Future hamar by Francesco Cingolani

FUTURE HAMAR BOOK THE STORY OF THE DREAMHAMAR PROCESS BOOK VERSION 1.0

Dreamhamar a collective dream to redesign the city center of Hamar, Norway dreamhamar.org contact: dreamhamar@gmail.com info@ecosistemaurbano.com

1 . INTRO What is dreamhamar?

PAGE 005

1.1 Intro Why creating a participatory process?

page 007

1.2 Philosophy: What is behind dreamhamar

page 011

1.3 Methodologies: How to create the conditions: the dreamhamar diagram

page 021

2 . EXPERIENCES Connecting hamar

PAGE 031

Story nº1 An instant urban action to go

page 035

Story nº2 The missing link

page 047

Story nº3 The city as a playground

page 055

Story nº4 On stools and people

page 063

Story nº5 Indoor, outdoor

page 071

Story nº6 The agora of Hamar

page 081

Story nº7 Altering perspectives

page 089

Story nº8 Dream on the cloud

page 99

3 . FUTURE HAMAR

PAGE 107

From Dreamhamar network design process to urban design

page 108

Collecting dreams

page 109

What’s next?

page 111

Things we have learned from hamar

page 112

DREAMHAMAR FACTS / CREDITS

PAGE 119

WHAT IS DREAMHAMAR ?

All the pictures, except where it is specied, are realized by Christoffer Horsfjord Nilsen. Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0) more pictures: ickr.com/dreamhamar aerial view of Stortorget square in Hamar 4

1/3 1/3 INTRO INTRO

DREAMHAMAR OPENING EVENT Belinda Tato from Ecosistema Urbano during the presentation of Dreamhamar opening event at Stortorget (Hamar). September 17th 2011 / 14.00 During Painthamar Urban Action by Artist collective Boamistura, Stortorget is transformed in just three days from a parking place into a colourful pedestrian public space. 6

1.1 INTRO WHY CREATING A PARTICIPATORY PROCESS?

BEFORE DREAMHAMAR When we faced the competition brief for ‘Art in the main square’ back in 2010, we were very curious about Hamar’s main square, its conditions, its history, its main characteristics, the meaning of a public space in a Norwegian environment and the challenge of producing an art intervention as a catalyst for transforming a space and its use; how to design an intervention able to generate public activity, social interest and become a meeting place. First questions arose: Should an art intervention be always singular and permanent, or could it be a process? Should art be ofcially curated or could it be accessible to people as part of their lives, activities and spaces? Could we propose a platform, a channel for people’s participation around art, creation and general initiatives in public spaces? From our point of view, the reactivation of a public space could not be simply addressed by a conventional piece of art or urban design, not even by just a good one. A lively public space is a complex balance of overlapped layers where there should also be space for improvisation and interaction. Public space is the place for democracy, and it should respond to the demands of the different individuals, their expectations and desires. Citizens should, somehow, be incorporated as active agents avoiding the conventional scheme of client-spectator-recipient of a nished product to become acting-producingcitizens of an open and augmented space that could be modied according to the users’ 7

needs in time. Understanding the city through its public spaces and sensitive areas in permanent transformation, capable of adapting over time to meet the various demands, dening spaces or platforms to support interaction and experimentation. Including citizens in the creative process could have direct and immediate benets: it could improve the outcome, it would facilitate the development, it would increase the acceptance of the project and the most important: it would build up community. ‘EVERY MAN IS AN ARTIST’ JOSEPH BEUYS Once we were shortlisted among 80 teams from all over the world for the second phase and had to produce a specic proposal for Hamar, we realized the challenge was enormous but fascinating at the same time, and we took this opportunity to be really ambitious: let’s try to engage people in this! We worked further on the idea of a creative participatory art project for the future redesign of the city’s main public space. We did a lot of research on the city, its urban structure, people’s everyday life, traditions, habits, culture, interests, environment, context, etc. We thought that involving the community would provide a lasting and richful experience, an experience for the locals and future users. People would become part of it from the very beginning, from its conception. The purpose behind this social approach was not just to physically create a new innovative public space, but also, and far more important,

to build a community behind it; a networked community to support it, to care for it, to use it, to ll it, to be part of it before, during and after its materialization. The experience would enable citizens to meet each other, to work together with a common purpose and to see the implementation of the ideas in the future Stortorget, and this close relation could somehow guarantee the engagement and increase the chances for success afterwards. The creative process would be open to the public, transparent and even provocative at certain points. Nobody could remain indifferent to this space after this experience. Those who would distrust this approach, those who are not artist and those who cared about Stortorget, all would be part of it. Engaging citizens at such early stages would probably increase the chances of a future successful space. We really believe in people, in their inner creativity and in the power of the collectivity. The activities and events aimed to bring all sorts of people; when we say “citizens”, this includes everyone. We also thought it was very important to target specic groups like children and young people, by connecting Dreamhamar to the local schools. A new public space can be something directly given to the city without any interaction with the people, or it can also be used as a unique opportunity to empower the links between the citizens of Hamar, planting the seed for a collective future. This second option was more challenging and risky, but of course much more interesting.

WHY AN OPEN SOURCE SOLUTION? We conceived an open source square as a public space to follow a free design process that creates the conditions for collective creation dynamics. To encourage this collective nature, the process should be, by default, completely open to new contributions and collaborations, taking advantage of the full potential of collective intelligence. Every collective creation should be free to use by anyone, like self-organized communities of free software development do. There should be freedom to build something new upon it, freedom to share it, freedom to be creative and to make public space and culture better. If we succeeded in this we would create a square that belonged - in the deeper meaning of the word - to the people. There is a large amount of cities and representative people in the world talking about citizen participation processes, but only a few of them are implementing real examples. None of these real examples deal with a collaborative design for an urban environment. Within this context, we thought this approach could be the most experimental, creative and democratic process we could launch to design the future of a city, and so we did... ART PHILOSOPHY Encyclopædia Britannica denes art as “the use of skill and imagination in the creation of aesthetic objects, environments, or experiences that can be shared with others.” The key word of Dreamhamar’s art philosophy is sharing with others. It attempts to challenge the dominant and most common form of art making, in which a small class of professional artists create art meanwhile the public remains a passive observer or consumer. “Participatory art is an approach to art making in which the audience is engaged directly in the creative process, allowing them to become coauthors, editors, and observers of the work”. Wikipedia Unlike the traditional art practice, Dreamhamar aligns with participatory art. While a painter uses pigments and canvas, and a sculptor wood or metal, the collectively elaborated practice usually creates a scenario in which the audience is invited to participate. The artwork relies in the interactions that emerge from the audience’s engagement and the situation. This philosophy is also linked to the idea of public spaces as the place for democracy, and the design of sentient public spaces where citizens become active beings as “interpreters”. Unattached to a privileged artistic medium, this principle would not divide 9

