Beschreibung
des Entwurfs-programmes |
Our next design studio is situated in one of the most explosive tension fields of our time: the complicated co-existence of global spaces of production in places where local communities live. We will look at the development of a special economic zone in the periphery of Plovdiv, the second largest city in Bulgaria. Referred to by some as an example of an ‘human exclusion zone’, numerous factory workers defy this dystopian description by spending a large part of their lives inside of ‘the zone’. We would like to invite you to engage with this extreme environment.
The studio draws on the research of Ina Valkanova, an architect and doctoral fellow of the I-LUS program at ETH who is originally from Bulgaria and has been studying and actively engaging with the factories and workers that together form Trakiya economic zone (TEZ). TEZ and other special economic zones are smooth service landscapes, mainly driven by capital accumulation and speculation processes, designed to provide global markets with products. Ina’s study looks into the way this particular economic zone in Plovdiv developed from a cherry processing plant into the biggest investment project of the country hosting a wide variety of global manufacturing companies. She is in the process of mapping the resulting socio-urban transformations and will identify opportunities for small and meaningful actions that can help change TEZ from a site of extraction that fuels a global supply chain into a place that adds value to the local context.
Starting from Ina’s research, and building on the intimate relationships she established through her engagement, we will develop prototypes of spatial and strategic ideas and interventions that respond to the urgencies of the TEZ community, from the plant manager to the factory worker. Before visiting Plovdiv, we will start the studio with an intense period of prototyping. We will use our own studio space and the Fokushalle in ONA - itself a former factory building - as our production site. Using various design methods and artistic practices, from installations to performances, we will quickly develop a deep and embodied understanding of the physical (labor) conditions we will encounter in the factories in Plovdiv and similar sites across the world. Focusing on two specific factories, one making rear lights and the other producing steering shafts for a.o. Mercedes-Benz and BMW, we will see how global forces shape local conditions.
Together we will start narrating and designing a different reading of these secluded and highly secretive spaces. We will have direct access to the buildings and the workers, and will be able to work, eat and relax on site and get to know some of the faces and voices of those who often remain hidden behind the facade of the typical white boxes in an inhospitable environment. Along the way we will be joined by various experts who will both enhance and question our newly gained insights, pushing you to (re-)position yourself vis-à-vis your own convictions.
Dealing with such contested environments, and getting unprecedented access to them, comes with a responsibility: your engagement with the studio, and with sites of production in Plovdiv and globally, should ideally result in a convincing re-definition, not only of what a factory space could be(come), but also how design(ers) can help re-imagine factories as places for humans and others alike. |
Thematische und methodische Schwerpunkte |
Entwurf, Staedtebau, Landschaftsarchitektur, Performance |
