With collaboration toward better results
The visit began at the city hall in the office of the deputy chief city architect who introduced the process hidden behind creating a new master plan for Košice. He emphasized the collaboration between municipality and the creative collective Spolka, which, thanks to setting up a proper communication strategy, achieved the highest public involvement in creating master plan.
The city of Košice organized a total of 72 events, attended by more than 2000 citizens, who submitted over 1700 comments. Spolka brought into process not only professional expertise from sociology and architecture but also ensured that the information was presented transparently and comprehensibly. Thanks to the close cooperation between city, citizen and creative collective, the participatory process was successful. In the upcoming months, the city will evaluate the comments and gradually implement them into the prepared plan. This is a good example of collaboration leading to high-quality results.
New functions to old places
Výmenníky, the next stop on the project study tour, are a great example not only of transforming old into new but also of community building. These small structures, built in 60s and 70s, were originally used to redistribute heat to individual apartments. Due to technological advancements, these places lost their original purpose, so the cultural community decided to renew them through an architectural competition into local community meeting spots.
Today, Výmenníky, serve as artistic and cultural hubs. Each one has its own cultural mediator who takes care of its operation, helps organize events and collaborates with artists and residents. These are places where concerts are held, bands and theatres rehearse, exercise classes take place, art is created, and many other activities happened.
Digital gate to the history
A teleportation to the history of Košice was provided to the project partners by a visit to the Dolná Brána museum. The newly renovated exhibition in the underground captures’ attention with its modern way of presenting the historical facts of the city. The exhibition is enriched with multimedia presentations and interactive elements, making the museum an interesting place for all age groups. The most attractive element that captivated visitors were the 3D models of the gate and the entire former city fortifications, as well as the audiovisual projections. The creative industry also finds use in museum exhibition, transforming dull historical facts into an entertaining form of learning for both young and old.
At the internal meeting, experiences from the pilot actions that all project partners have already started withing C2T project were discussed. These activities include meet-ups, round tables, design sprints, workshops, creative dialogues, co-creative labs and more. The topics are also diverse, based on the partners ‘specializations – ranging from digitalization in tourism and biodiversity support in cities to the use of AI in architecture. Good practice examples will be shared on the project´s platforms, Media Factory and Knowledge Factory.
This consortium meeting primarily served to exchange experiences from the project´s activities so far, networking, and provide encouragement for future project periods.
Author: Adriána Henčeková