audiences into active and passive, capable and incapable, but instead, invite us all to make the public space our own and use it in ways that we might never have dreamed possible. The results of this process would then be transferred and translated into an updated design for the square which, along with the new Cultural House, will be the framework for Hamar citizens to keep on being creative in the following years. A THRILLING EXPERIENCE The whole experience has been intense, interesting, challenging and of course unforgettable. Although we faced some difculties, the overall experience was extremely positive. If we had the opportunity to start all over again we would probably change a few things, possibly by making the process slightly longer. It was clear that it takes time to get people’s attention and action; not only in Hamar, but anywhere in the world. The four months were very intense: we spent a lot of time building the network, meeting different key people in the community, holding the activities; collecting ideas, and talking and talking with many different individuals everyday, which made every single day exciting and new. Dreamhamar allowed us to meet many different interesting proles in a community where we felt welcomed from the beginning to the end. To promote participation in the workshops and events, we had to reach people in Hamar. It was an intense activity both locally and in Madrid, both physically by using traditional media (newspaper, posters, yers, etc.) and digitally through the new media (blog, twitter, facebook,...), both in Norwegian and English, both graphically and writing. A varying number of staff from 6 to 10 people located between Hamar and Madrid were dedicated to this: producing information, collecting it, translating it, delivering it again; aiming to raise interest among Hamarians and among the global community; like in an innite feedback loop. It was also necessary to share what was being discussed and produced during the workshops by the local population, architectural students and others, and we posted news on a regular basis on the project’s website Dreamhamar. org. We felt completely at home working at the Bazaar building, a privileged spot to dream about the future Stortorget. The physical lab, this kind of ‘aquarium’ where everyone was welcome and where everything was visible and accessible, soon became a new ‘meeting venue’ for Hamar, a showcase space that promoted public participation very

visually. Many people didn’t know much about the project but they quickly understood they could come to the Bazaar building and chat about Hamar, tell their own ideas and stories, talk about their memories or their dreamed future. Most people we met during these months were those who were curious or positive about Dreamhamar and took the time to come to the workshops and events to talk about it. But we also met some skeptical ones; people who didn’t trust in this process but wanted to change their mind, or at least express themselves. They were also most welcome. We don’t know whether they changed their mind or not after attending and knowing more about the process; however the most important is that we succeeded in bringing them in and giving them the space to express themselves. Right now we are working on extracting all the information we gathered and trying to ‘translate’ the large amount of ideas collected locally into a great public space. This is what will keep us busy during the next months. We have to give back to the community the best possible square for Hamar, that is the main aim of the whole idea and process. We sincerely thank all those who have been part of this in many different ways. Those who were regular attending and those who could only come once, those who wrote us, those who brought a beautiful drawing in a small piece of paper, and those who offered their support every single day. Thanks to all these positive experiences, our stay in Hamar was very special. We felt moved on various occasions by people we had never met before, but visited us just to say thank you. Thanks to all of you Ecosistema Urbano team

1.2 PHILOSOPHY: WHAT IS BEHIN ND DREAMHAMAR

PARTICIPATIION, GOVERNANCE THE PHILO OSOPHY: NETWORK DESIGN

ONSITE WORKSHOP DURING DREAMHAMAR PEOPLE WEEK 12

A TEXT BY ANDRÉS WALLISER

PARTICIPATION, GOVERNANCE

INTRODUCTION The following aims to connect the three realms in which grew the Dreamhamar project. Participation, governance and public spaces are briey analysed in the light of its latest developments, from a sociological perspective, and framed into an urban planning background. As the reader will notice, its emphasis is more suggestive than critical or analytical. Its aim is to draw some guidelines on the potentialities of participation and governance, from a deliberative perspective and in the specic realm of urban planning in a local and micro local context.

PARTICIPATION AND ITS CURRENT CHALLENGES Citizen participation seems to be enjoying a healthy period in its adventurous life. It all depends on where we refer to, of course, but if we consider most European countries, participation has recently been included in city related issues by two elements. These are the outcomes of the so-called “soft Europeanization” (Colomb et al. 2010) regarding EU members and the new forms of urban activism, enhanced by new technologies and its related models of communitarian relations. Nevertheless, the fact that participation has shown up as an instrument of planning, even in a sturdy way does not necessarily mean it is used in an efcient way. In this section about participation in the future Hamar book, we will concisely analyse some of the main challenges that citizen participation undergo in the context of urban policy. Naturally the conditions for participation have changed in relation to the rst wave that appeared along the 90´s in some European countries. Formerly, the then called new social movements, as dened by Clauss Offe (1988) among others, regarded urban middle classes that strived for issues beyond those claimed by the traditional social movements (unions, political parties, etc.). The new social movements demands turned around less material issues, often related with the least favoured groups. Grassroots organisations or the feminist movement were good examples of this. The main difference between these groups, that are still present today, and the new urban activisms is precisely the fact that the latter do not necessarily rely in an organisational structure, but rather on shared values and basic ideologies which means that discourse and action is not always previously dened, but often consolidates in the course of social interaction or group denition. The other difference is the use of ICT as a structuring mobilization and interaction tool.

This new scenario plus the presence of formal participatory tools in the urban planning processes brings bigger opportunities to the inuence of different stakeholders in it. Still, there are some elements that challenge participation or its effectiveness, raising key questions about it. Legitimation, participation demand and political will are basic ingredients of a successful participatory process. Often participatory processes are developed around a set of participative tools that are incorporated into the planning process. Their mere existence is not a guarantee of success. There should be a demand, or at least a response by the different stakeholders to inuence in the decision making process, and eventually

in the implementation and follow-up of it. If people are not willing to participate, except some mobilized minorities, the question of legitimation raises. Is it acceptable that a few citizens inuence the decision of a majority? If the visualization and dissemination of the participatory process is optimal, such is the case of Hamar, there should not be any reason that impedes citizens in taking part in it, even if they are critical with it. Participative processes are generally oriented at enhancing voice, but not always vote, this is, real inuence in urban plans. Direct participation might face a problem of legitimation, but the deliberative methods might bridge the gap (Hajer & Wagenaar, 2003). Transversal and integrated approaches can facilitate the contact and interaction between citizen stakeholders and practitioners. In John Forrester words: “It is about inquiring and learning together, in the face of difference and conict, telling, compelling stories and arguing together in negotiations, coming to see issues, relationships, and options in new ways, thus arguing and acting together” (Forester, 1999). Somehow participation can be seen as the cross roads between new forms of government (governance), new scenarios of interaction between stakeholders and the redenition of locality and community in the verge of new technologies that perform some of the former functions of the traditional social networks and organizations. The latter has a specic impact in the public space and claims back the concept of locality and puts in value notions such as street, square, park or neighbourhood. DELIBERATIVE GOVERNANCE IN A NETWORK SOCIETY The term local governance has been both a synonym of deregulation of the public realm, some call it privatization, and of potential opportunities for citizens to take part in the decision making, design and implementation of public policy. Both are two sides of the same coin. With it came new ways of understanding and performing local organizational structures and their actions through network governance. The process of change has coincided with new demands on both public and private stakeholders and changing structural conditions. What we used to term as structural, as permanent, means now conditioning but with elements of uncertainty. The current setting of policy making in the network society as proposed by Hajer & Wagenaar (2003) are: the new spaces of politics; the conditions of radical uncertainty for policy making; the increased importance of “difference” for our

ANDRÉS WALLISER DURING HIS LECTURE AT DREAMHAMAR PEOPLE WEEK NETWORK: FACEBOOK CONNECTIONS by See-ming Lee Face Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0) 14

“

You see, I am quite sceptical about this project, but I am here to listen and to be heard, and if necessary to change my opinion, or make you change yours” a Hamar citizen to Andrés during Dreamhamar people workshop

