An arts-based educational kit to rethink urban space

What would you protect in the public spaces around you?
What would you add?
What would you replace?

PLANEA is a network of educational centres, cultural organisations and institutions that use artistic practices in state schools in a cross-curricular and context-specific way. In late 2024, this network launched the Transformative Futures Kit project, in which three Spanish collectives would design three educational programmes based on artistic methodologies to develop skills linked to the social and solidarity economy in public education. These programmes took the form of three kits to be sent to schools to guide the students in carrying out the activities.

Zuloark has designed the Urban Parliament Kit, which proposes the creation of Urban Parliaments self-organised by the students. We understand an Urban Parliament as a civic infrastructure; a piece of street furniture for rest and enjoyment of public space, but also for the active, free and open promotion of discussion about the city from within the city, designed to include as many stakeholders as possible in the process. 

The kit received by each centre includes the materials needed to build a parliamentary totem – a symbol of the Parliament and a spatial organiser – which can be moved to different locations in public spaces, transforming them into settings for dialogue and critical reflection on the city. The kit’s design prioritises ease of assembly and adaptability to the schools’ logistics, encouraging the reuse of local materials and the free self-assembly of the various seats. Ultimately, the totem can remain at the school for other activities once the project has finished. 

During the Parliament’s proceedings, in the public space, discussions take place about the city’s future and potential changes to make it a better place. Answers are sought to three questions that guide the session: What would you protect in the public space around you? What would you add? What would you replace? All ideas are collected and noted on the totem, later serving as the basis for creating a Declaration of Urban Rights that reflects these thoughts about the city. Finally, a joint OpenSource map is drawn up where each school marks the public space where they held the Urban Parliament, along with their conclusions about it, outlining a possible dream future.

This project is led by PLANEA, the Art and School Network, supported by the Spanish Ministry of Labour and Social Economy and funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU.

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A pilot project with the wood workshop in Prison N. 12 of Cerro Carancho in Rivera, Uruguay

In October 2024, Campo Adentro invites us to Uruguay to develop a project with the wood workshop at Cerro Carancho prison, as part of the Festival de la Madera. We propose a collaborative system based on prototyping and furniture construction, creating a space where participants can make decisions throughout the process and propose design solutions—an “unfinished” design enriched by their knowledge and experience.

People deprived of freedom, students, and design professionals collaborate to design and build public spaces while contributing new narratives on the forestry crisis. We co-design and construct two pieces of furniture, fostering a dialogue between the inside and outside of the prison and creating experimental spaces for coexistence, co-creation, and collective reflection.

We work with eucalyptus wood profiles of 4×7 cm, helping mitigate the irresponsible consumption of wood in the country by using recycled and low-impact materials.

One of the pieces remains inside the prison, while the other is installed outside. The proposed construction system allows for design modifications throughout the process, using a structure similar to a truss, based on a modular unit that adapts to different needs.

Through this experience, COM-UNIDAD 12 envisions architecture as a tool for social inclusion, education, and environmental awareness.

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Making urbanism from the smallest scale

Since 2013, Zuloark has been collaborating with the Javeriana University of Bogotá in its PEI programme (Programme of International Experiences), hosting its Architecture and Design students in Madrid to carry out a series of participatory design and construction workshops in conjunction with local communities. This line of workshops is called Hand Made Urbanism, understanding the city and the capacity we have to improve it from a multi-scalar perspective, where the smallest constructive details affect and relate to much broader environments, from the scale of the neighbourhood to the city itself. Thus, we intervene in urban planning from the smallest scale: that of urban planning made with our own hands.

Since 2013 there has been a succession of buildings from the PEI programme, hosted in different parts of Madrid, which have become living laboratories of urban planning:

The auditorium of 100 chairs

The first Hand Made Urbanism workshops were the traditional summer workshops in the Campo de Cebada, a public space of vital importance in the history of the neighbourhood of La Latina that was for many years self-designed and managed by the neighbourhood.

