Ostrorog Station - our station for connecting forgotten heritage and an uncovered future.
It's a place where, for hundreds of years, difficult history has shaped a subtle heritage, now forgotten by the world and time. This is where we create our Station - a place of interpersonal and intergenerational exchange, where you'll be able to squat in order to develop global culture and education on the local ground. It should be a driving force for building a sense of belonging to a small "SLOW" community, but with global values of tolerance for otherness and mitigation of climate change.
Local
Poland
West pomeranian voivodeship
It addresses urban-rural linkages
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
Yes
As an individual in partnership with other persons
First name: Bartosz Last name: Felski Gender: Male Nationality: Poland Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: ul. Zielona 5 Town: Gdynia Postal code: 81-113 Country: Poland Direct Tel:+48 793 723 575 E-mail:stacjaostrorog@gmail.com
The aim of our initiative is to create a place that would become a catalyst for changes in the degraded post-agricultural space, where most of residents worked in agricultural plants, and now their future is in doubt. Low potential for self-development, lack of prospects bloc their development. On the other hand, the huge environmental potential, valuable natural areas and huge, underestimated heritage of forgotten villages that mostly remember the period before World War I are the values we want to fight for. That is why we are creating the Ostrorog Station; a station without rails, as a symbol of a place that has been sidelined; Nevertheless, it is a Station, a place that symbolizes the beginning of the journey - now we come to the people, not them to the station.
We know that the post-German heritage, whose history in this place is very complicated, is a value that must be protected. After all, it was in this area that the first works of Walter Gropius, one of the founders of Bauhaus, were created, and practically no one from the inhabitants remembers or knows it anymore. Most of the inhabitants of this region came here after World War II, like in the American Wild West. This is very significant, because it means that the inhabitants have once again lost their identity. That is why we want to become a link between the old Bauhaus and the new – European Bauhaus and work for the lost identity of the place. What's more, having scientific competence in the field of climate change mitigation in the field of architecture, we saw a great value in this place, namely the possibility of creating a kind of "start-up" that would show the residents and the entire West Pomeranian community that degraded rural architecture can not only be attractive, comfortable to use and inclusive, but it can also act as an effective tool for mitigating climate change. This means that the existence of our Station is both a chance to preserve the past and save the future.
Education of the local community from the degraded area and help in strengthening self-esteem.
Promotion of awareness and belonging to the local community and its importance in the global connections.
Conducting workshops and scientific projects aimed at connecting education centers and the local community to solve problems of space development in their surroundings.
Raising awareness that traditional architecture can be an effective tool for mitigating climate change and, at the same time, maintaining heritage.
Popularization of climate change problems and ways of dealing with it on the local level (mitigation and adaptation).
Our initiative includes several of the following Sustainable Development Goals:
Under SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), our actions aim to strengthen efforts to protect cultural and natural heritage and ensure easy, universal access to inclusive natural spaces, especially for women, children and the elderly. We achieve these goals through the reconstruction of the historical architectural substance. In addition, there is a forest in the area covered by the project, which will be preserved and made available; In order to protect nature, we plane to build walking platforms using recycled europallets. SDG 13 (Climate Action) is primarily to promote and educate on how to strengthen adaptive capacity and resilience to climate changes. I'm a professor and deal with Climate Adaptation Design; I want to use these competences as part of workshop training. The place created in this way will also serve to promote a healthy lifestyle and wellbeing, which is SDG 3 (health) through services promoting a healthy and active lifestyle. Educational activities - SDG 4 (Good quality education) are somewhat connected with the previous objectives. Both co-authors of the project are related to education (formal and informal) and therefore the services promoted will be in the field of supporting lifelong learning and the development of skills related to new technologies and promoting STEM among girls and women. In addition, SDG 5 (Gender Equality) will be implemented by developing business relationships with companies run by women and strengthening their digital competences. All this because the co-author of the project is the Polish ambassador of the "Women in Tech". SDG 8 will be achieved by promoting sustainable tourism based on the natural and cultural potential of the area. Model actions are the possibility of implementing an approach to combining social objectives, the climate framework, and particular emphasis on heritage resources. This is very important on that area.
