Architectural competition. “Opportunity space” in Malmo, Sweden.

Marianna Xyntaraki, Maria Tsigara, Leda Voutsina

Consultant: George Koufakis

Collaborators: Dimitris Theodoropoulos, Pinelopi Pappa, Myrsini Glezou.

The project has its basis on 2 axes. Encounter on the way: as it provides an alternative path for the users of the park, the newcomers and the employers. Along this path they can find the basic activities asked in the brief (space for one to one meeting, space for small class seminars, information boards). Encounter by the way: as 2 common everyday activities (cooking/eating and gardening) will play the role of the social mediator between the newcomers and the receiving country.
cooking/eating: The project builds on the idea of hospitality by inverting the roles of the host and the hostess: in the mkb space the newcomers will have the opportunity to cook their home specialties and offer them to the employers during their meetings. In the same time a booth will be used for selling some specialties to the passersby, as a kick-off of a new business. Once a week a communal dinner will be taking over the whole structure where the locals will have the opportunity to taste traditional food from the newcomers’ countries, listen to live traditional music and dance on the park.
gardening: the park will serve as a hostess for 3 pieces of gardens (with plants from the newcomers countries)that will be placed on it. This is a parallel projection to nature’s processes of integration and inclusion. During the 2 months the installation will also serve alternative scenarios beside the basic one – such as furniture to the mkb room, open-air market stands etc
The modules will have an afterlife as urban equipment, as an act of giving something back to the locals for their welcoming and support to the newcomers: a gift that is bearing a memory of the process of integration.