El Agrotablao. Coordination of participatory and ecological construction workshop in collaboration with the architecture office Pez Estudio.
At the ElCasc International Festival in the Old Town of Villena (Alicante) we collaborated with Pez Estudio to generate a community meeting space, together with 40 international architecture students, neighbours and an ecological agriculture association (SEAE).
The workshop consisted of the design and execution of infrastructures made with few resources, elaborated and built collaboratively among all participants in three stages:
Participatory Design Workshop: working with local and international architecture students, with the inhabitants of the neighbourhood and with the SEAE organic farming association to generate a shared space that can function as a local meeting centre and also as a space for relating to the natural environment. Collaborative work sessions and participation sessions open to the neighbourhood are held.
Infrastructure construction workshop: In a 10-day workshop, shared wooden equipment was developed collaboratively, such as bleachers, a stage, deckchairs and planters that provide a use for an empty lot; also ecological equipment such as a solar oven that generates activities that promote self-sufficiency, self-management and self-construction. The facilities and interventions built function as pilot projects that make visible and possible new practices initiated by the local inhabitants. Natural and reused materials, the use of renewable energies and the link with community organic farming practices were used as ingredients to articulate the project.
Closing session and inauguration with the neighbours of the neighbourhood: The inauguration of the space links from solar cooking with the self-built oven to the singing of the neighbours of the neighbourhood, the gypsy population that gives its name to the space: the AgroTablao.