The building of our initiative is a historical object of great value. Unfortunately, years of neglect and the fact that it is located in a socially and economically degraded area caused that it was heavily damaged. As an architect and expert in traditional architecture, I tried to use the knowledge of the local community to rebuild the building. The works were carried out with respect for heritage, the local context and the guidelines of the conservator. In addition, all important materials were obtained from recycled as part of the social project. This allowed the use of historical, authentic materials (even the wood to reinforce the beams came from the demolition of an existing, old barn). Such an approach to traditional rural architecture as a forgotten heritage can be exemplary, because it shows that not only the reconstruction itself can be the goal of spatial revitalization, but also the way the building is treated can change. A building can become not only a housing stock, but it can also be treated as a potential reservoir of building materials for the future, and therefore does not have to be a slum. While the community cares about monuments valuable in cities and churches, forgotten rural buildings are outside the area of interest and disappear irretrievably. The treatment of historical buildings demonstrated by us allows us to reduce the carbon footprint of the building, and even – with old buildings – minimize the carbon footprint to almost zero. On the basis of this scientific experiment, several scientific articles have been written on traditional architecture and its treatment as a tool for mitigating climate change. This approach was appreciated at the Interdisciplinary Academic Conference on Environmental Protection in 2020. Such a methodology can therefore be implemented in other historical buildings, of which there are a lot in this area, and most of them qualify for renovation.
We have consciously located the investment in this area, as it is an area of social exclusion. The area is in recession and the village is at the end of the road, with a population of 70 people and they are poor. The whole area around is agricultural areas, where most of the inhabitants worked in agricultural plants that went bankrupt. We are aware that not every inhabitant of this area will return to agriculture and therefore our activities are aimed at strengthening the competences of the local community while showing that you can consciously change your own economic position by changing your profession. Our activities will consist in the promotion and non-formal education (workshops, coworking) in various fields of science and competences. The co-author of the initiative is a cultural animator and co-creator of several social initiatives in this area. Previously, she worked and lived here for 4 years, supporting local communities in creating jobs and developing culture. Knowing that a large part of the residents are employees with construction skills, we anticipate conducting workshops on natural construction, reconstruction of monuments, activities mitigating climate change in architecture and adaptation activities to these changes. The co-author as an ambassador of the Women In Tech Poland wants to involve women in active activities in science and technology by creating a platform for the exchange of information between women and companies and business. Independently, in the summer Ostrorog Station will act as a place to promote alternative tourism. For tourism involved in the protection of the local ecosystem, places in the forest and additionally thematic routes will be created. In our opinion, promoting of local nature for people from cities and abroad should bring value to the local community by minimizing the exclusion of the region. Working with the local community "from the inside",especially in such innovative fields, can be considered exemplary.
From the very beginning, the project was focused on cooperation with the local community. Starting from choosing a place, talking to residents and looking for sources of information about the original character of the place (we even managed to reach the owners who were the first to settle the abandoned building after the war). Together with the local community, we built and renovated the building, looked for recycled materials and recycled furniture. In the future, we anticipate that the local contemporaneity will be largely our recipients. It is for them that workshops and trainings will be organized to a large extent (both for the inhabitants of the village and for the nearest towns). We would also like the inclusion of residents in the action to consist in the fact that they themselves will conduct thematic trainings in our place, and we will promote these activities with our competences.
We assume that in the future organized trainings, workshops, concerts and cultural vernissages will affect the possibility of development of residents - both self-development (raising self-esteem) and economic development (participation in the organization of accommodation, meals are potential influences of residents).
At the local level, the inhabitants of the village of Ostroróg participated in the implementation of the investment. We used the help of residents, because they knew both the construction tradition and technology of such an old house, but we also wanted the residents to co-create this place. Firstly, because this initiative has changed their economic status, but also because they have felt involved in new activities and have felt important. Also, the former residents of the building were not forgotten, because especially for them this reconstruction had a huge emotional significance (these people lived in this building for almost 80 years, and now they live as neighbors and still emotionally connected with us).
