Workshops
In our workshops, participants learn to bridge architecture and sustainability through co-design and public participation. They engage in interventions in public spaces, placemaking, and planning. By proposing and implementing their ideas, students gain hands-on experience to take with them to their future projects.
Architecture & Design
Design Awareness
Tel Aviv, Israel
ECOWEEK 2016/Middle East partnered with the Dizengoff Center, the Jerusalem Municipality, the Jerusalem Development Authority, the Jerusalem Urban Design Center, the Holon Institute of Technology, Bezalel Academy, and Bioregional as a sustainability advisor. Two teams activated infographics in awareness-raising campaigns within the Dizengoff Center shopping mall. The goal was to engage the shopping community in environmental issues in the urban environment and to showcase the sustainable initiatives of the mall management, including hydroponic farming, beehives on the roof, sheltering bat populations in the basement, recycling and more.
Sustainable Living
Prishtina, kosovo
ECOWEEK 2015/Kosovo engaged with many prominent international architects, and included a variety of projects, from conceptual designs to actual proposals. The event was co-organized by ECOCIETY and ECOWEEK, and was hosted by the University of Prishtina. Partners of ECOWEEK 2015 included the City of Prishtina, the University of Prishtina, the American Institute of Architects, and the French Embassy. The workshop was headed by a leading local architect with expertise in private homes. The team aimed to design a house with its own identity using local materials, within the local context, and consider the local micro-climate and environmental conditions. The students studied various scenarios, visited environmentally- conscious buildings, gained valuable professional experience, and proposed a model for sustainable living in Prishtina.
ECOWEEK 2011/Milano partnered with the European Institute of Law, Science, and Technology, the British Council, the School of Urban Architecture Building Engineering, and the Embassy of Sweden. The workshop challenge was to create a symbolic object that fit the title “Landscape Interior.” The urban public park Boscioncitta in Milano was chosen as the site for the symbolic object. The workshop built the pavilion out of reclaimed wood, stored after the dismantling of an older structure, and placed it in an entrance to the park. The design was based on the principle of self-construction, meaning that the team designed, detailed, and constructed the pavilion within the one week ECOWEEK workshop.
Circular Pavilion
Milano, Italy
Urban Planning​
Eco-Corridor
Thessaloniki, greece
ECOWEEK 2011/Thessaloniki took place under the auspices of the European Institute of Law, Science, and Technology, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Greek Ministry of the Environment and Energy, the City of Thessaloniki, the British Embassy of Athens, the British Council, the Embassy of Sweden, and the Royal Danish Embassy. The team created a multi-phase plan to facilitate a set of short-term transformation-scenarios to remodel the open space of the International Thessaloniki Fair, located at the heart of the city. The first goal was to address a "Green Engine" for the city. Next was the formation of an "Ecological Corridor" that could connect the city to the sea and other green spaces, offering recreational activities and a network of pedestrian bicycle and water paths. The plan was submitted to the city for further consideration.
Urban Archeology
Istanbul, Turkey
ECOWEEK 2015/Istanbul was hosted by Yeditepe University and Studio-X. The goal of the workshop was to map the center of Gotztepe, a place lacking a collective plan and collective space, to reveal multiple layers of history colliding together in one space. The workshop challenged the group to see urban renewal as an opportunity to produce new unexpected qualities in the urban fabric. The students engaged in dialogue with the community to better understand their opinions, and developed a strategy to reveal and incorporate valuable historical elements by creating new public spaces and functions in Gotztepe.
Green Identity
Krakow, Poland
ECOWEEK 2012/Krakow partnered with the City of Krakow, Green District, and Krakow University of Technology. The ECOWEEK workshops brainstormed and proposed preliminary planning ideas for possible re-use of an abandoned shooting range in Wola Justowska. The conference aimed to offer a resolution to the debate between development and preservation and to help find a balance between a for-profit approach, and a communally and environmentally focused approach. The Hidden Identity design intended to create a space separate from the real world by means of a 'curtain' made of little wind turbines which are set in motion by the movement of people and cars. Their main goal is to create a new community and common ground for exchange of local creativity- art, education, environmentally-friendly goods, etc. The plan was submitted to the city for further consideration.
Placemaking​
Park Treehouse
Prishtina, Kosovo
ECOWEEK 2016/Kosovo partnered with the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the United States Embassy, the French Embassy, the EU Information and Cultural Center, the Morph Training Center, and DEA Water. In this ECOWEEK event, all the groups lived and worked together in Germia Park, like a "summer camp," and the length of the program was extended to two weeks. The intense program, including students and young professionals from Kosovo and abroad, combined expert lectures, intense design and hands-on workshops, exercise, yoga, meditation and partying, and hosted a diverse and international group of speakers and workshop leaders. The workshop proposed urban and landscape interventions, and constructed a full-scale tree house.
