MOBILE URBAN ACUMULATOR

Urban Mobile Acumulator is an activity that took place in the project Urban Space in Action, an interdisciplinary project coordinated by Komunitas Association in partnership with the architects from studioBASAR.

ACUM is a container for gathering information located in various public spaces from the Bucharest neighborhoods targeted by the project (Tei, Timpuri Noi, Tineretului) that generates and supports direct interaction and exchange between the community and the project initiators.ACUM acts as an open platform for meetings and discussions, being also one of the mouthpieces that promotes the future stages of the project and its objectives.

From a practical standpoint, ACUM is a modular pavilion made primarily of wood, which can be used in various configurations and transported to different locations. The construction workshop was held in Bucharest at tranzit.ro space.

The activities included within ACUM are: urban walks in the neighborhood along with various experts and locals; roundtables and discussions between and among the inhabitants; workshops for children; outdoor cinema etc

MOBILE URBAN ACUMULATOR IN TIMPURI NOI NEIGHBORHOOD

In a pocket of Nerva Traian Boulevard, built at the end of the ’80s following the principle of compact corridor of flats, in the middle of a crowded parking area in front of a neighborhood school, the Accumulator was installed. In the first day of the event when it rained and it was cold, we still managed to held the workshop with the trip from home to school even in two places. We looked around the neighborhood and we found welcoming people who sheltered us from the rain: the Emil Gârleanu branch of the Metropolitan Library in Bucharest and the kindergarten 81. Here, the kids listened quietly the story of the ‘Elder Girl’ and drawn together the trip from home to school. The second day, the weather was on our side, so we installed the Accumulator from the morning transforming two informal parking places (that means on the sidewalk) into a public space that attracted during the day children and parents to the drawing workshops, interested and curious inhabitants around the exhibition, wiling to fill the enquiries, to chat about the neighborhood, to draw the mental maps or to discuss about the Dâmboviţa river. In the evening, the ad-hoc cinema opened in front of the bus station gathered together passersby and people living in the area. One of the movies projected, ‘Le ballon rouge’ managed to hold still a group of children and teenagers that initially where not giving signs that they have enough patience to watch the movies until the end. AcUM was also the leaving point in the expedition ‘Wanderers trough New Times’, a slalom around Dâmboviţa river, between factories and ruins, on the trails of the former suburbs, trough high flats precincts, where we chat with Sunday guardians and visited a house that just barely escaped demolition.

MOBILE URBAN ACUMULATOR IN TINERETULUI NEIGHBORHOOD

On a wide strip of green area surrounded with a metal fence, at the edge of a corridor type of boulevard Gheorhe Sincai that runs from Tineretului Park to the Dambovita channel, near a church that survived demolitions, the Accumulator was set. Here, in a paved pocket across a commercial ground floor made from a suite of shoes and car stores, a pastry, banks and real estate agencies, but also street vendors and florists, AcUM function as a magnet for passersby and transformed for a couple of days the area from a passing point into an attractor. The Accumulator has hosted the exhibition about the neighborhood and the Toolbox has supported the public activities. Similar as in Tei neighborhood, the inhabitants approached it wondered and delighted that something like that is happening also in their neighborhood and not only in the city center and in the big parks, the inhabitants of the area stayed over a chat about the place, worked over questionnaires, participated to the debates over the problems of the area. AcUM was also open for kids, which drawn the canvas of the pavilion: their kindergarten or school and the trip to them, or other places found their place on the map of their neighborhood, and the following day, equipped for adventure and motivated by Habarnam, they set in a founding expedition of the Flower City which they grown from the asphalt and squeezed through the parking places. AcUM was also the departing place going Around Tineretului in 80 minutes, an exploration like a shortcut through the flats and houses, the streets and the places, the people and the stories of the neighborhood, where we discovered a fascinating world in a place that at first sight was looking rather monochrome.

MOBILE URBAN ACUMULATOR IN TEI NEIGHBORHOOD

The street Teiul Doamnei runs from North to South by Tei neighborhood trough a canyon of blocks of flats erected in the ‘70s and ‘80s instead of a former traditional neighborhood. Here, in a recessed area at the end of a commercial ground floor, made of a suite of several access to the flats, a general store, a pizzeria and a pastry, a second hand for clothing, a bank and an exchange office, the Accumulator was set. In a small perimeter limited by a postal office, a flower kiosk, a playground and a alley to the back side of the flats, the central structure hosted the exhibition about the neighborhood, and the Toolbox supported the public activities. For 3 days, AcUM functioned as a magnet for the inhabitants of the area and transformed the concrete high plateau from a crossing point into a stopover. Wondered and delighted that something like that is happening also in their neighborhood and not only in the city center and in the big parks, the inhabitants of the area stayed over a chat about the place, worked over questionnaires, participated to the debates over the problems of the area. AcUM was opened to also the kids which drawn the canvas of the pavilion with their trip from home to school or exhibited the story of the expedition trough the mysterious surroundings. At the end, we embarked into an exploration as a shortcut trough the blocks and houses, factories and streets, the places, the people and the stories of the place. AcUM has accumulated information, communicated with the public and tested in real time activation strategies for the public space, where, if only for 3 days, it function as a kiosk open to the public as a meeting place, exchange of memories, opinions and plans for the future.

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