On day 3, we met again at the walk-in coworking space at the KoFabrik, the walk-in communal house in the Quartiershalle in der KoFabrik.
After treating us with Greek candies, our partners from ScienceView Menelaos Sotiriou and Dr. Dimitrios Sotiropoulos guided participants in developing structured, creative stories for Third Places in what we call a ‘ science theatre’ format. This workshop is based on the idea that every group creates a short story/scenario about implementing their idea – as in this case, creating a new Third Place, including specific stakeholders – If you wanted to create a third place which stakeholders would have to be involved to make it a reality?
Now familiar with each other, the groups spent the morning developing plans for creating a third place in a community, using design thinking and community engagement methods, incorporating soundscapes (spoiler alert!) to enhance the user experience, and incorporating sustainable practices in alignment with the European Green Deal. This workshop open up new perspectives and shared concrete tips on how to interact with different stakeholders.
At the end, groups (proudly) presented their short story illustrating their concepts, their protagonists, and their plans.
Defining the essence, where confusion is ok
All right, we’ve got our concepts up and running… and now you are asking us to tear it apart?
That’s what the ‘Defining the essence’ session led by Kristine Pace (UM) was all about: defining some core aspects such as the purpose, the methods, and the emotional connections while wearing different hats (6 to be precise). This exercise helped participants to enhance their concepts by shaping a solid basis.
Soundscapes
We then opened our ears and focussed on a different dimension of Third Places: soundscapes. Live from his studio in Norway, Hans Mark Svedal (HVL) tuned us into the world of soundscapes. A soundscape is defined as the acoustic environment as perceived by humans, in a certain context, as coined by Michael Southworth. During the afternoon, participants were invited to use sounds as a way to enhance or support the group’s idea of a Third Place, taking into consideration the previously defined essence of the challenge the group is addressing. By patching up sound recordings from the previous days – including different third places in Bochum – the groups played their ‘soundscapes’ to represent their third places.
A colourful experience for the mind and ears as different emotions and reflections awaken from the playing tracks.
See you tomorrow for day 4!