At the regional level, the initiative left its mark on my students, who thanks to this project learned about traditional construction, learned about building materials from 150 years ago and even on the basis of these experiences master's theses were created. The materials obtained during the construction (dried clay bricks) showed students how to build with respect for low-carbon architecture and low carbon footprint.
On a national scale, our initiative was used at an early stage to develop several scientific articles and open several scientific projects that are still ongoing). One of them will probably become an international project (initial accession from a researcher from the Fachschule Erfurt)
On a European scale, tourists from Germany come to our place to see the forgotten heritage of the object in its authentic state from before World War I (this area then belonged to Germany, and the building is probably from around 1850).
During the construction, the cooperation covered the fields of engineering and technical sciences, i.e. specialists in the field of architecture, heritage protection and conservation of monuments, as well as environmental engineering. These activities were aimed at developing coherent scenarios for the revitalization of the historic building. The field of humanities - ethnology and cultural anthropology, were needed in order to find the correct solution regarding the materials and elements of decoration used, furniture. For this purpose, we used the knowledge of the employees of the ethnographic museum dealing with traditional architecture. The help of sociologists was necessary to develop a delicate thread of cooperation in such a small community, struggling with social and economic problems, which finally resulted in the creation of our initiative.
The added value was undoubtedly the preservation of historical heritage while improving the quality of architecture and housing stock. In addition, the value is the implementation of a methodology for considering the building as a "carbon storage" minimizing the carbon footprint of the investment, but also the development of an approach to architecture as a reservoir of materials for potential future constructions.
The innovation of our idea lies in the interdisciplinary combination of "hard" engineering fields (architecture and construction) with "soft" elements of science (environmental and climate sciences, art history and heritage protection). This resulted in an interesting social effect, i.e. the acceptance of the local community both for leaving the old building instead of building a new one, but also allowed to build the foundations for further soft activities using the knowledge and competences of both our own (education and social animation) as well as the competences of residents (knowledge of agriculture, forestry, local culture and local tradition). Interdisciplinary combination of various fields of science and economics will allow for the implementation of aspects of knowledge in the field of mitigation and adaptation to climate change in the local structure of villages and surrounding cities. In the future, we want this to result in lasting cooperation that will affect the competences of residents and mitigate the effect of a degraded area.
Building a hard structure in the form of a building was only the starting point for building a methodology for approaching the construction process as a tool for mitigating climate change. By preserving the existing clay wall structures (low-carbon material) instead of building with modern materials with a large carbon footprint, it was possible to create an attractive building that convinces the local community that "old buildings" are not only "ugly", but can have great aesthetic, emotional but also environmental value. It is this methodology to increase the value of degraded traditional architecture buildings in order to reduce the carbon footprint of investments and act to mitigate climate change, while respecting historical values and respecting local work, can be implemented elsewhere.
Although the architectural context is usually individual for each place, in this area Polish both the historical values of buildings and the building technology are similar. It can therefore be assumed that the way of thinking about investment can probably be replicated in this area. This means that the beneficiaries of this approach to investment will be residents of other villages, who usually live in old buildings and feel discomfort due to the poor quality of the building and social exclusion due to "living in slums".
In the future, the social animation point that we will eventually create here will also be an idea to implement in other places. The point is that such a social hub should be created among people, and not far from them, in large cities; People from a small rural community do not use such places in big cities because they feel excluded. Large centres will not be built in villages because there is no place for them, and they would also require large financial outlays; while the proposed hub – Ostrorog Station is such an intimate place that it can serve as an example in other similar small villages.
The work began with looking for a place that was to meet several requirements – we were looking for a place that would be located in a small town, because then our potential would be relatively more visible. In addition, the town had to be located in a socially degraded area, affected by the recession. Then we verified the pre-selected several places in terms of natural values, historical potential and spatial order. All this because both co-authors of the project deal with such fields of activity (architecture, social animation). After choosing the right place, there was a search for an object to buy, and at the same time talks with specialists in the field of sociology. After purchasing the property, we started renovation, searching for historical materials at an appropriate distance from the investment (the condition was to find recycled materials at a distance such as not to increase the carbon footprint from transport). During the renovation, scientific works in the field of architecture and its impact on climate change were created at the same time, which resulted in material for further scientific work.
