Mountain on the Moon
Basic information
Project Title
Full project title
Category
Project Description
Mountain on the Moon was a meeting point for design and citizens sponsored by Mini España, will concern itself with the use of renewable energies during Madrid Design festival. It will have USB charging points and reading points lit by solar energy, as well as the possibility to charge devices with the kinetic energy generated by movement. This new habitable and efficient equipment will try to work on the most pressing challenges of daily life with several workshops and activities.
Project Region
EU Programme or fund
Description of the project
Summary
"Mountain on the moon" is a meeting point around a programe of urban design workshops open to designers and citizens in general, which proposes as a place for its development the use of a small, mobile urban laboratory, with two fundamental objectives:
1_ To reactivate a controversial public space in the city center of Madrid, by means of a non-permanent and light action that is capable of generating the greatest impact on the neighborhood with the minimum use of resources.
2_ To generate innovation in new prototypes and models of urban furniture, which are capable of creating a new spectrum in the imaginary of our cities, with new aesthetics, materialities, discourse, functionalities, more inclusive and conscious with our environment.
3_To bring citizens closer to new creative design processes and to generate an active pedagogy of urban design, furniture and small gadgets for collective use in squares and public spaces in general.
Mountain on the moon was created on the occasion of the celebration of the first edition of Madrid Design Festival as a collaboration between Enorme Studio and Mini. Enorme studio approached this project as an opportunity to make the festival have an impact on the non-expert design public.
Key objectives for sustainability
"Mountain on the moon" is born with a clear objective in relation to the space and that is to be a piece, light, transformable and completely autonomous in terms of the use of energy to develop its use.
The energetic design layer was devised in collaboration with the wonderful team Creatica.ong. Creática is a non-profit organisation whose aim is to improve the lives and opportunities of children and young people in vulnerable situations through the development of their creative abilities, allowing them to have normalised educational trajectories, with more opportunities to develop technological vocations and their full inclusion in the society of the future.
To this end, various energy strategies have been proposed, such as natural ventilation systems that are inherent to the greenhouse structure, the installation of solar panels that serve the small work space with sporadic use of computers, projections and talks or manufacturing and carpentry machinery.
In the outer shell, the stands offer different energy charging systems for public use in the square itself, such as kinetic energy mobile phone chargers, solar lighting that is activated at night to create reading or meeting areas.
The materials used for the manufacture are based on industrial elements from the catalogue, as in the case of the heart of the central space with a greenhouse.
Moreover, from the beginning it was also conceived with a second/third life foreseen after its use during the Madrid Design Festival. Playa Gata is a self-managed social centre in the peripheral neighbourhood of Fuencarral_ El Pardo, a civic space under construction, in which various entities and collectives, in addition to developing their own activities, aim to build a common narrative through coexistence.The installation was moved there for the development of workshops and the creation of vegetable gardens in the centre's courtyard.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
The question in relation to the installation itself and also to the future design of furniture pieces that would be developed in the workshop programe, was whether it is possible, despite the rigidity and strict regulatory requirements of the commercial street furniture that invade our streets and squares, to generate other ways of equipping the city, much more creative, beautiful, fun, inclusive and adaptable.
Can we go beyond the bench? In this way, "Mountain on the Moon" reflects on and explores these "other possible ways". New aesthetics that incorporate other sensibilities, other ways of using squares, more active and collective and of hosting spontaneous programes, such as theatre, talks, sports training or improvised readings and meetings seated in groups. Unlike a large percentage of the current furniture that almost prevents a group of people from sitting face to face to spend time together.
Key objectives for inclusion
The project is conceived precisely as a mediation tool, open and available to the neighborhood.
On the one hand, its ideation process was a collaborative process together with the wonderful non-profit organization Creática. As we mentioned before, Creática is an entity born in 2015 whose objective is to promote the improvement of life and opportunities for children and young people in vulnerable situations through the development of their creative abilities, allowing them to have normalized educational trajectories, with more opportunities to develop technological vocations and their full inclusion in the society of the future. They also develop social, cultural, artistic and technological activities, through the design and execution of technological projects of a socio-cultural nature in both public and private spaces, with the aim of promoting community innovation processes that develop the creative capacities of the participants.
Hand in hand with children and coaches, the strategies of autonomy and energetic interaction were devised, but also implemented and self-managed them as a team working together.
The programes and workshops were always adapted so that any public could follow them and the front of the workshop space was executed almost like an open showcase that allowed any passer-by to observe what was happening at any given moment.
An important detail was to ensure that anyone could learn and experience what it means to be able to configure your own spaces in a collective space such as a square, as opposed to what happens in a conventional space. In this way the pieces of outdoor furniture always have a degree of design that allows this learning process.
Results in relation to category
The project proposes a new exploration of how, with a small equipment of minimal intervention, it is possible to reactivate a square with open educational and cultural contents, without the need for large investments and buildings without a planned programme. The main objective of the project is the idea of generating the greatest number of interactions between people, through an interior space with a more programmed content and an exterior skin composed of mobile stands and configurations of completely spontaneous use by the citizens. The energetic devices intensify the possibilities of use, such as reading, charging devices such as computers, telephones, music, small concerts, debates (uses hardly possible in a public space).
The fact that the "wedges" or outdoor stands wet able to be freely configured generated multiple ways of meeting and a surprising degree of spontaneous experimentation on the part of citizens.
As citizens, we are not used to being able to modify our environment and feel the impact it has on our experience of the space. We believe it is important to open up these new possibilities on more occasions, empowering citizens as active protagonists and designers of their own spaces and their city.
How Citizens benefit
"Plaza Santa Maria Soledad", the place were was located, is a square that generates a lot of controversy. On the one hand, historically the square and the surrounding streets have been an area with a high presence of prostitution and therefore insecurity. Currently and apparently the existence of prostitution in the square has dissipated, but the reality is that it has simply demoralized the surrounding streets, etc. In order to avoid this excessive presence in the square, a police station was installed whose cars and patrols continuously occupy the square. However, it is a very popular square and located in one of the epicenter of the city of Madrid, El Barrio de Malasaña.
The idea of working in this complicated square was precisely to recover, in a friendly way and with activities dedicated to the neighbors, tourists and other passers-by, a public space so necessary in a dense urban centre such as Madrid.
The installation recreates or simulates a new topographical feature, a striking artificial mountain with a large showcase that lets you see everything that happens inside it, with the great objective of attracting people to generate interest and curiosity and in this way to incorporate ordinary citizens into such a relevant festival on design.
The interior of the mountain is invaded by meetings between designers who were rethinking new ways of making a city: city furniture workshops entitled Bench a Day, which develop new ideas for urban benches; talks on interactive urban stages; new public space laboratories; and talks-debates on how cities of the future will be. All these activities handle urban design and the city as their main topic to work on in a collaborative, trans-disciplinary and intergenerational way.
Innovative character
"Montaña en la Luna" represents an opportunity to experiment based on the idea of a designer office and portable architecture, on the street and close to users, with which any and all new proposals for cities of the future must be co-designed. This new endeavor is framed within its objective of improving urban life, contributing to a rational use of resources and maximizing the motto ‘Creative Use of Space’.
Mountain on the Moon is both a portable and creative office and an expanded urban furniture… Why can’t we go beyond playgrounds or benches???
