Tutors: Places Foundation: Kamila Haja & Magdalena Storożenko-Polak, 

in collaboration with Andrew Byrne (Ireland)

Participants: 

Andrew Galea (Malta)

Bartosz Andreczko (Poland)

Çisem Nur Yıldırım (Türkiye)

Gabriela Adam (Romania)

Greis Malaj (Albania)

Hanna Schönberger (Germany)

Kayra Suner (Türkiye) 

Paula Catalina de la Cruz (Spain)

Simanur Sucu (Türkiye) 

Vladimir Georgiev (North Macedonia)

Pl. de la Opinión Pública, Zaragoza, Spain

Green-On aims to activate a small public space in Las Fuentes, through the introduction of both green space and artistic mosaics made from recycled wood.

With Green-On, our intention was to not only provide a space for the participants to develop their construction skills, but to also allow individual expression which afforded a sense of individual ownership over the project through the creation of mosaic pieces which decorated of planter boxes and walls.

In our opinion, the ability to correctly use tools, and understand how elements are processed and connected to create something larger are important skills for architects and designers to understand. The participants were introduced to the available tools by first building the basic frames which created the structures of our planter boxes and walls.

Following the construction of the basic elements, each of the participants were invited to create their own mosaic pieces using offcuts and recycled wood. This forced a better understanding of the material they were using. First a design was developed, followed by an interrogation of the material and tools to understand how the designs could be realised. The creation of mosaics, and their inherently complicated shapes, resulted in a number of challenges in which we had to negotiate and overcome, but in the end afforded a better understanding of the tools and materials versus what a predetermined design may allow.

Finally, once the mosaics had been attached to their planter boxes and brought to site, we were given the opportunity to get out hands mucky and finish our project with the planting of the plants which were decided on by the participant group.

We are really proud of the amount of work this group managed to do in two short weeks, and we are delighted with the final result of 2 large planter walls, 10 planter boxes, two benches, 48 small individual mosaics and 6 large group mosaics.

The plaza space in Las Fuentes has been transformed, life has appeared there again, and the new greenery in the concrete plaza emphasizes how important vegetation is in the city.