In the future, we anticipate that the outbuildings will be rebuilt as part of the next phase, although for now they serve as part of the scientific study : "Abandoned architecture and its impact on the mitigation of the urban heat island (UHI)." After the reconstruction of farm buildings, which will be used as facilities for meetings and workshops for the Ostrorog Station initiative, the methodology will be additionally extended to include interdisciplinary cooperation with specialists in the fields of sociology and education in order to prepare an educational program for this place.
Through activities strengthening the competences of residents and enabling them to improve their qualifications in the future, we intend to act towards minimizing socially degraded areas. Taking into account that one of the priorities of the co-author of the project is to work on strengthening the image of women in technical industries, we assume that this challenge will also be important to us; The promotion of women in the technology and technical industries is one of the directions that can give women from these areas opportunities to develop.
Bearing in mind that the co-author of the project is of African origin, we are aware that the promotion of cultural diversity is in a way obligatory in the activities of our Ostrorog Station, because it is located in a very culturally homogeneous area (practically all residents are of Polish origin and there are no cultural and ethnic minorities here). Interestingly, all residents are practically devoid of roots and traditions associated with this area. This area is very complicated historically, where the current inhabitants settled it just after 1945. This is why the challenge of working on identity is important, in our opinion.
Identification with cultural heritage will also be a challenge, and here our activities are especially aimed at saving architectural heritage through the promotion and learning of alternative construction technologies. As an architect, I am aware that 40% of greenhouse gas emissions come from construction. When talking about greenhouse gases, we must not forget the climate and its changes; As a professor of climate adaptive design, it is important for me to combine global challenges related to climate change with local mitigation and adaptation activities at the local community level. Local communities are the groups that are not so easily affected by knowledge about climate change, but they are also the groups that will feel it the most.
So far, the activities carried out under the project include: selection of a place for the initiative, purchase of real estate, conducting design and analysis in the field of heritage protection, obtaining a permit from the conservator of heritage and obtaining a building permit, carrying out construction works in the main building. The forest area was cleaned up from the remains of garbage and prepared for the implementation of platforms enabling the movement of people without destroying the lower parts of the forest.
As part of the "soft" activities – scientific and research work was carried out, the result of which were published articles, including one of the articles was awarded at the conference. Promotional activities in social media have been launched. In addition, the activities previously carried out as informal have been defined in the form of an association under the name of the Ostrorog Station Association and in January 2023 they were submitted for registration.
In the coming year, it is planned to work on the reconstruction of the farm building for the purpose of conducting workshops and to complete the work in the forest in order to prepare accommodation for participants of future trainings.
In terms of embodying the values of sustainable development: 1. promoting nature, preserving its values and promoting it as a resource of localities and areas.
2. reflection on the complexity of sustainable development in order to make people aware of the importance of the goals and the possibility of their implementation in the local field - among the local community. Learning from the resources of competences of previous generations by studying available materials, organizing workshops on traditional construction.
3. Accepting the complexity of sustainable development by establishing cooperation with organizations from various social and economic fields, whose primary goal is to work for sustainable development, individual equality, respect for heritage. Work to promote and strengthen, but also to give opinions and substantive support in the field of sustainable development goals, especially: Goal 4: Quality education, Goal 8: Economic growth and decent work, Goal 11: Sustainable cities and communities:
As part of our activities to visualise a sustainable future:
4. exploratory thinking, i.e. an interdisciplinary approach to the issue of social development of the local community, combining climate issues and simulating their impact on the local community in order to develop an optimal scenario of potential actions (author's experience in conducting classes in climate adaptation design at the university, experience in research on climate mitigation and adaptation in the field of architecture)
As part of our sustainability efforts:
5. Education, work with the local community, mitigation of problem and degraded areas through lifting
6. Consider the life cycle and implement LCA guidelines in building work to minimize the carbon footprint of the construction
