Authors:
multidisciplinary collective Krater:
Gaja Mežnarić Osole
Andrej Koruza
Danica Sretenović
Rok Oblak
Primož Turnšek
Sebastjan Kovač
Anamari Hrup
Eva Jera Hanžek
Amadeja Smrekar
Altan Jurca Avci
association Prostorož
Data:
Krater, a typology of urban wilderness
Category: Public Space
Authors: Collective Krater: Gaja Mežnarić Osole (eco-social designer), Andrej Koruza (interdisciplinary artist), Danica Sretenović (architect, curator), Rok Oblak (product designer), Primoz Turnšek (microbiologist), Sebastjan Kovač (ecologist), Anamari Hurp, Eva Jera Hanžek (bachelor of painting), Amadeja Smrekar (photographer), Altan Jurca Avci (student of architecture), and association Prostorož (architects)
Collaborators: interspecies community Krater (more than 200 species of plants, animals, and fungi), association PINA, Borut Jerman, Renata Šifrar, John Buscarino, Agrodivizija, Ministry of Justice, Društvo za Permakulturo Slovenije ("Permacultural Association of Slovenia"), Elizabeta Maleksić, Summer School Krater: Plantations (Nina Vidić Ivančič, Marko Vivoda, Kaja Kisilak, Nina Kozin, Tamara Lašič Jurković, Nika Erjavec, Tamara Rijavec, Pia Groleger), The Feral Palace (Gaja Pegan Nahtigal, Aja Golob, Zala Metlika, Tatjana Kotnik, Jana Vukšić, Filipa Valenčić, Iskra Vukšić, Lotte van der Woude, Urška Škerl, Zuzana Jančovičová, Justyna Chmielewska, Jane Pirone, Barbara Adams, Hala Abdel Malak, Zsuzsanna Szegedi, Jana Stankić, Zoltan Puzsár, Benedek Lits, Angelo Renna, Katherine Boles, Xavier Acarin, Ola Korbańska, Iwo Borkowicz, Lara Jana Gabriel, Lidija Pranjić, Ajda Biček, Tina Božak, Sieta van Horck, Andreja Benedejčič, Rens Spanjaard), BIO 27 Forbidden Vernaculars (Lyson Marchessault, Manca Hrovat, Katarina Živković, Sandra Revuelta, Kinga Gacsályi, Elias Brun, Ahmed Othman, Daniele Cristini), Debra Solomon, Klaas Kuitenbrower, Rok Kranjc, Mitja Žagar, Daniell Bell, Jasper Van der Linden, Pedro Jervell, Monika Tominšek, Lena Penšek, Neža Novak, Cristián Roman, Nina Rojc, Gorazd Kurent, Marko Turkuš, Karlo Hmeljak, Aleksandra Kansky, Gregor Klemenc, Taja Gorjan, Nina Dolar, Tina Pernuš, Klemen Košir, Oriol Gracia Vallès, Petra Žumer Štrigl, Nina Dolar, Bojan Trstenjak Makar, Vladimir Borštnik in Damjan Kostič, Anna Kotova, Mladi za podnebno pravičnost ("Youth for Climate Justice"), Tjaša Zagoršek, Alja Petric, Liza Šimnec, Marko Čeh, Jovan Višnjić, Ajda Bračič, Edern Haushofer, Pauline Liogier, Darinka Pilári, Institution Bob, Library of Things, family Štiglic & Johan O. Verboom
Location: borough Bežigrad, Ljubljana
Year of realisation: 1994-2020
Gross area: 4,000 sqm/18.000 sqm
Investor: indigenous creative community in collaboration with the Network of Art and Cultural Research Centres (RUK), PiNA, and Trajna Collective / site management: Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Slovenia
Overall investment: €80,000 + voluntary labour + co-financing by Centre for Creativity, Ministry of Culture, City Municipality of Ljubljana, and International Union of Architects
Type of commission: autonomous initiative for a pilot laboratory
Web site: krater.si/si, Instagram: kratercollective
Photographs:
Amadeja Smrekar
PLEČNIK MEDAL in the category of public space
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Krater, a typology of urban wilderness - Jury's report
Krater is a good example of an urban spatial practice which not only establishes new public space on a disused job site but opens inventive possibilities of the production of space and content in a time when urban and ecological processes are steered much more by unchecked capital interest rather than considered public interest.
The last financial crisis led to a marked increase in the number of construction sites and foundation pits in limbo, neglected urban voids, and deteriorating listed buildings. By way of content and interventions, a precious few of these open wounds of lost urban fabric have been - at least temporarily - regenerated by cultural, artistic, and other initiatives and opened to the public in this manner, such as Onkraj gradbišča ("Beyond the Jobsite") and experimental space Teren. Krater, which has been conceived and managed by a sizeable multidisciplinary collective of creators and has been brought into existence on the plot of a disused job site owned by the Ministry of Justice at the intersection of Dunajska Road and Topniška Street in Ljubljana's borough of Bežigrad, builds upon these experiences but simultaneously injects certain new approaches to the concepts of regulation and operation. The collective gives priority to the existing ecosystem of flora and fauna, which has developed in the foundation pits and on the rubble of an army barracks during the last thirty years.
With the new doors in the jobsite's steel hoarding beckoning people to visit, the city is presented with a new type of open space, the so-called "urban wilderness". In place of a space of regulation and cultivation, it thus becomes a space of study, education and knowledge production, and simultaneously a material source for the development of designer products, biological materials, and sustainable building techniques. Architectural interventions are small and temporary and address only the very basic needs of the creators and visitors. Disused containers play host to studios, a fungus laboratory, and a plant shelter; only the greenhouse, the canopy, the tea pavilion (created during the 27th Biennial of Design Ljubljana), and a sustainable toilet are new. Everything may be removed, moved, disassembled, or decomposed. In the context of Krater, circularity encompasses the entire material cycle: from germination, growth, handling, construction to decomposition.
Krater is not a typical open public space as it is enclosed by job site hoarding to this day. Here, the creation of the public is carried out mainly by means of programmes, which connect different generations and groups of people: from classes on urban ecosystems for pupils, material workshops and products made from sustainable materials to conferences and events for professionals.
Krater is neither a park nor a garden - but it is a job site least of all. It is an active community space at the current point of the transformation of urban potential. Its power lies in the questioning of stagnant mechanisms for the development of a socially responsible city. It is a prototype of a model for the regeneration of the ecosystems of urban debris and of the creation of new communities as part of future strategies for the development of the urban space. It is a tipping point leaving an indelible mark.
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