at the intersection of the New European Bauhaus’ thematic axes. On the one hand, we are letting citizens reconnect to nature by regenerating urban spaces through building a community garden. Together, we are regaining a sense of belonging by actively building a new space in the city and directly benefiting from our own impact. The project’s location and space of activity is one of the most opportunity-deprived districts of the city of Cologne. There, tunstadtmachen focuses on activating the spaces and people that need it the most. Lastly, we are contributing to long term and life cycle thinking by using only recycled materials to build the structures, relying on resources that the neighborhood itself can provide (such as food, objects, materials, …)
Besides, we are transforming a parking lot into a new space of possibilities. A space for new encounters, for self-expression and collective experiences. We hope that by sharing our learnings and connecting to other placemaking initiatives, we can form a movement across Europe.
“Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone
They paved paradise, put up a parking lot”
Joni Mitchell
