StudioBASAR was founded in 2006 by Alex Axinte and Cristi Borcan. It is an architectural office, and also a self-described “­search ­and rescue­” team which works at both urban observation and intervention. The “search” dimension works across Bucharest, looking for overlooked urban conditions that people had come to tolerate. That leads to the ‘rescue’ part of their practice, which can encompass a variety of architectural interventions, including ­developing single-family­ homes, exhibitions, and even a street installation of a pop-up pool made from stacked wooden pallets wrapped in foliage and filled with water.

The studio’s early book “Evicting the Ghost – Architectures of Survival,” looks at the legacy of nationalization, retrocession and eviction in recent Romanian history. The study explores the history of evictions and the varying status of private property over the last 150 years. These conditions have created the varying ‘architectures of survival.’

In many Western countries, the battle for public space is a battle between commercialization, commodification and democracy. However, in many post-Soviet­ bloc countries, the struggle is entirely different. It is a reconciliation between the legacy of brutal authoritarianism and the new forces of the market. StudioBASAR works at multiple scales to confront these challenges.

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By their own description, Raumlabor Berlin’s approach is ‘dynamic urbanism.’  They have combined research, community engagement and radical forms of practice to create new ways of making public space. Some of their recent works include Symbiosen, a “parasitic architecture” structure that used abandoned wood, textile and a shipping container to create a pavilion at the Fragile Festival held at Wuppertal in 2023. It served as a commentary on the purposefulness of discarded material and the possibilities of symbiotic coexistence between “space, matter and user”

In 2022 they published Making Futures, a book that explores the role of architecture in the 21st century and presents action-based research which views the field as “an agency, rather than a collection of objects” One of the spaces where they put these ideas into practice is the Floating University Berlin, built into the rainwater retention basin of the former Tempelhof Airport. In the summer of 2018, students and scientists from more than 20 international universities met with artists from all over the world, local experts, architects, musicians and dancers to examine everyday urban life and formulate proposals for its reorganization. Together they collaborated on building the campus – learning spaces, workshops, an auditorium, a laboratory tower for experimental water filtration systems, a kitchen, a bar and toilets – creating an open infrastructure with seasonal spaces for learning and working. After its inaugural year, the energy created around the Floating University remained and it is now run as Floating e.V. – a self organized space and group, where practitioners from a wide range of backgrounds meet to collaborate, co-create and imaginatively work towards futures.

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The collective utilizes an experimental approach tailored to given territories and is designed as a tool for the creation of catalysts for the construction and development of cities. Regularly partnering with local actors (local authorities, associations, etc.) and artists (videographers, visual artists, etc.), the collective makes the transversality of actors and practices the common denominator of all its projects.

YA+K projects focus on low-tech, do-it-yourself innovations and the creation of new economies.  YA+K also seeks to make the tools of creation available–whether hand tools, 3D Printers, or computers–so that the local community can become involved and engaged. The ultimate ambition is that the public understands its own power to shape its environment.

YA + K identifies the public workshop as their favorite tool. Their public workshops focus on freeing people from the classical, hierarchical constraints in society. The idea is that everyone can be a designer, and everyone can be a builder. All projects and programs are unified by a commitment to the idea that all public spaces can be organically and democratically created. 

We encourage you to learn more at their website.

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When KDI began work in Kibera in 2006, they recognized this was not their community and they did not want to impose their assistance, nor create an innovative design to address a problem they identified in a vacuum. Instead, they sought guidance from experts: the residents of Kibera. They also came up with a name for their organization: Konkuey, a Thai word that means, “get to know intimately.”

In depth conversations and collaborations with residents led to The Kibera Public Space Project. This network of community hubs, created from waste spaces such as hazardous dumping sites in partnership with community groups, transformed these areas into welcoming public spaces with basic amenities like clean water, toilets, schools and playgrounds as well as income generating assets such as community gardens and small-business kiosks. There are also social development services provided such as technology training. The combination of small businesses and training mean that the transformed spaces were financially and operationally self-sufficient by year two.

KDI seeks to create what they now call ‘Productive Public Spaces’ wherever they work—and always through the same process of deep community engagement. In fact, their goal is to empower the community to the point that KDI is no longer necessary.

In 2011 the group began work with residents of the St. Anthony trailer park in the Coachella Valley of California. The valley is one of the most fertile agricultural regions of California, with a rich Native American history, yet it shares similarities with some of the poorest communities in the world. The 88,000 people who live in this unincorporated stretch of land lack access to basic services and often live in dilapidated trailer parks where water is contaminated with arsenic. Replicating the process used in Kenya, KDI worked with the residents to begin a network of Productive Public Spaces. The intent is to create spaces for meetings, education, small business development–and where new community interactions can flourish.

In 2020, KDI came out with The Handbook for Gender-Inclusive Urban Planning and Design, a groundbreaking document to help build more gender-inclusive cities. Drawing on their years of experience working with underrepresented communities, KDI shares guidelines on how to make projects more gender inclusive and recommends tools to involve all persons in design and planning.

KDI’s work and process illustrate how designers can catalyze new developments in public space often with minimal resources.