REFERENCES Barley, N. (1989) El Antropólogo Inocente. Barcelona: Anagrama Colomb, C. (2007) The Europeanization of Spatial Planning through Territorial Cooperation. In Planning Practice and Research. Vol. 22, Issue 3, 2007. Forrester, John (1999) The Deliberative Practitioner. Cambridge (MA): MIT University Press Hajer, M. and Wagenaar, H. eds. (2003) Deliberative Policy Analysis. London: Cambridge University Press. Tarrow, S. (1998) Power in Movement. Social Movements and Contentious Politics. London: Cambridge University Press. Offe, C. (1988) Partidos politicos y movimientos sociales. Madrid: Sistema 15

understanding of politics; acting upon an awareness of interdependence (between stakeholders); and the dynamics of trust and identity. To these basic conditions I would add the increasing focus on the locality understood as a micro environment that might comprise a neighbourhood a given public space or a few streets. Neighbourhoods are complex social systems, and as such, they need efcient tools to develop an efcient management from administration. The debate is whether the usual tools to cope with complexity are still useful, or we need to introduce new strategies closer to deliberation and consensus in decision-making. Authors like Forrester (1999), or Wagenaar (2004) support the need of an “interpretative account” of governance not only to analyse policy, but also to design and perform it. It is in this point where participation, integrated approach to policy making and governance become part of the same body which is based on notions like “trust”, “interdependence”, “institutional capacity” or “consensus”. If we want participation to be efcient it has to be a consistent part of the decision making process, and this has to happen, not only through listening to the citizen´s opinions, but through putting together to work different range of stakeholders. For this purpose you need will, both institutional and political will, which implies coordination and cooperation between actors, this is through a smooth local governance pattern. You also need the will of the stakeholders to take part, and this refers not only to those that might have a conict of interests or are organized in civil society structures, but also, and I would say, specially, those stakeholders, mainly citizens or residents that live, work or study in the place over which decision making is taking place. If there are no participants, there is no participation. This will, citizens and politicians´ will to participate comes from direct needs, from political mobilization, but also from political culture. Participation is somehow a muscle that needs to be trained and keep t. Finally, another key variable is time. Social dynamics do not necessarily run in parallel with political or policy times. Participation processes are often part of wider projects and their timing might not necessarily adapt to the aforementioned, neither may do the outcomes of the process. Therefore it is essential to regard participation process as technical tools -not political- of urban planning. Despite this might seem a utopic desire, there are several variables, already mentioned that can make of a participation process something which is simply a necessary part of a project. Dreamhamar has shown me how participation, urban policy and local policy might have different parameters in different countries. In Hamar, I learned that a project that is regarded as good for the city, should be supported by all political groups, and therefore political

conicts or rivalries at local level get blurred when it comes to collaborate, evaluate or take part in the participation process. This is explained through the fact the there is a very democratic political culture in Norway as referred above, and also important enough a feeling of local identity. The city, the community is somehow above strict party interests. Probably a good example of that is when a seventy year old lady came to me in one of Hamar´s workshops and with a bright expression in her eyes told me: “You see, I am quite sceptical with this project, but I am here to listen and to be heard, and if necessary to change my opinion, or make you change yours”. PUBLIC SPACES AND PEOPLE One of the protagonist elements of most participative processes in Europe is public space. Public space has become the object of desire of public authorities, corporate companies and, of course, of its natural users: people. Public space has become too an indicator of quality of life at the local level: its liveliness and vitality are signs of a healthy urban environment, and its lack of security, perceived or real, of decay and vulnerability. Public space is also a key scenario for the new urban activism. New technologies have become a vehicle for new activists with new demands and strategies of action. Public space is now an arena for reclaiming community life through different ways of using it and appropriating it, sometimes in conict with the increasing privatization of these spaces by companies sponsored by the city administration. Public recover their protagonism not only as urban spaces but as multidimensional realms for interaction in which not only current or potential functions are discussed but also their powerful role as identity generators and meaning containers. Squares, streets, parks have the capacity of releasing memories of uses, meanings and identity of generations of users, turning public space in place, in their place. This ranges from a square being the place you felt in love for a place of economic exchange between rural and urban producers, or the place where an aged resident gathers his rst memories as a three year old in the May 17th celebrations. Often reading on these, facilitates planners and stakeholders deliberation and exchange to reect on what is desirable for the present and future, often providing images and ideas that transcend the immediate scenario and project on public spaces, linking the past experience, positive or negative, with the future implying both transformation or permanence.

NETWORK VISUALIZATION SEE-MING LEE ATTRIBUTION-SHAREALIKE 2.0 GENERIC (CC BY-SA 2.0) FLICKR.COM

THE PHILOSOPHY: NETWORK DESIGN As architects and urban designers who approach the city as a complex and multilayered phenomenon, we realised a deep transformation had occurred during the past years in the way architects interact with city related issues. At Ecosistema Urbano we learned - by doing - that knowledge and creation are becoming hybrid and widespread phenomena which are transforming traditional closed and xed structures into open and extremely exible networked congurations. TOWARDS A NEW MODEL OF KNOWLEDGE New technologies of communication began a cultural revolution (THE THIRD INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION) that turned inside out the very conception of knowledge and creation. Only a few years ago knowledge could still be conceived as the capacity to understand a situation or a subject. Today, the google revolution is gradually changing the very concept of knowledge, as in the ability to instantaneously (for young generation) or quickly (for older ones) adapt to a situation or learn about a subject. We can dare say that the capacity of “knowing about something” has been replaced by “having an idea of knowing where to look for it”: knowledge has been replaced by awareness, as we will explain afterwards.

REFERENCES THE THIRD INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION : HOW LATERAL POWER IS TRANSFORMING ENERGY, THE ECONOMY, AND THE WORLD. a book by Jeremy Rifkin 99% www.the99percent.com

Since new technologies provide incredibly powerful tools and easy access to information, creating a contemporary knowledge system consisting of connecting and exchanging information efciently – instead of using a slow, organized and vertical transmission of contents. This means that how we build and design our community and our networks is fundamental for our learning, designing, and working activities. First principle of network design philosophy: knowledge = network. TOWARDS A NEW MODEL OF CREATION As it was for knowledge, creative processes have been profoundly upset also in the last decade: creation is not anymore the artistic act of creating something original and/or spectacular.

Do you have a stunning and original idea? Well, you have a 99% chance of nding someone else who had the same idea just by googling for a few minutes. Therefore before Google was invented, was originality an illusion given by a lack of access to the information? We can dene creation as the new ability of connecting things creatively (more precisely, of connecting people, spaces and subjects). This could already be an answer to the question “so, why not a sculpture for Stortorget?” If creation is the capacity of connecting things creatively in an open network structure, then it makes sense to understand that the protagonist of the creative process is not a rm, nor a design team, but an open and multi-layered design network, composed by creative artists, technical experts, citizens and stakeholders. Second principle of network design philosophy: design is developed within a network: creation = network. NETWORK THINKING Knowledge, creation, learning, society, culture, urban and architectural design: all these elds are getting closer to a network structure. This trend of high connectivity network creation, and complex dynamics is nothing else but an intrinsic feature of today’s world, and we believe that this model is revealing itself to be more suitable and efcient, particularly when it comes to innovation. It also creates a new research and eld of study that we have named network thinking and dened as a network approach to creation, design and development of projects, ideas, strategies. NETWORK DESIGN AND PARTICIPATION Following this introduction, network design is the executive step that comes after a network approach. If network thinking is an approach, a mindset, network design is the action-oriented application of it. We have also repeatedly stated that we see network design as a contemporary evolution of participation processes, in which we take into account innovative digital tools and the cultural shift mentioned above.

