The end of the Viadrinicum summer school is always a possibility to represent the results of intense schedule and work and to enjoy with the rewarding sense of accomplishment. It’s an exciting moment that shows the progress everyone has made and gives time to reflect about all the things everyone has learned.

This year’s summer school was especially productive, with three Labs presenting their projects at the final performance. Firstly, you may see the final product of Planners.Lab:

Planning the Zukunftsplatz

Maryna Bakaienko, Sasha Kurmaz, Stanislava Ovchinnikova, Aliaksandra Rameika, Orbis Rexha, Kseniia Rybak, Valeriia Semenova, Mariana Semenyshyn, Oleksandr Skomarovsky, Olena Syrbu, Olha Zachosa, Viktoriia Zalizko

Planners.Lab

We are a multi-disciplinary team of architects, urban planners, project managers, social scientists, artists, and lawyers. We engaged ourselves in studying various parts of Frankfurt (Oder) and Slubice from different angles: transport and mobility, actors and activities, identities, public spaces urban ecosystem. We spent 2 weeks walking, drawing, sketching, mapping, discussing, and researching in a pursuit of the idea of the future, future of the Zukunftsplatz. While Frankfurt (Oder) strives to win the competition for building of the Future Centre (Zukunftszentrum), serving as the place for transition research, meetings and dialogue and cultural hub, we were tempted to offer our vision for the building itself and the site. However, understanding limitations, we decided to rather think about visions and principles which can help the local community to shape the future of the square and the area around it, as we deeply believe that the final decision should stay with the citizens of Frankfurt (Oder).

In this way, we developed our project hoping that it will provoke further thoughts and discussions, will engage different audiences united in one aspiration – to think together about the future of the Zukunftsplatz. It is a place at the crossroads of different cultures, countries, and routes, the place uniting different communities and presenting multiple layers of city’s past. It is the place which definitely has the future.