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New European Bauhaus
News article24 March 2021

A physical space at the service of the local community and economy

We are interested in how our physical spaces can become enablers for community building.

building.a.community
building.a.community
building.a.community

How can we build strong local communities?

Norbert Tako shared through our website the example of building.a.community from Timișoara, Romania.

He presented it as a symbol of local resilience, a hybrid space for working, meeting, and staying active.

For some years now, they have been aiming to bring people together, encourage learning and active participation in their community, through creative continuous improvements. Their Cultural Centre has taken various forms throughout time: festivals, urban interventions, industrial transformations, artistic productions designed especially for local impact & strong collaboration.

The pandemic made them feel an increased need for meeting spaces, individual workspaces, and alternative operating models.

They dreamed and worked on a sustainable model through which a cultural NGO, a social enterprise, and partners from the local economy could prove their "can-do" attitude. They established collaborations at local, national, and international levels to create solutions for a stronger, inclusive community, focusing on better quality of life.

They decided to create a physical space to host creatives and social innovators. Their living lab, as they call it, is meant to develop continuously by listening to atypical entrepreneurs' needs - the community's creative breath.

Instead of building their spaces conventionally, they came up with a different idea!

They started building.a.community with 4 obsolete shipping containers and a community garden. They are now using 12 containers with natural interiors made of raw poplar plywood, and they are proud to be hosting there some of the most active creative entrepreneurs in Timisoara! The project is getting bigger and bigger with the addition of a court with food trucks and a community area between private spaces, combining privacy and togetherness.

Have you seen other examples of alternative living and working spaces? 

Let us know how you think we can make our communities & the places where we live more beautiful, sustainable, and inclusive.

Go to Co-design in our main menu and share it!

? building.a.community / © N. Tako

Details

Publication date
24 March 2021