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New European Bauhaus
Project

Common Ground

How can we avoid the social and environmental consequences of urban sprawl?

Common Ground © European Union
Common Ground
© European Union, 2021

? How can we avoid the social and environmental consequences of urban sprawl?

Is it possible to reshape suburban territory through the introduction of shared resources, activities & policies?

These are the questions that the people behind Common Ground are attempting to answer.

The concept comes from Radwanice, Poland and is part of the 3 finalists of the New European Bauhaus rising star prizes under the category of "Reinvented places to meet and share". ?

The idea focuses on existing boundaries, fences, walled estates, commonly present in a contemporary gated society. The dense ownership structure has the potential of common value by opening and unlocking existing divisions.

As a thematic, aesthetic, and functional generator, the project is a modular system that enables community-driven construction of common places.

The catalogue of collective spaces – compost, rainwater collector, shared garden kitchen, laundry, common playground, and greenhouse kitchen garden, among others – introduces humans to nature ? and their neighbours ?‍♀️.

Common Ground addresses questions of privatisation & individualisation of urban sprawl in rural areas in Poland.

Their vision is to make a modular building system that would allow neighbours to create a communal space on the border. It opens the barriers and thus the social relations that are currently closed in today's walled society.

Another goal of the project is to engage people in various roles and enable bottom-up initiatives to design, develop, and reuse cooperative and sharing-based common spaces.

The project's ultimate purpose is to improve social contact and activate local communities through outdoor domestic infrastructure on a relatively small scale. Thus, architecture is more than just a material product, but also a vehicle for commoning and regulating new values, such as shared resources and ? exchange procedures.

? © European Union

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