KNOWLEDGE TRANSMISSION

NETWORKED LEARNING

COLLECTION OF DATA

AMBIENT AWARENESS

“

...knowledge is no longer produced at the nodes but through the relations they establish among themselves... ...network design philosophy focuses on processes, debate, connections and exchanges within a networked community”

G-LOCAL DESIGN The rst important feature that makes network design different from traditional participation processes is the inclusion of an international layer of debate and creation, through the implication in the process of creative artists, architects, designers and schools from all over the world. Then the process evolves at the same time through a local community of citizens (a community built around a physical space) and an international digital network of creative people (a community built around a subject of interest: the innovative network design process). We believe the design relies in the unknown potential interactions and connections between these local and international communities. CREATING CONDITIONS INSTEAD OF CONCLUSION ORIENTED DESIGN The second feature that deeply distinguishes network design from participation processes is that it doesn’t seek agreement of citizens on a solution, but it aims to create and strengthen community involvement around the square, to enliven the debate about the square’s future and to change creatively the perception of the square, making citizens feel that they belong to a community and that that public space is a platform for the community. In other terms, the curatorial team becomes the coordinator and the animator of the stakeholders, creating the conditions for an active discussion. How can we, as the curatorial team, achieve this? How can we coordinate a debate in order to make people’s dream evident without inuencing them? The only way to activate a real network design process is by designing an atmosphere to stimulate citizens actions and reactions, rather than offering conclusive oriented design and submitting the closed product to the citizen’s approval.

REFERENCES THE STREET AS A PLATFORM www.cityofsound.com/blog/2008/02/thestreet-as-p.html AMBIENT AWARENESS http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ article/0,9171,1902818,00.html SPONTANEOUSLY “The Cathedral and the Bazaar” an evolving book at http://catb.org/~esr/writings/homesteading/ 19

This has been achieved by Dreamhamar by the creation of a set of tools as the Physical, the Digital Lab, the curatorial Local and Global Lab teams and the implementation of Urban Actions, a sort of instantaneous, feasible, spontaneous and easy to set-up architectures. This rapid prototyping approach is a very effective way of making citizens interact in real-time with public space issues. URBAN AMBIENT AWARENESS The “atmosphere design” brings us to another main feature of network design: its vaporous structure. During online workshops, we constantly were wondering how we could have dened what we were doing, and after a few sessions the

expression “non-stop brainstorming” came to the surface. This is quite relevant to explain what we are going to introduce: the urban ambient awareness. If network design is about getting hundreds of people from all over the world involved into the project through online and onsite workshops and if, in doing so, we collect a massive amount of data, ideas, different points of view, it’s quite predictable that we have to deal with a lot of information. We can’t think about treating such amount of data following an ordered and structured protocol, as it would be for a traditional participation process. Trying to order, classify and analyze every idea and contribution would be inefcient, abortive and the main track would probably be lost. We wanted instead to make connections and interactions evident and tangible, in order to create what we dene as urban ambient awareness about the square, an overall atmosphere of oating and transparent information, exchanged between citizens, designers, experts... This allows every participant to be literally “aware” of what’s going on in the process. EMERGING IDEAS At this hyper-connected communication system, some of the concepts, some proles, some ideas will spontaneously arise (oating on the surface) from the mass of rough information. And this only occurs once we have achieved a critical mass of information and connections (network effect). In other words, consensus is no longer the result of a linear, analytic and democratic process. In such a networked system, consensus just happens: suddenly you have ideas emerging. In his essay “The Barbarians”, Baricco suggests that “Barbarians”, the google nation, don’t care about content but about experience, movement, vectors, and the actual transmission of information. Somehow he puts forward the idea that knowledge is no longer produced at the nodes but through the relations they establish among themselves. Third point of network design philosophy: it focuses on processes, debate, connections and exchanges within a networked community.

“The surface is everything, and in it is meaning.” Alessandro Baricco in “The Barbarians”

1.3 METHODOLOGIES HOW TO CREATE E THE CONDITIONS: THE DREAM MHAMAR DIAGRAM

University of Alicante, Spain

The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Denmark The citizens' participation in the workshops form a large database of their dreams, knowledge and ideas, which will be crossed with the working methods of artists, architects and academics to design and build the new Stortorget.

University of Limerick,

ACADEMIC NETWORK

Hedmark Un

IED Istituto Eur

The Norwegian Scho

Politecnico di Milano, Italy Bergen School of Architecture, Norway

greenhamar

painthamar

creamhamar arthamar

playhamar

URBAN ACTIONS

Aim to create expectation and call citizens to action on Stortorget. These actions serve as a way of experiencing possible uses and solutions for the future square.

lighthamar

what is dream

PHYSICAL LAB / BASARBYGNINGEN The Basar building is dreamhamars physical laboratory through the fall of 2011 where workshops, lectures and exhibitions take place.

Environment Onsite workshops and lectures are aimed at people in Hedmark, and take place in the Basar building.

Activities

ONSITE WORKSHOPS / LECTURES

Technology

People Seasonal Strategy

k, Ireland

lively streetscape social+natural ring The preliminary design can be seen as a feasibility study which gives participants a variety of tools and references to use in the workshops.

niversity, Norway

ropeo di Design, Madrid

PRELIMINARY DESIGN

ool for gardeners

creative arena

online workshops mobile app. The digital lab manage the online workshops and the web page. Here you can register for and/or follow all the online workshops and also watch previous Hamar Experience sessions.

DIGITAL LAB

web platform

m hamar ?

hamar experience

Ener

Ingeberg Solvang

Storhamar Lunden

Rollsløkken

THE CULTURAL RUCKSACK

Lovisenberg

Ajer

Dreamhamar is also connected with this year cultural Rucksack project, and gives 1292 pupils from elementary and high schools the possibility to contribute by sharing their ideas for Stortorget.

Greveløkka Prestrud

Ridabu

Børstad

www.dreamhamar.org

Artists BOAMISTURA at work in the DREAMHAMAR PHYSICAL LAB photo: Emilio P. Doiztúa

“

Imagine a square where you can walk bare foot on the cobbled stone and get a relaxing foot massage” Rosalyn Aragon Arbiol during onsite workshops ACTIVITY WEEK

Naturally, Dreamhamar is all about using democracy as a tool to reclaim public space. To implement the network design philosophy in the context of Stortorget, ecosistema urbano developed multiple satellites around Dreamhamar. These satellites are used for regrouping different stakeholders around a common cause either local - community related- or global - theme related, academic etc - using the website as a free, open and reachable platform. Implementing a varied and vivid set of networks allows Dreamhamar to widen the project’s inputs and outputs, setting the grounds for a great amount of opportunities, but also allowing exchange within the networks. ABOUT DREAMHAMAR The following components detail the set of networks by Ecosistema Urbano for providing the fertile grounds to exchange ideas, enrich existing and new social connections and to change the citizens’ perception of the square.