In the first edition, the idea was to build an auditorium by putting together a large number of small chairs that were designed and built in situ with material donated to the Campo de Cebada. In the second edition, the work was different; instead of equipping the Campo with small infrastructures, a working methodology was proposed that would allow many people to work on small objects that could be used and shared with others. For the third edition, it was decided to prioritise the care of the space and efforts were dedicated to rehabilitating, caring for and protecting the furniture that was already in use.

Neighbours from El Campo de Cebada, ACETSAM, Daetsam, Medialab-Prado, students from PEI Universidad Javeriana de Bogotá, the Alcalá University Alumni Delegation of Architecture, San Jorge University of Zaragoza, CASC Villena, Zuloark, Basurama and PKMN architects participated in these workshops. 

Battle Royale

In 2015, PEI students returned to Madrid for a week of Hand Made Urbanism workshops at Medialab Prado, a cultural laboratory open to the city. Zuloark, together with the Basurama and PKMN architects collectives, called this edition ‘Battle Royale’, after a film directed by Takeshi Kitano in 2000. In the film, a group of students are destined to live on a deserted island with a number of personal tools, needing collective intelligence to power these tools and survive.

Based on this plot, a collaborative strategy was designed for groups who were assigned a toolbox and an outline based on a 60x60cm pixel grid, within which they had to design the best possible piece of furniture by seeking alliances. Their surprise at the end was to discover that the set of elements, which functioned as a catalogue of independent pieces, exceeded their expectations when assembled into a final piece.

Experimental furniture for the library

In 2022, the students participating in the PEI programme were able to connect with the community of the Villaverde neighbourhood in Madrid through a new edition of Hand Made Urbanism workshops. During one week, a co-design and co-construction workshop was held at the María Moliner Public Library where pieces of urban furniture were developed to serve as new infrastructures for the outdoor space of the Library.

This space, of approximately 400 m2, was presented as a place of opportunity for urban experimentation. Each of these pieces can serve as an individual bench, but they can also be combined and create larger compositions such as an urban parliament, meeting points or play spaces. Parallel to the construction, several lectures by Madrid-based architects and designers took place, creating a rich learning context.

Huerta Los Pinos has a new auditorium

In 2023, a new Hand Made Urbanism workshop was held to design and build furniture to equip the Huerta Los Pinos. Considering the participatory nature of this community, the aim is to generate a learning environment open to all interested people (neighbours, young people, adults, families and public entities), with whom we work collaboratively to improve the public space.

Being Huerta Los Pinos a new space for development and experimentation, a small auditorium is designed and built to host self-organised public events. Different tribunes for seating are created, as well as the stage that frames it and different elements that take care of the environment, such as birdhouses.

This edition of the PEI is developed in collaboration with the social laboratory platform for environmental solutions Redes por el clima, the project for reconnecting with nature in the urban context Sendas Ocultas and the active community of Huerta Los Pinos and the Asociación Vecinal La Unidad de Villaverde.

A particular school playground

In the last edition of PEI 2024, the idea was to design new furniture for the playground of the Navas de Tolosa Infant and Primary School in Villaverde. The project aimed to create an open learning environment where PEI students can integrate with a group of proactive young people who are already working with Villaverde council.

In the workshop, a series of multi-faceted tables and benches were built for resting, eating or meeting as a parliament, as well as a play area adjacent to the school. Collaborative ways of working were tested and different forms of innovation in design and architecture were introduced through the practices of the invited guests.

On this occasion, work was carried out in a joint framework that brought together two major initiatives. On the one hand, the event Compromiso con el climaX, developed by the Madrid City Council, La Casa Encendida of Fundación Montemadrid and the ITD of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. And, on the other hand, the Programme for Guidance, Advancement and Educational Enrichment (PROA+), in which the Navas de Tolosa School and the Ministry of Education collaborate through the Subdirectorate General for Territorial Cooperation and Educational Innovation.

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Building Bonds Between Formal, Non-formal and Informal Education

Architecture School of Commons (ASOC) is an experimental program of architectural pedagogy and territorial transformation that connects architecture students, academics, professionals, and local communities through workshops, events, and activities.

ASOC emphasizes the long-term relationship between rural communities and their natural environment, exploring the concept of “commons” and highlighting the notions of reuse, care, and solidarity in architectural practice and education.