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Interboro first came to prominence with their project for the LA Forum for Architecture’s “Dead Malls” competition. Their project, “In The Meantime: Life with Landbanking,” envisioned a future for the closed Duchess County Mall in Fishkill, New York. Interboro identified the principal problem with the mall, “land banking”. In other words, a situation where a developer allows a property to sit unoccupied and closed in hopes that to sell the land at an increased value. Through research, Interboro discovered that while the mall was officially closed, it held an informal hub of organic activities and micro businesses. Truck drivers would pull over in the mall’s parking lot to rest, so a hot dog truck owner set up a business. A flea market entrepreneur used the space for a weekend market. Various clubs and organizations used the parking lot as a meeting point. To protect the impromptu community, Interboro proposed cheap, flexible moves that promoted the activities which were already ongoing.

Recently, Interboro developed the Anne O’C. Albrecht Nature Playscape. The firm led a team of landscape architects, builders, artists, educators, growers, and civic activists in the design of a new natural playscape in St. Louis’ Forest Park. This project transformed what had been 17 acres of turf into a restored natural environment with nine unique activity areas connected by a network of trails and paths. 

Another recent project involved a comprehensive analysis and assessment of 63 vacant school properties located across Detroit. The objective of this ambitious project was to complete a holistic, comparative study of 63 vacant school properties (VSPs) in Detroit—including 39 owned by the City of Detroit (City) and 24 owned by the Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD)—and to make recommendations regarding their redevelopment potential. 

We had an opportunity to have an extended conversation with Daniel D’Oca of Interboro on our podcast, Social Design Insights. Listen to the episodes below.

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Ecosistema Urbano has updated the concept of “community participation” through the development of online tools and apps which encourage global participation on local projects.

They are also known for green projects such as Ecobulevar, a project of ‘air trees’ in the Madrid suburb of Vallecas. These are large, circular pavilions that are made from repurposed industrial materials such as recycled plastic, greenhouse fabric and rubber tires that contain rooting vegetation and atomizers that cool and moisten the air in the cylinder and around it. The cylinders are self sufficient and surplus electricity produced by photovoltaic panels is sold back to the grid, which pays for their maintenance.

We had a chance to speak with Belinda Tato of Ecosistema Urbano, along with Daniel D’Oca of Interboro, Social Design Insights. Listen to the episodes below.

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Collectif Etc is perhaps best known for its Detour de France – a roving series of twenty projects conducted across France. They took a caravan on the road, stopping in multiple cities to execute projects. They would stay one to two weeks, and typically spend less than €2,000 at a stop. Collectif Etc collected most project funds as donations from the group’s relatives. Each stop was in itself a statement unto itself. The group reached out to other design collectives throughout Europe (including EXYZT and Atelier d’Architecture Autogeree) and stopped to collaborate with them. Detour de France was essentially a meta-project, where the group positioned themselves as interlocutors and germinators of a conversation about public space throughout France.

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In addition to their architectural projects, Basurama has also developed a unique community training program around the concept of waste. Residuos Sólidos Urbanos (RUS), or Urban Solid Waste, is a public art multi-format project that considers waste, both in solid and spatial senses. The projects look at waste as a material resource with which to reactivate abandoned space, operating under the belief that new public spaces can form from a combination of waste and wasted space. Each RUS project starts with a research trip to get in contact with locals and get to know the city (conflicts, community, NGOs, artists, universities, etc.). From there, the research is organized, local collaborators are chosen, projects are designed and the group subsequently works with municipalities to secure local permissions. The ambition is to leave a community with the skills to convert its own waste into usable material.

Recently, Basurama has been focused on working in participatory processes with public schools to collaboratively redesign the school courtyards, making them more accessible and equitable. Their newly opened project, “Colina del Reciclaje,” saw tires repurposed as material for the construction of a playground. In the past year, they have embarked on a similar project creating playgrounds by reusing fallen trees left by a snow storm in the parks of Madrid. 

We had a chance to speak with Nicolas Herringer of EXYZT, along with Alberto Nanclares of Basurama on Social Design Insights. Listen to the episodes below.

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Since its founding in 2008, AeT has worked to develop strong relationships with local and international stakeholders and create new opportunities for research, design, advocacy, and education around informal work and urban environments. The organization uses a participatory approach to empower the working poor to become co-developers in their own environments. Through its work, AeT has been recognized for its local and global achievements and provides an example of an integrated program for the inclusion of informal workers into urban settlements.  

Asiye eTafuleni boasts a diverse team of architects, social scientists, lawyers, and informal traders. This diversity and decades of experience give it both the knowledge and the street credibility to work with the trading community in developing higher levels of organization and capacity to advocate for rights and appropriate space and infrastructure in urban public spaces.

AeT’s most visible project work has been at Warwick Junction, Durban’s primary transportation node. The hub accommodates approximately 460,000 commuters and 5,000 traders per day. Within Warwick Junction, Asiye eTafuleni has taken on a variety of projects, principally around creating a stable and viable environment for traders. It has also extended to participatory research, co-design, and legal, as well as other forms of advocacy that work to uphold and defend the vendors’ rights to the city. The organization has recently contributed to the preparation of a set of national guidelines for Public Space Trading.

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About Basurama
Best known for creating colorful playgrounds from common landfill waste like old tires, wooden pallets, and discarded plastics, Basurama is a Spanish artist collective creating projects that provide cultural amenities while facilitating a wider conversation about the production of waste in our consumer society and how it can be transformed into a resource. Beyond a literal definition of trash, Basurama’s work makes us consider wasted space, wasted energy, and how higher thinking on these issues can lead to urban rejuvenation.

EXYZT and Basurama are Curry Stone Foundation Social Design Circle Honorees. Read more about them here:

• EXYZT
• Basurama

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