Pilot project presentations: AGROPLAZA KIRIKIÑO

Speakers meeting link: https://bit.ly/36uVRwF | Meeting attendants: Facebook live at https://www.facebook.com/designscapesproject/

17:30-17:45 Welcome and introduction
(Ilaria Tosoni & Talita Medina, Politecnico di Milano, Department of Architecture and Urban Studies)
17:45-18:15 Presentation of the pilot project
(Elisa de los Reyes, Pez Estudio)
18:15-18:30 Q&A and Discussion
18:30 End

(*) Other winners of the Designscapes call with similar thematic orientation will be invited to contribute

Our speakers

Ilaria Tosoni, planner, post- doc researcher, Doctor of Science in Civil Engineering from the Institute for Spatial and Landscape development, ETH Zurich. Researcher at DAStU, Politecnico di Milano, has been collaborating on several EU funded projects by the HORIZON2020 program such as Open4Citizens, DESIGNSCAPES and MESOC. Her research focus is on transition and innovation processes in urban environments.

Talita Medina, graduated in Architecture and Urban Planning from the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná, Brazil. Architect, with studies at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in Barcelona in Urban Design and Urban and Territorial Planning. She was adjunct professor at DAStU – Politecnico di Milano – of the New Urban Scapes Town Planning Lab and Town Planning Design Workshop. Carry out professional and research activities on the subject of innovation in multiscalar urban transformation projects.

Elisa de los Reyes is an architect graduated from the ETSAM (UPM) and co-founding partner of Pezestudio.org, Inteligencias Colectivas/Zoohaus and Wikitoki.org.She develops design, architecture and urban planning projects with an ecological and participatory approach. She has held conferences and teaching in Europe, Latin America and North America (Parsons The New School NY, IED Madrid, Matadero Madrid, Medialab Prado, Architecture Universities and Spanish Cultural Institutions in Lima, Santo Domingo, Chile…) She has received the First Prize in 2012 and finalist in 2016 in Arquia Next, Best Urban Built Project in the Caribbean VIII Biennial, First Prize in the XI Architecture Biennial in Santo Domingo and the Second Prize Holcim 2011 Next Generation Europe. She developed the Uneven Growth exposition in the MOMA NY and Bilbao Commons project in Azkuna Zentroa, Bilbao.

Agroplaza is an urban model for the socio-ecological transformation of cities through participatory interventions in their public spaces. It has been developed by Pezestudio.org since 2011 through Biotic City action-research projects. Biotic City is a vision of the city towards a collaborative development that places life and diversity at its core. It consists in a city model built by transformative, creative, social, inclusive actions that come from community based movements mainly focused on citizen participation, feminism and ecology.

Agroplaza is designed with a Glocal target: the project thinks globally and acts locally. On the one hand, the project is Global because it is designed to reformulate the configuration of public spaces; prototypes can be placed in different types of environments and contribute to disseminate designs for a more sustainable global society. On the other hand, the project is redesigned with Local communities to adapt the prototypes to their reality and needs.

Agroplaza prototypes are adaptations of the designs developed by Pezestudio since 2011 through more than twenty design and building collaborative processes attending the needs of different communities and spaces in different parts of the world (from Bilbao, Barcelona or Madrid to Reykjavik or Lima).

The first pilot project of Agroplaza was developed in Getafe (Madrid) in 2015. It is a place composed of 12 Urban Ecological Installations that allow people to share knowledge, arouse reflections and cause transformations in relation to ecology and coexistence. They consist of pieces of urban furniture of stay and encounter that incorporate systems of closed cycles of resources of Cultivation and Alimentation, Energy, Water and Waste. They include different urban crops, water purification, waste reduction and energy production through game.

Agroplaza Kirikiño scales up the project in the Irala neighbourhood, in Bilbao. The project consists in the participatory design of the refurbishment of the current square and in the design and installation of ecological innovative infrastructures.

During the first four months a participatory project was developed where neighbours identified their needs and defined new uses and ecological systems for the square. As a result, two spaces were designed and installed. They are two wooden structures that connect us to the environment through the use of renewable energies and biodiversity. They use photovoltaic systems to feed their own self-lighting and include some other services for the square. They also include autochthonous vegetation planted in self-watering pots that will climb up the structures in order to green the space.

The “Escenario Sonoro” (the “Talking stage”) is a multifunctional place. It is a roofed elevated place to develop concerts, projections, rehearsals etc. that can be observed from its two sides. It can also work just as a covered space for meeting or staying. It includes some speakers that users can connect to through bluetooth in order to listen to their favourite music. It also includes some mirrors for dancing rehearsals or other uses.

The “GRADERÍO” (“Grandstand”) is a roofed meeting space that can be used in relation to the stage in order to organise events, or just as a meeting place. It includes bike parking and allows people to charge their mobiles through usb plugin.