BRDA at Parity Talks, ETH, Zurich
On the 7th, Zofia from BRDA along with her teammates from other institutions: Co-Haty (Ukraine), Re-Win (Basel), (NIAiU (Warsaw) and TŁO (Warsaw), took part in a panel about how reuse can become gooduse. On the 8th, the Polish-Ukrainian representation conducted a workshop on the social and architectural potential of doors. This all was part of Parity Talks, an annual event at ETH Zurich which brings the architectural environment together in order to discuss parity, sustainability and contemporary issues in architecture. You can find the description of the workshop below:
ABOUT DOORS WORKSHOP
CO-HATY create safe homes for IDPs (internally displaced persons) in the Western part of Ukraine, reusing existing buildings and structures in participatory processes.
As part of OKNO project, the BRDA Foundation collected and sent already more than 600 windows to Ukraine – the most fragile, thus most needed material in grassroots reconstruction. DOORS, intentionally destroyed by russian soldiers, also need rapid replacement. A DOOR in a collective center is a truly multifunctional object. It serves as a both physical and symbolic entry to (or boundary from) one’s private area, an element of ventilation systems, a clothes rack… the potential of reclaiming and reusing doors can go far beyond the open-close basics.
A huge demand generated by internal migrations in Ukraine and building market declines on one hand, and international solidarity on the other, inspire more and more initiatives that deliver building resources to Ukraine. Our tutors are involved in hands-on humanitarian projects. They observe the necessity, advantages, design potential, but also challenges of this vast migration of materials. A door is an example of such..
During our workshop, we’d like to spark awareness about more context-based, collaborative, ecological and international cooperation which effectively addresses the needs of vulnerable groups. We will explore design ideas for reusing a reclaimed door found in Basel and ways to install it in a collective center in Ukraine. Together with the workshop participants, we will hunt for creative potential where the function of an object is seemingly set in stone, and think about the possibility of creating partitions and transitions from other reclaimed materials and available resources.
As a location for the potential implementation, we wish to suggest a space which is part of CO-HATY, an ongoing Ukrainian project for forcibly displaced people.
TUTORS:
Zofia Jaworowska – activist and founder of BRDA Foundation which carries out the OKNO and BUDO projects dedicated to social aspects of material reuse. Co-curator of the “Poetics of necessity” exhibition at the London Design Biennale 2023.
Zuzanna Mielczarek – architect and curator from the National Institute of Architecture and Urban Planning (NIAiU) in Warsaw, member of the BUDO initiative, teacher at the Inclusive Housing Studio at the Faculty of Architecture at VUT Brno.
More about NIAiU – niaiu.pl
Michał Sikorski – architect and urban planner, founder of TŁO, an architectural practice interested in bringing the outdoors indoors and the other way around. He teaches urban design at the Warsaw University of Technology. Co-curator of the “Poetics of necessity” exhibition at the London Design Biennale 2023.
Anastasia Ponomaryova – architect, research fellow at ETH Zurich. Her current work focuses on integrated, sustainable and rapid housing for forcibly displaced people in Ukraine – co-haty-eng
Oliver Burch – Teaching assistant at the chair of Jan De Vylder, ETH Zürich. Architect ETH. Part of 8000.agency. Part of ZAS*.