club loko - team for local co-creation

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269365

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Submitted

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NEW EUROPEAN BAUHAUS RISING STARS : concepts or ideas submitted by young talents (aged 30 or less)

Project title

club loko - team for local co-creation

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Description

Dear Europeans, attention please! Club loko is not a new nightclub, but a young initiative that works on urban co-creation at local level - in the neighbourhood. For this, we are developing the lokomobil: a ‘kiosk’ that will function as a place where neighbours can meet and interact. The accessible mobile tool generates space and offers infrastructure for workshops and events. Soon the lokomobil will tour through Munich and make its debut as a field for experiments and bold local approaches!

Where is your concept/idea being developed or intended to be implemented in the EU?

Please provide a summary of your concept/ idea

We, club loko, are a young student initiative of the Faculty of Architecture at the Technical University of Munich, dealing with topics of sustainable urban development, inclusive co-design and co-creation of the city and above all - the activation of citizens. Our first, most important and biggest urban action we are planning is the “lokomobil” with its participatory and activating activities.  The lokomobil is an open 'kiosk' for local co-creation in the neighbourhood that promotes the getting together of the urban community. It should also allow urban residents to enter into dialogue with other urban actors such as (local) initiatives, associations, institutions and the administration at eye level. The lokomobil intends to function as a place of interaction and exchange in the neighbourhoods and is open to all people and ideas, socially as well as structurally and culturally. Following our mission of making urban design the urban everyday life of the many, the lokomobil aims to create more awareness for the responsibility of each individual to actively participate in shaping our future cities and communities.

Please give information about the key objectives of your concept/idea in terms of sustainability and how these would be met

Everyday urban life has undergone a radical transformation in recent months: the once most self-evident facts of urban life are being put to the test by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. The current changes in public space and urban everyday life are representative of the effects of many future crises, and in particular the climate crisis. These changes created by global actions are most evident and noticeable at a local level. Thus, the neighbourhood is gaining importance as a space for action and holds enormous potential for more sustainable urban development and a positive, resilient change in the entire urban climate - ecologically and socially. In order to maintain the qualities of urban coexistence in the future, there needs to be an increased awareness of the need to transform urban spaces and the responsibility of each individual to actively participate in shaping their city. With our mission as club loko and the actions we want to undertake with the lokomobil, we want to make a small and local contribution to the ‘Sustainable Development Goals’ of the United Nations General Assembly, with an emphasis on the 11th goal - Sustainable Cities and Communities. On the one hand, it is important to us to build the lokomobil with sustainable materials. This is why  we have chosen wood as the material for the main structure, and have planned the construction in such a way that it can be dismantled easily and the material can be reused or recycled in a sustainable way. However, on the other hand our sustainable approach goes beyond our choice of materials. With the introduction of the lokomobil in various neighbourhoods in the city of Munich, we plan to set sustainable impulses for future inclusive, safe and resilient neighbourhood development. Additionally, with the help of various actions and participation formats around the lokomobil we aim to help create a sustainable awareness amongst citizens about the importance for cooperative living and working in the future.

Please give information about the key objectives of your concept/idea in terms of aesthetics and quality of experience beyond functionality and how these would be met

The design of the lokomobil is characterized by its functionality and its highly transformable structure. Built on a bike trailer the mobile ‘tool’ is developed to adapt to every new situation and is able to open space easily depending on the respected needs of the different participation formats. To meet the programmatic flexibility, the lokomobil is built up of a light and simple wooden frame system that can be filled as a shelf with different elements, depending on the requirements of each event. In total, the wooden shelf can hold up to twelve reusable industrial boxes, which can be used as storage space for necessary workshop or event equipment, or the boxes can be stacked on top of eachother and used as seating possibilities. Numerous foldable elements, which are mounted as cladding for the mobile, are intended to provide additional adaptability for a wide variety of spatial situations. Depending on the circumstances these elements can be used to divide and/or open spaces, they can function as vertical information panels or be transformed into table boards.