At the heart of the project lies mutual and peer-to-peer learning, self-organization, and commons practices, along with a strong commitment to fostering collective climate awareness, aiming to integrate climate thinking into architectural training and practice.

Pilot Experience 2022–2024

Over three years, ASOC has organized intensive workshops in three rural European areas in France, Italy, and Greece. These regions share common issues such as reduced public services, depopulation, aging populations, and a wealth of architectural heritage that remains unused.

In each location, ASOC collaborates with local communities and initiatives on pilot experiences in territorial transformation that benefit both the inhabitants and the region, promoting an architecture committed to people, heritage, and the environment.

ASOC FRANCE 2022: Culture of Reuse

The Place des Possibles in Saint-Laurent-en-Royans serves as a space for work, learning, exchange, and community gatherings, amplifying projects that serve the community.

ASOC’s first experience in 2022 focused on the concept of reuse through design. In the initial phase, a series of lightweight, reversible, and temporary micro-architecture prototypes were built, allowing participants to test different uses and low-tech construction techniques that emphasize local material resources (materials and components) and intangible resources (know-how and methods).

The prototypes produced during this pilot workshop became the foundation for a second phase, in which the infrastructure of La Place des Possibles was reorganized. For example, the central fixed kitchen was modified, and a mobile kitchen was created. Additionally, a series of podcasts, posters, signage flags, and a printed publication were produced.

ASOC ITALY 2023: Umano no umano

ASOC’s second experience took place at La Casa di BelMondo in Belmonte, Italy. Since 2019, Casa di BelMondo has been a collaborative space for architects, clients, and the local community.

In the first phase of the workshop, a group of ten students from the Polytechnic University of Turin, along with faculty and ASOC partner collectives, inhabited and worked in the basement spaces of Casa di BelMondo, experimenting with a new form of collaborative work: the “Cantiere Domestico.”

The spaces of Casa di BelMondo were transformed into a dynamic laboratory where participants could collect, study, and experiment with various construction techniques and materials. This experimental process was also guided by local artisans and experts, such as Franco, a local tiler, and Gerardo Vespucci, a historian from the area. Living and working in the space became a collective growth experience, a search for social, material, and cultural textures to respond to the needs of the place.

In a second phase, the spatial research from the first phase materialized with the construction of a new structure between the first and second floors of Casa di BelMondo, designed to meet the diverse needs of those residing in Belmonte for medium to long periods throughout the year.

An abandoned area of the house was redesigned, transforming it into a hybrid space using recycled materials directly sourced from the dismantling of other parts of Casa di BelMondo.

ASOC GREECE 2024: Waterlandscapes

ASOC workshops in Greece took place at the Tirilab headquarters in Morfi, an old abandoned school recently returned to the village as a space for architectural experimentation and community gathering.

Tesprotia, in the north of the country, is a region impacted by population decline and characterized by a landscape marked by water, a natural resource at risk. The region hosts several local initiatives led by women focused on preserving local traditions and resources.

Water is deeply connected to the area’s history and mythology, yet it also faces the impact of local and global ecological challenges such as overexploitation, mass tourism, and climate change.

During two intensive workshops, where participants lived and worked in the old school of Morfi in collaboration with the local community, ASOC participants had the opportunity to investigate local water landscapes, understand their mythological importance, and explore their political and social implications.

The workshops were structured around three scales of work and research: the mythological courses of water, water as a way of life, and water as a common good.

Work was carried out on various scales, including the restoration of local routes, the care and construction of public infrastructure, and the mapping of biodiversity sites connected to water through the study of local legends and myths.

New infrastructure and public furniture were restored and created at the old school in Morfi and its surroundings. In collaboration with the local initiative Vrilissos, the mythological route between the Morpheus cave and the Styx lagoon was researched and restored. Sites such as Lake Kalodiki were mapped, examining their connections with the area’s ecological challenges.

Reflections and interviews with the community and local experts were recorded in radio format, and the old school of Morfi was inhabited and cared for, inviting the local community to participate in the discoveries and presentation events.

