Proposal for the future use of the Savamalski Dizajn Studio
by Design for the Living World
We, the students of Design for the living World from the HFBK Hamburg, have been using the Savamalski Dizajn Studio at Kraljevica Marka 8 from September until November 2013 as part of the Urban Incubator project. As a class we make participatory projects, which work together with a local community. During our residency in Belgrade our particular focus was the visualization and implementation of place-making processes. We engaged with the neighborhood of Savamala, which voiced a need for shared, communal space that is neither a place where money is a central component, nor a primer place for entertainment. Our studio was one of two spaces where we proposed an answer for this need.
We engaged residents of Savamala and students from the Art Academy through workshops and happenings, thereby using our Studio as an agent to practice the commons. One of the central guidelines of the class is sustainability – as it is for Urban Incubator. From the beginning of our residency we aimed to make the engagement we started in the Savamalski Dizajn Studio work in the long run.
We therefore propose to let this space be used further as a shared, communal place in the next year. More specifically, this means that we propose the studio to be used by the people who were working with us already, and open it for other initiatives, which engage with the space in the same spirit.
Two groups of students worked with us in the last two months and we suggest them continue using the studio in the next year. One is from the Art Academy Belgrade. They participated in our music workshops and also initiated a participatory workshop in the studio themselves. We propose to let their work continue here. Two architecture graduates, who have been working with us very closely in all parts of our project over the past two months, need space for initiating future participatory projects in Savamala. Granting them this opportunity, they will be able to continuously have the neighborhood involved in the studio space and vitalize other places in Savamala as places for the community.
We would like to suggest two groups, whom we got to know during our residency as co-users of Kraljevica Marka 8. One is an LGBT youth club, which is interested in using the space on a daily basis as a center for young LGBT’s to feel home and save in a place outside of home; to use it for exchange, counseling and help. They see the benefits of the space being shared with other groups, in view of matters of security as well as interaction between the youth and the other cultural initiatives. The second is a group of Swiss and Serbian culture producers that wishes to use the space for an exchange program of art and artists between West-, and Eastern Europe. The group aims to present art in a way that is accessible for everybody, opening it up to people outside of the cultural scene. They value the benefits of sharing the space with a youth center and young local artist in achieving this accessibility.
During the last week we already started the reconstruction of the Savamalski Dizajn Studio together with all initiatives that wish to bring life to the space in the future. The construction is not yet finalized but will be in the near future. Our efforts have shown that the very different groups are able and willing to share that space, and the value of their exchange has already become apparent. Together we also figured out a practical way for all future users to share the studio spatially through the constructions we made.
We hope that you consider our proposal for the future use of the Savamalski Dizajn Studio, for which there is already a solid spatially and social ground.
Design for the Living World, HFBK 