Mobile Library, Paris

Working and living together in Paris within a situation known as ECObox, a place created from which participation is possible, the live project group explored potential additions they might create with the community.

Organised by the AAA, ongoing events enable a loose collection of local residents to develop projects which seek to promote local participation and thus communal integration.

Through using methods of participatory practice and consultation, events, meetings, cooking, meals, drunken nights, cheese-and-bread breakfasts, stumbled communication, inflated egos, developing friendships and parties, we could see a new method of working, rather than it being explained to us. This was a method that opened up design practice through involving the emotions and desires of many, taking down professional barriers, questioning the role of the architect as a co-ordinator of events and facilitating open dialogue.

A portable Library and Sound module were produced as real, usable products that promoted the ECObox ethos. The result of our work will be seen in how these objects are integrated into the community.

Credits

Student Team: 

Elizabeth King, Laura Donaldson, Aaron Coey, Malcolm Lorimer, Michael Fleming, Jessica Sinclair, Ambrose Gillick, Alexis Charitakis, Caludia Amico, Tim Phillips, Kate Parton

Mentor:

Doina Petrescu