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Rethinking future public facilities through citizen action

Madrid has not only been shaped by grand master plans, historic monuments, impressive architecture, and ambitious real estate developments—elements that collectively fueled the well-known “real estate bubble.” The city has also taken shape in another way: through citizen-led initiatives that represent the alternative side of an increasingly diverse city, what we have called in our eponymous project Los Madriles. These innovative practices in social, technological, and economic spheres demonstrate how we can reinvent the city from the perspective of its citizens.

Among these initiatives are community urban gardens: spaces where not only plants are cultivated, but also new social relationships, while collaboratively designing some of Madrid’s most intriguing green spaces. Many of these gardens have exceeded the capacity of the local administration, triggering an exemplary legalization process in which municipal technicians and garden participants work together in collaboration.

These gardens serve as laboratories for shared management models, where the City Council provides the infrastructure, and citizens decide how to use it. They are particularly compelling spaces for collective learning and public stewardship, blending social innovation with the development of technical expertise.

This dynamic creates the need for infrastructure within these spaces to facilitate learning. Our Urban Garden School project in San Fermín arises from this need.

“San Fermín is like a puzzle,” explains Víctor Renes, director of the San Fermín Neighborhood Association. This neighborhood, a pioneer in citizen-driven practices, is located along the edge of the Manzanares River, where gardens were once a common feature of the landscape. It was here that the first urban garden school was established, though its place was later taken by the city’s largest sports complex: La Caja Mágica, built by the City Council.

The Urban Garden School of San Fermín proposes a hybrid management approach between citizens and the local administration, directly reflected in the way the building is constructed and designed. It is envisioned as an ever-evolving space, never officially “completed,” conceived not merely as a structure but as infrastructure to support and inspire renewal projects in other parts of the neighborhood.

In the 1970s, Robert Venturi proposed a deeper understanding of contemporary architecture with his motto “Learning from Las Vegas.” Today, it is clear that one of the paths architecture must follow is “Learning from citizens.”

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How does the life of young people relate to the history of Berlin? How can young people actively participate in the development of the city?

Urbane Künste ERbeLEBEN is a cultural education project that since 2018 invites children and young people to participate artistically in the discourse on public space as creative inhabitants of the city and to get involved in urban development. The project addresses young people as ‘heritage bearers’, i.e. as young people who experience Berlin’s heritage and carry it forward in their own personal way.

In consultation with the art teachers of the participating courses, a number of guest artists and architects design artistic lessons in which the students reflect on their understanding of urban space. How does their everyday perception of urban space differ from institutional perceptions? How does their current life relate to Berlin’s history? What do they as students understand by heritage? What wishes, visions and demands do they have for their city? The aim is to rediscover urban space together with young people, to understand it as a learning opportunity and to playfully transform it into a platform for artistic interventions that bring together the past and the future.

Actively collaborating since 2018, Zuloark has designed the exhibition design of the past editions, adapting different public spaces and art galleries in the Mitte district to artistic installations of different kinds; from audiovisual projections to sound installations, murals, sculptures, textiles…, always following a specific theme that guides each edition.

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A project for promoting visibility, autonomy, and equality of people with intellectual disabilities in rural and urban areas through design

Aquí há dragões Porto-Matosinhos is the second edition of the “Aquí hay dragones” project by Zuloark. This project works with people with disabilities, aiming to make them visible, empower them, and promote autonomy, skills, and equality within this community.

The initiative promotes inclusive urbanism through artistic practices. Art supports the development of work habits, stimulates observation, and brings about positive changes in individuals, strengthening their self-esteem.

For the Portuguese edition, the proposal was developed as a satellite activity within the framework of the Porto-Matosinhos Design Biennial, with the collaboration of Warehouse Collective, a team of architects and artists as local collaborators and facilitators. We worked hand in hand with the Associations AADID (Associação dos Amigos das Deficiências Intelectuais e Desenvolvimentais) and SOMOS NÓS.

During the two ideation and construction workshops, we shared experiences and learning through walks, conversations, mapping, collages, drawings, music, and picnics. These activities highlighted the environment, flora, fauna, culture, memory, and heritage of the uniquely special areas surrounding the Serralves Foundation, Pasteleira Park, Bairro da Rainha D. Leonor, and the Douro River.