PHYSICAL LAB The Basarbygningen (Bazaar building) is Dreamhamar’s Physical Laboratory, where workshops, lectures and exhibitions took place through the fall of 2011. Not a gallery, nor a simple ofce or information centre; laboratory was the most appropriate denition to reect the hybrid use of the space. Facing Stortorget square, Dreamhamar project site, the Physical Lab was open daily with free entrance. The strategic physical position and the possibility to appropriate the public space (Stortorget) played an interesting role within the local community - like a sponge, it would absorb any problem related to the square or the city, like a whiteboard it was a place to draw an idea, like a cafe it was a place to meet new and old friends. Moreover, the Physical Lab is a pop-up space, designed with a fresh new look and renovated in just a short time with tones of creativity. The idea behind this fresh and exible design was to give the inviting air of a place that could be easily adapted and used for various purposes (Exhibitions, workshops, ofce, Lab...) 25

ON-SITE WORKSHOPS / LECTURES The on-site workshops and lectures were used as activities to bring locals to participate in the process and create a community around Stortorget through various approaches. In order to bring people together, 5 general topics were chosen as catalysts - their common and overall nature aimed to bring people of different backgrounds to participate. Each topic was introduced during a week that included two workshops and a lecture. +Technology week: Can Hamar incorporate technology as a way to dene a new concept of public space? + Activities week: What does Stortorget need for different events and activities to happen? + Environment week: How can we promote citizens to be more conscious and concerned about their environmental responsibility from design? + People week: How can we use the design of public spaces to improve/enhance/multiply/ and promote the interaction, creativity and auto organization dynamics between people? +Seasonal Strategy week: Can we design a public space as a responsive environment to the changing light/weather/temperature conditions? The workshops and lectures were held at the Physical Lab and directed by community activators and creative professionals coordinated by ecosistema urbano. Local Community activators are creative and dynamic locals who worked with ecosistema urbano to lead the ongoing participation process. They have professional experience in terms of participation and workshops. Besides conducting the workshops, the community activators were in charge of generating participation, by creating and using local contacts.

“

Participation is like love: If it doesn’t touch your needs, you’re not really involved” Andrés Walliser during an online session, posted and remixed by participant Silvia Schiaulini on the DIGITAL LAB

Creative professional network are international experts who directed workshops, gave lectures and partici pated in building the local network among stakeholders in Hamar. The on-site workshops allowed participants to meet, interact, brainstorm and discuss their proposals and thoughts regarding the square and the city. The aim was to use creative methods in order to get the participants to know each other, and feel free to develop new and fresh ideas. The lectures were both an opportunity to share the creative guests’ knowledge regarding each topic, and generate an open debate related to the community, along with specic guests who were invited to assist the lectures from the front row.

URBAN ACTIONS The urban actions are a serie of events that took place at Stortorget, aiming to arouse expectation and call citizens to action on the square. They were a way of experiencing possible uses and solutions for the future square, but also to spontaneously change the urban environment for a short period of time. Painthamar: featuring the project’s opening event when Stortorget square was transformed in 3 days from a parking lot to a colourful creative space. This action was created and implemented by Boamistura, an urban art collective from Madrid, Spain. Creamhamar: this event transformed Stortorget into a huge living room offering Hamar citizens free lunch made from local products of surrounding farms. It was a tool used to gather people. This action was coordinated by ecosistema urbano and Gunvor Bakke and organized and implemented with 3rd year students from Bergen School of Architecture.

Greenhamar: an old car lled with owers, a wooden platform-bench-stage-playground made from 400 meters of wood and 10 tons of gravel, free homemade mushroom soup and bike powered organic smoothies: Greenhamar was all about bringing sustainable actions to take over the square and what used to be a road. It was coordinated with Gudbrand Kjøs and Frode Degvold, landscape architects and teachers at Vea School- Statens fagskole for gartnere og blomsterdekoratører- whose

students developed and implemented the greenhamar installation. Playhamar: 5 trampolines on the square and the Bazaar building lled up with hundreds of children, parents, toys and laughs. The event lasted two days and during this period kids were bringing their old toys to the Bazaar building and exchanging them with other kids. Playhamar was carried out along with the local teacher Audun Jensen. Arthamar: A ctive wedding, interactive screens, and poems written in leaves were some works of the 3rd year students from the Bergen School of Architecture when they came back to Hamar in October. The students were directed by the artist Eva Kun, and worked at locations which they considered interesting or challenging with installations and performances. They explored the different areas trying to discover, putting into value or framing the qualities and potentials of these spaces, using their senses. The goal was not about making a nished product, but about revealing, adding and articulating qualities. Alicantehamar: As part of the academic network of Dreamhamar, a group of 50 students of Architecture from the University of Alicante (Spain), directed by their teacher Iván Capdevila, were involved in the design of the future Stortorget. They will be working from september 2011 to june 2012 on different proposals for Hamar’s main square. During one week they visited Hamar and interacted with locals around Stortorget. Jeffrey Schnapp, Harvard MetaLab director, as part of the Dreamhamar international network of professionals, was also lecturing at the Bazaar building and leading the student’s advisory board during Alicantehamar week. Lighthamar: Lighthamar was the launching event of the second phase of Dreamhamar process. Ecosistema urbano left the onsite action at Stortorget in order to focus on the urban proposal. The event combined an interactive lighting installation created by art collectives Uncoded + Fitzmedia, a new urban furniture for Stortorget (hamar stools) produced by local school Ungdom i Farta and the square invaded by singers from various local choirs, creating with Thomas Caplin (choir conductor at Hedmark University College) the rst ash mob ever made in Hamar.

/lively streetscape The new Stortorget square is divided into 3 zones or atmospheres, characterized by different use of materials, and providing different backgrounds for use: The outer zone connects to the buildings surrounding the square and, is called “lively streetscape“. Lively streetscape adopts the materiality of the neighboring streets and let it “grow” into the square via the streetscape area. This zone varies in width on all sides, and is daily used by shoppers, users of the culture house and Bazaar, and passersby.

/social nature ring The zone within the lively streetscape will have the shape of a variable ring, it contains all the xed elements of the square such as trees, linear benches, shelters, pavilions,...It is planted with various tree species of different height. The trees are planted in clusters, delimiting the lively streetscape and the creative arena, and forming micro-spaces for socialization. Technical installations such as water, sewage and electricity conduits will be underground, with many access points above ground. Ring formation of the technical devices makes the square exible since there are multiple opportunities for connection.

/creative arena The creative arena constitutes the largest area of the square, framed by the lively streetscape and the social nature ring. The arena provides space for large events such as concerts or markets, but the space is also an arena for playing and for daily life activities. The creative arena allows for multi-functional use. It has a rm, durable pavement, and the elements above can be moved so that a new landscape occurs depending on the people using it, time of day, season and events. It is a space designed to promote social interaction.

“

In this phase, we are not interested in objects and space. We want to design atmospheres.” Jose Luis Vallejo in charge of Preliminary Urban Strategy at [ecosistema urbano]

DIGITAL LAB The Digital Laboratory is the online open platform where all information converged to enhance the participation process by gathering both local and global stakeholders under a single/common virtual roof. Stortorget then became an online open tool for anyone interested in integrating the process, or just knowing about it. The dreamhamar.org web platform is an open and participatory website that includes social network channels (facebook, twitter, ickr) and all the data and content from the dreamhamar process. online workshops: Open to locals and creative people from all around the world, these workshops were an opportunity to work globally on the Dreamhamar process, through specic themes with the support of experts. The process showed an interesting mix of international people who joined the Tactical urbanism workshop led by architects Ethel Baraona+Paco González or the Public Space and People workshop led by sociologist Andrés Walliser. 29

mobile app: dreamhamar.app is a digital application that was developed for the Dreamhamar process to share georeferenced (text, image or video) ideas about urban aspects of Hamar. It also worked as a database of Hamar citizens’ thoughts, aims or desires for the new Stortorget. hamar experience: Weekly live broadcast to share Dreamhamar’s progress and report the on-going activities. Every Monday at 6 pm Belinda Tato from ecosistema urbano interviewed someone from the Dreamhamar community meanwhile publishing the latest on-site happenings. Besides allowing to keep track of the process, it was also a way to make it transparent for Hamar citizens. ACADEMIC NETWORK Dreamhamar engaged various European universities and academic institutions into the network design process. Students with different backgrounds worked around Hamar’s main public space with their course, and contributed with their work and creativity in rethinking the square’s identity. Some of the European students involved also travelled to Hamar to take part in the urban actions, while some participated in the online workshops to guide their course. Academic institutions that took part in Dreamhamar: University of Alicante, Spain / The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen – Denmark / University of Limerick, Ireland / Hedmark University, Norway / Politecnico di Milano, Italy / Bergen School of Architecture, Norway / Istituto Europeo di Design, Madrid-Spain / Vea School Statens fagskole for gartnere og blomsterdekoratører, Hedmark-Norway / Ungdom i Farta, HamarNorway. THE CULTURAL RUCKSACK The Cultural Rucksack is a national programme that brings professionals of the arts and culture to Norwegian schools. The programme helps school pupils to become acquainted with all kinds of art and cultural expressions. This year, both the Education and Cultural Departments of the Municipality of Hamar decided to connect the project to Dreamhamar: 1292 children thought and drew their own ideas for the new Stortorget.

