THE CONSTRUCTION OF COMMONS

Description

Creativity is the basis element of a person's character as well as the base for culture. But how to sensibilize the people and spread practical knowledge as well as making it a common resource in a time of mass-production and throw-away society - a time where practical knowledge is more and more forgotten.

First part: A monument - a tower - will stand in the middle of the most dense district of Vienna, Austria. This is the starting point, the laboratory. Exhibitions, classes, workshops inside the tower as well as on the facade deepen the knowledge of visitors. Workshop machines climbing upwards and downwards the monument, allowing one to practice and elaborate the newly learnt skills - covering it in various building and crafts techniques, strongly showing in the city scape the starting point of common practical knowledge.

Second part: Not only the tower - the whole city should become the testing material of the craftsmanship. The workshop machine (a kinetic Theo Jansen mechanism, symbol for creativity and handcraft, at the same time showing how handcraft can become part of architecture and city) carrying the various workshops through the streets - bringing the knowledge of crafts further from small, individual crafting projects towards the scale of a building, and even a city, also, towards architecture.