PARACITY
- Experiments in Public Space -
- Apr - July 2005 -
Public Space as the ground of experiment and the source of analysis
Paracity questionned the use of public space and the way of living it.
It has been completed in collaboration with students from the architecture school of Paris Val-de-Seine. The aim of the project was to experiment the living in public space, during 3 weeks.
// CONTEXT : KREATIV FESTIVAL (ARCHITECTURE), Yppenplatz in WIEN, AUSTRIA, JUNE 2005
Yppenplatz is a public square in the Wien turkish area. It offers different kind of exchanges. It is surrounded by a daily market, several shops and restaurants. In the middle is a playground (ballgames area and children playground). It is also a popular living area (social flats), extremely cosmopolitan (turkish dominant) and always full of people.
We designed and made different mobile and reversible structures.
Each structure of Paracity proposed the functions of home (sleeping, eating, washing, protecting).
All the elements of the project acted as an interface between public space, passers-by and our private space.
// PARABOX in Wien
The Paraboxes were the structures of living and sleeping space.
They were disseminated in the middle of Yppenplatz, moved everyday. They could be open or close, and combined to each other.
They welcomed various publics, used as playground by children, resting point by young people during the day and meeting point or benches by passers-by, overlaying a new territory on the existing public space.
// EAT.LAB & PARADOUCHES
The Eatlab and the Paradouches are also part of the program.
The eating and cooking structures of the project, the Eatlab, were composed by different elements ressembling a real private kitchen. Used as a communal kitchen by us during the day, the Eatlab was a public cooking and eating place (ie. public BBQ, public Crepes Party, etc.) in the evenings.
The Paradouches were the washing structure of Paracity. It was a reversible and modular structure used as showers or water points during the day, as well as stage and screen for events in the evenings.
• EatLab
// PARAKITS
The Parakits are sets of stickers, representing an action or a private use.
We used them and gave them to people to stick in the streets to mark your trace in public space.
The Parakits emphasized our presence in public space beyond the architectural structures and reveal our way of living in that unique context.
• the Parakits