Schools that took part are: Solvang / Ajer / Greveløkka / Ener / Lovisenberg / Ridabu / Rollsløkken / Storhamar / Lunden / Prestrud / Børstad / Ingeberg

PRELIMINARY URBAN DESIGN From research to design, a multidisciplinary team of professionals – architects, urban designers, sociologists, engineers, artists, etc. – will identify the needs expressed by the Hamar and Hedmark residents, and will develop creative solutions for the construction of the square. The urban design document is due for June 2012, and the construction of the square for December 2013. The preliminary urban design is a document created by ecosistema urbano. It is the rst phase of the design process: an urban and architectural approach to Stortorget, analysing its main characteristics and suggesting principles and tools to design the future square. It dened the main aspects and gave some guidelines to work with. It was a starting point, a base to work with during the participation and network design process. It also acted as an introduction to Hamar and Stortorget for worldwide creative people engaged with the different workshops and activities inside the Dreamhamar project framework. The Preliminary Design proposed 3 Urban Atmospheres. Three areas of different atmosphere and special characteristics were suggested to organize the future Stortorget: 1. lively streetscape: connection with the surrounding streets and buildings 2. social and nature ring: tree area and concentration of xed elements (facilities, lighting system, benches, pavilions, etc). 3. creative arena: open space with multiple uses and congurations to promote social interaction.

CONNECTING HAMAR

2/3 EXPERIENCES

eidsiva

JULEHAMAR Tora Lønborg Joensen

Andrés Lopez Hamar Sentrumsforening

Margareta Willman

Nature & Youth

solheimkoret

Cathedral Choir

Toneheim

Boa

CREAMHAMAR

ART HAMAR

FILM HAMAR

Thomas Caplin

Collegium vocale

PAIN HAMA

GREENHAMAR

Naturvernforbund

LIGHTHAMAR

Ungdom i farta

Vibeke Hegg

HIHM

Nettum

Marius Andersen

Morten F. Rustad BAS

ACADEMIC NETWORK

Gudbrand Kjos

VEA media Lab Prado

Eva Kun

ALICANTE

Fitzmedia Uncoded collective

KADK UL

THE SECOND PART OF THE DOCUMENT TELLS US WHAT HAPPENED AFTER IMPLEMENTING THE VARIOUS NETWORKS AROUND DREAMHAMAR, IT RELATES TO THE HUMAN FACTOR AND THE RHIZOME IT CREATES THE INTERWOVEN THE NETWORKS. EACH OF THE FOLLOWING STORIES IS A RESULT OF THE NETWORK DESIGN PROCESS.

IED

Rida

PdM Storhamar

kunstbanken

Ingeberg

Inger Lise Libakken

THE FOLLOWING STORIES ARE BASED ON ACTUAL EVENTS. NAMES AND LOCATIONS HAVE NOT BEEN CHANGED. IF YOU HAVE GONE THIS FAR IN READING YOU MOST PROBABLY KNOW SOME ABOUT NETWORK DESIGN PHILOSOPHY. THE SECOND PART OF THE DOCUMENT WILL TELL WHAT HAPPENED AFTER IMPLEMENTING THE PHILOSOPHY.

Unge Tanker om Kunst

Carly Troncale

Berit Borgen

Hamar Library

TECHNOLOGY

PLAYHAMAR

HISTORY

Juan Freire

NTAR

Audun Jensen

Siv Engen Heimdahl Jeffrey Schnapp

amistura

SEASONAL STRATEGY

Bjarte Ytre Arne Joanna Mikulska

Fredrik Lund

Kristine Jensen

Hilda Gustava Ovesen Elger Blitz

URBAN ACTIONS

ACTIVITIES ENVIRONMENT Romi Ortiz Jenny Pfau

ONSITE WORKSHOPS / LECTURES

PEOPLE

Mocci Ryen

ARD

EA SIM

Andrés Walliser

PUBLIC SPACE & PEOPLE

ONLINE WORKSHOPS

dreamhamar

kookeriya

DIGITAL LAB TACTICAL URBANISM HAMAR EXPERIENCE

Jens Haugen Ajer

Kari Oline Øverseth

SIM

Ansgar Ole Olsen

THE CULTURAL RUCKSACK

abu

Terje Berg

Stian Vestby Knut Faldbakken

Kathrine Berg

Esther Helèn Slagsvold

Børstad Ener

g Lovisenberg

Greveløkka Lunden

Prestrud Solvang

Rollslokken

Morten Fridstrøm

Toril Heggen Munk

1 AN INSTANT URBAN ACTION TO GO CHANGING THE PERCEPTION OF THE SQUARE THROUGH A SIMPLE EVENT STORY N.1

“

Being based in Hamar for 4 months was an opportunity to work closely with the community and to understand the existing issues...”

Nowadays, worldwide, from Wall Street in New York to the paths of Delhi, a movement of disenchanted and leaderless citizens is reclaiming public space. The same generation is widely using Internet, where the possibilities for consumption and creation are endless, as the main tool for creating communities. As architects devoted to the 21st century society we can’t work, as most architects did before or are still doing today, offering a well designed product to a well dened society. We are living in a world that is rapidly changing and constantly reinventing itself using the virtual world. The overload of information and mix of cultures and disciplines require new ways of thinking and working. In ecosistema urbano we believe there is no such thing as a universal solution. Each project is different, and Dreamhamar required multiple solutions for multiple challenges that only had one thing in common: Stortorget. We wanted to put forward the conviction that before planning a new square we needed to build a community of people who would use the square, who would keep it alive. A community is the foundation of a public space.. Yet, the truth is that the steps for building a community are impossible to plan. Nevertheless, we needed a plan and we found a concept that embraced all the possible solutions: we called it network design. Being based in Hamar for 4 months was an opportunity to work closely with the community and to understand its existing issues. Dreamhamar is about encouraging residents to become the creators of public space, instead of being just consumers. It’s about starting conversations between different stakeholders, and doing things together in public space. It’s about understanding Hamar’s current needs by iniciating a brainstorming and dialogue around the future design of Stortorget square, by means of workshops and urban actions.