The project culminated in a celebration of the entire process, where participants brought the furniture pieces built during the workshops out temporarily to Pasteleira Park, activating some of its spaces through play and community gathering.

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Workshop week with Architecture and Industrial Design students from the Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in Suzhou, China

Awareness. noun [ U ] uk /əˈweə.nəs/ – us /əˈwer.nəs/
“knowledge that something exists, or understanding of a situation or subject at the present time based on information or experience,

The “Awareness Workshop” is a practical and theoretical exercise focused on fostering environmental consciousness. The premise of this exercise is that when architects and designers are informed about the harm the construction industry is causing to the planet, they are more likely to make ethical, committed, and responsible decisions.

The Awareness Workshop is not about labeling actions as good or bad; it is about empowering individuals with knowledge, giving them the freedom to make informed choices.

Based on these principles, we proposed the “Awareness Workshop,” where 35 Architecture and Industrial Design students from Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in Suzhou would collaborate to construct a resting area using scrap materials. The workshop also aimed to foster debate and impart knowledge about environmental issues, equipping students not only with insights valuable for their future careers as architecture and design professionals but also for their everyday lives.

We worked hand in hand, in teams of three or four students, using and reusing discarded, old-stock, and unused elements or equipment from the university. Each team was tasked with designing and constructing their own prototype while considering how it could connect with the others, ensuring that all prototypes ultimately formed a cohesive solution as a whole.

Teams had complete freedom in designing their prototypes; however, they had to adhere to specified maximum dimensions and spatial occupation. Structurally, each prototype needed to include a support base or counterweight, a load-bearing structure capable of supporting a canopy, and provisions to hold plants.

During the environmental consciousness debate in the Awareness Workshop, we discussed key facts about carbon footprint and carbon offset, and reflected on the differences between the commonly used terms: reusing, recycling, and upcycling.

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Furniture prototype design for the Public Speaking classroom of the G. Luosi High School in Mirandola, Italy

The physical spaces in which we find ourselves when developing certain actions have a direct influence in the quality if the activity itself. Due to cultural and economical reasons, school furniture industry offers a very limited variety of elements. Besides, they are designed in a way that promotes only a certain kind of educational activities, keen to certain individualism and with a great lack of collaborative spirit.

“Non conventional education spaces: The Debate Room” aims to give an alternative answer to the didactic necessities of the students and teachers of the G. Luosi Institute. The space is designed in order to host activities of Public Speaking, a practice widely present and important nowadays as a valuable skill for professionals

The design of The Debate Room was done according to the necessities of the Public Speaking activities. The classroom, as the subject itself, is divided in two parts:

The first area, called Agora, is the place where students are doing their presentations to their fellows and teachers. The circular wooden grandstand surrounding the central speaker stand is creating the conditions of a more democratic, inclusive, non-hierarchical learning experience. In the meantime, the minimal constructive design of the grandstand allows for small spaces of storage in between the vertical wooden elements that support the structure. A small internet post and vertical screen on the back of the stand are creating the limits of the presentation area.

The second area is the Workspace, where all the preparation, investigation and internal debate before the presentation takes place. This space required of more flexibility, given by the modular trapezoid tables. They are easily moved and stacked, providing various possibilities of configuration of the space according to the needs of the classroom.

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Mobile test-grid platform for the Territorial Management and Choreography [Final Degree Project – ETSAM]

Very Large Structure is an habitable megastructure with high degree of independence in symbiosis with the environment that traverses, being able to physically manage it while travelling. In this structure cargo is uploaded and downloaded, buildings are constructed and tested and different territorial policies and infrastructures are implemented and managed with the aim of achieving the synergic updates and paradigmatic changes needed for the 21st century.

VLS it’s a theoretical-utopical project, an academic exercise trying to be as realistic as it can get, and even though everything is technically calculated as if it was going to be constructed, we know and assume it is just an assertive investigation. VLS is just an exercise to understand that there are so many things that architects can learn from, use and take into account to do their daily work.

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