Please give information about the key objectives of your concept/idea in terms of inclusion and how these would be been met

The participation of citizens in the shaping of their city is still limited to a few formats in Munich, which are often not accessible to the majority of the urban society due to a lack of transparency, inhibition thresholds or its location in the daily urban space. Since the implementation of alternative, but urgently needed, solutions often still suffer from outdated rules of the administration. Munich's initiatives, associations, institutions and citizens must be more strongly networked in order to jointly develop effective solutions and close the gap between urban society and the city administration. For this dialogue, spaces are needed where current rules can be discussed at eye level and new tactics for Munich's urban development can be negotiated. The concept of a ‘kiosk’, as a social and low-threshold meeting place, offers the potential to create the framework for an accessible format of participation and activation of the citizens. In workshops for example citizens will be actively involved in the process in order to learn new things together with other actors, to exchange ideas and to shape their neighbourhood together. In an activating, creative and cooperative way, for example, citizens can design and build urban furniture or take part in a cooking class. Events such as a neighbourhood cinema or a monthly regulars' table aim to provide information, encourage and promote the exchange of knowledge and thus form a platform for art, culture and local goods. Here, citizens can participate actively, but also passively, and share knowledge and resources or simply spend a good time together. At the lokomobil, we, as club loko, aim to give citizens the empowerment that they are 'part of the city' and that they do not see urban space or public space as something separate from their everyday and private life, but as part of their everyday life that they can and should shape - together with their local environment and all stakeholders who have an influence in it.

Please explain the innovative character of your concept/ idea

As the syllables of the ‘lokomobil’ , lo = lokal (local), ko = gemeinschaftlich (cooperative), mobil = beweglich (mobile) already indicates its character. Due to its innovative structure the lokomobil is able to easily and flexibly change its structure in various ways. The highly functional concept of the lokomobil makes it possible to create different spatial situations, which in turn can be used for different participation formats for people of all age groups. Formats like a neighborhood cinema, cooking sessions, (art) exhibitions and various workshops for example. The lokomobil will be transported on a bicycle trailer, which allows it to be extremely flexible, as it does not take up a lot of space and can be parked almost everywhere temporarily. The easy assembly and disassembly mechanism of the lokomobil makes it easier for us to change our location rapidly. In order to take full advantage of the mobile character of the lokomobil during the use phase, it will change its location in the city several times during the first season. In doing so, the lokomobil can set impulses in several neighbourhoods and support other projects conceptually and spatially. Other active city makers in the city of Munich should also have the opportunity to use the lokomobil as a tool for their actions.

Please detail the plans you have for the further development, promotion and/or implementation of your concept/idea, with a particular attention to the initiatives to be taken before May 2022

Currently we are supervised by the Chair of Urban Design at the Technical University of Munich by Prof. Benedikt Boucsein. Furthermore in mid May 2021 we received financial support from the Hans Sauer Foundation for the construction of the lokomobil and the first use phase in 2021.  The construction of the lokomobil will take place in June 2021. As soon as the construction is completed, the lokomobil will start ‘rolling’ in July. Some event locations for this season emerged in the last semester through enquiries from possible cooperation partners such as initiatives or institutions. These activities are currently being planned and will be implemented soon. In order to take full advantage of the lokomobil's mobile character, it will change its location in Munich several times during the first season. Beside collaborative activities, our team will organize various formats to collect and share valuable knowledge and resources creating a resilient city. We understand the local knowledge of citizens as very valuable and thus intend to use that knowledge to plan further actions with the communities and administration.  In the course of the use phase, moments of impact measurement and reflection should always take place. The inclusion of feedback of the users is of high importance also regarding the use of the lokomobil and its spatial extensions. In autumn, at the end of the first season, necessary changes regarding the structure of the lokomobil will be defined and transferred to the planning for the next season in 2022. Beside the club loko activities we are also part of the ‘Urbane Liga’, a 2-year programme for young city makers by the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community since October 2020. This year's topic is ‘Urban Governance’ - in co-research labs we work on concepts for new forms of social negotiation, decision-making and new interfaces in order to advance urban development in cooperation with politics and administration.

By ticking this box, you declare that all the information provided in this form is factually correct, that the proposed concept/idea has not been proposed for the New European Bauhaus Rising Stars Awards more than once in the same category.