INSTANT IMPROVEMENTS Painthamar was the rst urban action we performed in Stortorget, and the ofcial launching event of Dreamhamar. The idea was to rapidly transform the square, which until then had been a parking lot for years, by painting it. Then when people would come to see Stortorget’s new colors, we could tell them all about Dreamhamar and how they could participate. It turned out this was not an easy task. Being the rst one, the very denition of the urban action was ambiguous. Its temporary and ephemeral nature created confusion regarding budget-result formula, and its hybrid nature made it difcult to effectively communicate the event to the targeted and needed community. We quickly noticed the need to generate interaction between the citizens, the Hamarsingen, would be an essential condition to iniciate the process. Interaction is very similar to a chemical reaction. We had A and B not reacting together. In order to make the reaction possible, we had to nd a catalyst. On September 27th a group of 25 third year students from the Bergen School of Architecture came to Hamar to imagine an instant urban intervention on Stortorget. They were part of Dreamhamar’s Academic Network. Their stay was short but intense and full of energy. Two and half days of workshop at the Physical Lab aimed to reactivate Stortorget, to get people aware of what was going on, to collect ideas, to have fun, to use the space in a different way, and to provide the conditions for people to react, become proactive, and make them socialize. During the workshop, two questions arose: - How can we bring people to the square? How can we create an atmosphere so they want to meet each other? - How can we make a mock up of what the nal square could become? How can we transform this former parking lot into a public space?

MARYANNE GRYTTEN

AGE : 32 PROFESSION : Student, Bergen School of Architecture FROM : FlorĂ¸ CURRENTLY LIVING IN : Bergen QUOTE : This has been a wonderful celebration marking the beginning of the people of Hamar taking back their own square.

During a 20 minutes brainstorming session, the students came up with 20 different possible ideas for a new urban action in Stortorget. Chairs, an outdoor cinema, a stage for music, a skate ramp, a balloon landscape, a talk show, a sound installation, free painting on the road, an open call to do crazy things, an area for gymnastics, a heated pool to take a bath, a barter market such as ‘bring a shovel and take a horse’, connecting the square with the lake, a labyrinth, celebrating an outdoor mass, a storytelling by people, a candle light in the evening, a dark night dancing competition, a temporary public library, relocating the Bazaar building in the square, making a hole in the asphalt and lling it with candy, a poetry square, wearing rubber customs, building a staircase to watch the lake, placing a trampoline for people to jump, creating articial clouds, making a barbecue, organizing a dancing competition on a slippery oor, a ski jump, a sleepover party or even making Stortorget an independent country with its own king and queen. They were all interesting ideas from which we selected the Cow - to provide fresh milk for the coffee - and the free public lunch - to invite everyone in Hamar to join the event and to mingle. The idea was also to take advantage of this meeting to encourage people to write down and share their ideas for the future design, and personal memories around the square. Creamhamar was created, and the second urban action of Dreamhamar came out.

CREAMING STORTORGET On the D day, the cow from GJESTVANG GÅRD came to visit Stortorget, while students ran about to transform the square. They divided into groups, each assigned a different responsibility for Creamhamar: one of them settled the tables and embellished the urban scene, one prepared the food, one made the design, and one sold the farmers’ products. Once everything was in place, the only thing missing was the people. The long table was so nicely organized that at rst, no one dared to use it. But after one group “opened the feast”, everyone came rushing in. The results were amazing. It looked like someone was getting married in Stortorget and everybody was invited. People from all walks of life came, ate, enjoyed, talked, shared, met others, chatted, and relaxed under the sun. Students, retired, international, families... The students were running around mingled with the people, taking notes of their ideas, handing out info about the workshops, collecting suggestions for the square... All sort of conversations started naturally around the tables and people got a unique chance to meet others as never before at Stortorget. The conversation lasted and gradually involved all the people sitting around the table. We ended up making new friends and spreading the word of Dreamhamar. Around the table there was a group of foreigners who were studying Norwegian at the adult learning centre just up Kirkegata street. One of them was Joanna Mikulska. She was very curious about Dreamhamar. We met

RECIPE / AN INSTANT URBAN ACTION TO GO

PREPARATION TIME : 2 days COOKING TIME : 4 hours INGREDIENTS FOR THE LUNCH: 25 well motivated students + 70 chairs + 20 tables + 50 liters of coffee + 20 liters of chai tea + 4 table cloths + 100 napkins + 1 cow from GJESTVANG GÅRD -Gustav Gjestvang + 30 local breads + 2 kg butter + 3 kg of local cheese + 3 kg honey + 3 kg apples + 3 kg pears + 1 kg brown cheese =about 400 delicious sandwiches FOR THE LOCAL FOOD AND PRODUCTION STAND: 2 tables 1 table cloth LOCAL PRODUCERS: Ommang Søndre Løten Nærstasjon Mølstad gård Tjerne gård Bie Per Larsen Tønseth Salgsbua FOR COMMUNICATION MATERIAL: 30 A3 posters 200 yers DOCUMENTING: 40 color pencils 160 memory and ideas postcards 15 cameras 4 video cameras DIRECTIONS: 1. Get a cow and local food: call farmers around Hamar, check the cow’s availability, decide the best space for her, buy food, cheese, bread and drinks, look for a few coffee makers, prepare sandwiches, bring farmers’ products, make coffee and tea 2. Make a design scheme: design a logo, design a yer and poster, hand them out to the maximum people you know and meet. 3. Set up a physical design: Arrange tables, chairs, table cloths, and set the tables with glasses, plates, napkins 4. Work out a communication strategy: make a press release, take pictures of the process and event, produce a beautiful movie of the whole process 5. Manage the logistic: coordinate all the teams’ different tasks and deadlines This was the cow. She became the main attraction in no time.

and she told us about her previous work in Warsaw, which involved people in participative processes around the history of their city. Gradually, we came to the idea of creating a workshop for Dreamhamar around History. She was invited to write a post about her past experiences of similar actions, and to use it to invite people to take part in her project.

SHARING EXPERIENCES The serendipitous encounter with Joanna not only gave birth to a beautiful initiative of a “new” workshop coming from the community itself, but also pointed out a signicant relation between the urban action and the workshop. Meanwhile Joanna’s history workshop Storyhamar - sought storytellers to narrate past experiences and rediscover new ways of reading the public space, the urban action generated an event which created new experiences for future stories. Stories are important to relate to a space and recognise a situation. While writing this story we listened to Paco Gonzalez’ and Ethel Baraona’s second lecture in the Tactical Urbanism online workshop about storytelling, and how narrative gives us access to local knowledge, to the better understanding of the community creating it. Creamhamar was an action aiming to bring people together by using the exibility and accessibility of the public space to create an open, simple event.

looking for the original story image: unknown, reported by Geir Cock 41

By temporarily curating the space, the event transformed the square’s perception from a parking space to a meeting place. In other words Creamhamar created new experiences in people’s lives and therefore future stories to be told within the local community, regarding the square. “Storyhamar workshop involves to me, a lot of uncertainties but also a lot of hopes. During the couple of hours with Hamar citizens, we will try to nd out important stories of the Hamar society. Stories that are part of Hamar’s memories. First we will re-discover the meaning of signs already existing in public space. Do the monuments of Hamar really refer to some common experience? What is their story? Second, we would like to focus on personal histories and try to discover how they reect the story of the city. Photos are crucial elements. Everyone will have to bring an old one that is important for them. Usually these kind of photos include a lot of private information, they’re like an introduction to the novel. Of course, to do this properly, to make up a kind of archive, we would need to collect them for months. Here we will make a small laboratory out of them. I hope we’ll nd some real traces of Hamar’s identity that will form a creative inspiration to construct something referring to it on Stortorget.” Storyhamar workshop invitation by Joanna Mikulska

NAME : Joanna AGE: 28 years old PROFESSION: Culture Animator. Worked on various project engaging the local community to explore their local history. FROM: Warsaw, Poland. CURRENTLY: Hamar, Norway QUOTE: “First I would like to say something that is maybe obvious - “Dreamhamar” (called “magenta project” by my friends from Hamar) will not happen without ecosistema urbano. Because all those workshops, lectures, creative works and especially ideas to do them, could only come from people who are not from Hamar, who are from outside. From another country, culture, a different experience with public space. Second, the big value of this project is that everything is happening in process; taking into consideration a lot of different contexts, ideas, involving different groups of people who are using the square and just coming here from abroad for few days, and those who have never been in Hamar but are participating in the project through Internet. All those things cause a lot of unexpected ideas which are priceless in creative work. It’s the rst time I see architects who are working like that, so much in touch with the community they are working for. It’s very special and I think Hamar should feel really lucky to get this chance to nd identity. They just need to use it now! For me, the most interesting is meeting with local Hamar society, talking with people, some of them have lived here all their life, some of them were born here, later, many years ago, moved out and now came back. And while talking I also have a feeling that great people are living here and “Dreamhamar” gives them the chance to meet each other and makes their dreams come true.”