Reclaiming Valle Aurelia park
Rome, Italy
ECOWEEK 2012/Rome partnered with the Province of Rome, Roma Capitale, the United States Embassy, the German Embassy, the Embassy of Japan, Roma Tre University, the Order of Landscape Architects and Conservationists of Rome, the American Academy in Rome, the University of Arkansas Rome Center, the University of Washington, and the Rome University of Fine Arts. The area of Valle Aurelia was demolished in 1981 as part of Roman-slum clearance program, leaving in its place an empty space. The aim of the workshop was to reveal the potential of underused spaces and make them an active part in the system of socio-spatial relations inside the district. The group intended to transform this space into an area for socializing, sharing, playing, and meeting through design and implementation of temporary or reversible interventions. They added lettering alongside a street-path, signs and proposals for transforming specific spaces along via di Valle Aurelia on wooden formwork, and equipped a public space installation in the Giardino Del Maresciallo with new access starts from the street, seating benches, tables, a children soccer field, and curated a photographic exhibition on the Borghetto neighborhood. The intervention was self-built, thanks to the help and hospitality of a neighbor to the park who provided electricity, helped find materials, and treated the team daily with cold refreshments!
ECOWEEK 2016/Bucharest partnered with the faculty of Urbanism from “Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urbanism, the University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest, with the support of Galenica. The team focused on the garden of Victor Babes Hospital in Bucharest and proposed providing each one of the seven pavilions on the site with a natural area to enhance the spiritual healings of the patients. Each garden had a theme related to the patients in each pavilion. For example, the areas for children included kinetic sculptures, falling water, dressed-up trees, and a four-season garden, with healing colors and plants that change over time. The proposals formed a basis for reconsideration and future renovation of the hospital gardens and outdoor spaces.
Gardens that Heal
Bucharest, Romania
Schools
"Adding Zero"
Thessaloniki, Greece
ECOWEEK 2011/Thessaloniki worked with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Environment, Energy, and Climate Change, the City of Thessaloniki, the European Institute of Law, Science, and Technology, the British Embassy, the British Council, and the Embassy of Sweden. The workshop focused on the remodeling of an existing public school. After an earthquake in 1978, two temporary school buildings were built as teaching facilities for five years. 32 years later, there were still in use. Guided by the director of the school, the workshop proposed a design to accommodate the increasing needs of the school: new teaching spaces, a multi-use space, a gym, and a library. The design was based on the creation of a light-weight roofing system, which unified the two schools and created an atrium between them. The open areas would be planted, thus creating green roofs that would increase roof insulation. The environmental upgrade of the buildings included the addition of external insulation and covering the roof with photovoltaic panels providing renewable energy throughout the year. The connecting atrium also plays the role of a climatic buffer zone, adjusting heating or ventilation depending on external weather conditions. The proposed construction used affordable materials and its modular design lends itself to a short construction period, as to not interrupt the school’s function. The proposal was submitted to the school for future use.
Ecoweek 2015/Prishtina took place in collaboration with the City of Prishtina, the University of Prishtina, the American Institute of Architects, the French Embassy, and Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. The workshop focused on full-scale placemaking interventions within the campus of the University of Prishtina, re-using locally harvested materials. The students were asked to address a place they used every day and draw inspiration from it. Because of their familiarity with the location, students were able to easily identify its needs and find solutions. The students worked together to generate designs for different spots on the campus, then divided into subgroups to find materials and construct their ideas. The teams built seating areas, bicycle parking, walking paths, and a large-scale mural in their campus to be enjoyed by the students, faculty, staff, and by the pupils of an adjacent elementary school.
Up-CyclingCampus
Prishtina, Kosovo
Green School Urban Mining
Crete, Greece
ECOWEEK 2016/Ag. Nikolaos partnered with the municipality of Ag. Nikolaos, G&A Mamidakis Foundation, BlueGr Hotels and Resorts, Lasithi Prefecture, LoveGreece.com, and collaborated with Bioregional as a sustainability advisor. In Ag. Nikolaos, ECOWEEK organized a one-week festival and a series of hands-on workshops. The workshops addressed specific locations in the city, carefully chosen with the municipality, to generate renewal and placemaking in the city. The goal of the festival and public activities was to engage tourists and the local community in a discourse on sustainability, reuse of materials, public space, and sustainable tourism. The site of the Green School workshop was a public elementary school. The group focused on upgrading four underutilized areas in the school: (1) a waiting area next to the main entrance, (2) a shaded area for seating in the front yard, (3) the internal atrium, and (4) the abandoned herb garden in the backyard. The design process involved public participation with parents, schoolchildren, and teachers. Based on the “Smaller, Quicker, and Cheaper” approach and 'urban mining', the group upgraded the spaces with the community, with skilled workers and with the reuse of materials donated by local hotels within one week. The impact was such that after the ECOWEEK workshop, the school community was motivated to continue upgrading and maintaining the school.