Iskra Krstic – Interview

One of the participants of the Study Session “Reclaim the City” in European Youth Centre Budapest, Sopho Shubitidze conducted an interview with Guest speaker and Serbian activist Iskra Krstic

Somewhere between Ideal City and Integral Theory

Dear Reader! Below you will find an experimental, collaborative effort to produce an account of a day at the Study Session based on individual impressions, emotions and perception. It was cooperatively written by two participants parallel to each other, building upon and elaborating on each other’s ideas. Hope you will enjoy this experimental piece!

Day 2 started on a creative note. The assignment – build your ideal city – threw us way back into the past. Building things! – using stiff cardboard, sticky glue, mixing colours and getting cut with scissors – but just a little. It was a rush. A wave groups surfed on just like children, without even noticing it. The end results: marvellous creations that encompassed ideas we talked about so far; passive housing, renewable energy, urban planning… We felt like city planners. We debated, brainstormed, built cheeses, cemeteries and space stations – everything that’s necessary for the ideal city. We found out city planning is hard.

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Progress in the slow lane – Eastern Europe’s common problems

As someone coming from Eastern Europe, by now it should be obvious for me that not only the countries of the region, but also their capitals and their cities are facing similar – if not exactly the same – problems most of the time. However, for some reason it always surprises me when someone points out particular issues they are dealing with in their own communities. I find myself nodding my head at every point of the speech, for we share these concerns and in some respect we have these types of issues in my city as well.