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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Reclaim the City! – From Day to Day

This article is a day-to-day report of two participants participants who took part in the Study Session ,,Reclaim the City!”. The study session took place from 12th to 19th of June 2016 in Budapest, Hungary. The main aim of the authors is sharing their impressions and methodology used during the event in order to spread the word about alternative urbanisation and non-formal education among young people and everyone interested in these.

Visit to KÉK – Contemporary Architecture Centre

The way from European Youth Center Budapest to the visiting organization, KÉK was not
supported by the weather. We left the Center in a hurry, since we were a little bit late but were still in a good mood since we were looking forward to getting to know the young Budapest architects’ hub and NGO KÉK. KÉK stands for Kortárs Építészeti Központ (Contemporary Architecture Centre) and is an NGO created in 2005 by architects concerned with using architecture to connect the community.

Consensus: To build or not to build?

What is your ideal city?

If you could build a city in whatever way you wanted, how would you build it? How would people live, what type of transportation would you have?

When the group gathered for the first session of the day, they had to ask themselves these kinds of questions. This was because they were faced with the task of building models of their ‘ideal city’, using cardboard, coloured paper, paint, tape and glue. The groups solved this issue in different ways; however there were also some similarities between the models built. For instance, every group wanted a river, suggesting that water in a city is important for people in the group. There were also a lot of green spaces in every model, and room for sustainable transport, with a lot of bicycle lanes built in most models.

Visit to The Budapest Methodological Centre of Social Policy and its Institutions (BMSZKI)

 

Our group visited homeless service provider of Budapest Municipality and we weren’t ready for this experience. Homelessness is a big problem in Hungary with over 50 percent of its homeless population (over 11 thousand) residing in Budapest. I can’t pinpoint the exact reason why but this visit stirred a lot of different emotions.

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.

Impression of the Day 1

I have to admit that I was not expecting this event to be as fun and enjoyable as it has been so far. The city quiz and the follow-up discussions were my favorite events of the day.  I learned a lot of new facts during the quiz, and there were   things and figures which surprised me. Also, the discussions on topics such as transport, services and public spaces were very nice to participate in and they were also  very fruitful.

So far the trainers and the participants rock. I hope that I will enjoy the event until the end.