JOANNA MIKULSKA

“

Storytelling is a very basic part of human life. It is engaging, it allows individual interpretation and triggers imagination. It is about identities and meanings and about joining individual details together into a larger entity”

Opportunity to reveal Hamar’s history. We focused on old and personal pictures, on Hamar monuments and on the past of Stortorget, in order to bring up the citizens’ private stories. Process started shyly but minute by minute people started sharing their memories. For example, I always wondered why there are so many monuments representing animals in Hamar: pigs, a horse, a bull? I knew agriculture is a very important part of people’s lives here, but it also turned out that in the past, for many years, a very famous animal market used to take place in different areas of the city. An amazing experience was also seeing an old movie from 1960 about Stortorget. It showed the square through different seasons: winter, spring and summer when it became a very lively place, where people would meet, mostly because the market was there. You could nd owers, vegetables, hand made tools or goods...; Stortorget was the real center of Hamar. After showing the movie, during a discussion with the participants, it was said that a great wish was that Dreamhamar would bring the square back to people. I hope this dream comes true.” Storyhamar summary by Joanna Mikulska

Sandra Viña, Tuuli Mattelmäk

photo: monument in Hamar By Christoffer Nilsen “Storyhamar workshop was a great 43

Architecture is about curating places through

Architecture is about curating places through the Mise-en-scène of experiences. Hence, learning about experiences from past events in Hamar in Storyhamar and the spontaneous performance of Creamhamar were essential to our understanding of the square and community, and important steps regarding our future interventions on Stortorget. IMMEDIATE AND EPHEMERAL Dreamhamar process allowed manifold urban actions to invade Stortorget and experiment different strategies of colonization: - OPEN-INSTANT EVENTS (Creamhamar) to bring all visitors by providing a platform to enhance social inclusion. - PUBLIC ART INTERVENTIONS (Arthamar, Painthamar) to create a new dynamic, possibly interactive, and identity of the outdoor space, in order to attract the crowd. - LIGHT ACTIVITY INTERVENTIONS (Greenhamar, Playhamar) of exible use to develop a temporary identity through a new active and interactive program. An urban action is not an art installation, nor a commercial event, but a sort of temporary “instant improvement”. They bring an immediate transformation allowing an ongoing exibility of the square through a variety of programmes and interventions promoting a change in the perception of the space. In Creamhamar the challenge was how to get people to meet outdoors when they usually meet indoors. How to bring people to Stortorget, a square where usually nobody would stay longer than ve minutes. Using light and movable furniture like chairs and tables, and local products from surrounding farms made the event possible very fast. These actions could be repeated easily coorganized by the community or by the council. During the lunch one Hamar politician and local citizen said “this is something the Municipality could organize 4

times a year, to celebrate each season!”. An urban action is an ephemeral intervention to change people’s perception of a space, and build a collective memory. They aim to arouse peoples’ curiosity and interest, and cause different reactions, which we observed and considered in order to understand the local and collective identity of different individuals. This was particularly relevant in the case of Hamar, where diverse activities were required to attract a diverse, multi-aged crowd, in order to consider a hollistic approach. In Creamhamar, this point emerged as equally important: creating a collective memory around new experiences. In order to collect memories from the past and wishes for the future, the students from Bergen came up with the idea to bring a cow to the square, offer free local food and sell local products, knowing that Hedmark was an important agricultural site. The interesting thing is that Storyhamar later revealed how important agriculture and rural life were in the collective conscience of Hamarsiens - it was constantly repeated during the workshop, and considered as a potential occupation of the square. Whereas in conventional architectural projects, the design process only concerns the architects, consultants and the clients, and often generates isolated solutions from the community’s needs and site’s identity, the experimental and exible nature of the urban actions allowed us architects to react to real time issues of Hamar, by actively and instantly achieving temporal solutions.

2 THE MISSING LINK CONNECTING ONLINE AND ONSITE ACTIVITIES NETWORK DESIGN AND PARTICIPATION STORY N.2 47

ANDRÉS WALLISER URBAN SOCIOLOGIST -

Andrés Walliser has a PhD in Sociology and he is a specialist in urban issues. As an Academic, he is particularly interested in participation, gobernance, and social exclusion; while as a practitioner, he focuses on urban planning and urban policies. Andrés Walliser is an Associate Lecturer at Universitat Pompeu Fabra and Hertie School of Governance in Berlin, and collaborates with Ecosistema Urbano since 2005.

MOCCI RYEN GEIR COCK WITH BELINDA TATO AND INGER HAUG At Bazaar building DREAMHAMAR physical Lab during the opening event

Vocalist Community activator, in charge of DREAMHAMAR PEOPLE WEEK onsite workshop CHRISTIAN HJELLE A participant of PUBLIC SPACE AND PEOPLE online workshop directed by Andrés Walliser

DREAMHAMAR AND ME: A PROFESSIONAL AND ETHNOGRAPHIC EXPERIENCE BY ANDRÉS WALLISER

Last November I was asked to write a brief article for Hamar Arbeiderblad about my so far experience in this challenging and fascinating project. I was about to go to Hamar to conduct some workshops on the social dimension of Stortorget renewal. Now a few weeks after it is time to put together the professional and personal experience that I have lived with through the whole process. This experience was threefold for me: an online workshop based on network design methods developed by Ecosistema Urbano, the actual on-site workshops with stakeholders at Hamar, and nally my experience as a social scientist and a curious person with the city of Hamar and some of its people that participate in the project as practitioners, experts or citizens that where willing to think –rather to dream- a new place in Stortorget. I started learning and working about the process with a rather innovative experience, which was a Dreamhamar online workshop, titled Public Space and People, which was the development of a methodological tool developed by Ecosistema Urbano called Urban Social Design, which is a propositive integrated network design method. I must say I am still sceptical about a certain trend in architecture and planning schools in which projects that are allocated to students “happen” in remote places, the more “exotic” the better. This was a different case. This was a workshop to contribute with ideas and proposals to a real project that was taking place in real time in a city in Norway. There was a substantial preparation for the workshop in terms of information, graphic information and data, but still the challenge was big. People from different countries and backgrounds, worked together in network for a month. Participants were from Venezuela, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Serbia, Poland and Norway. Initially it might seem that the outcomes of such an interaction could not be accurate, or that there was a substantial risk of providing non-realistic or inaccurate 49

inputs. Often, when you are working on space you need to step on the ground and to feel it from a ground level, see who and how uses the spaces and even a pinch of the feelings that the space suggests to the planner. I believe on this approach, but I also have to convey that the quality of the material provided and the witty discussions that we have in the online workshop lead to have such close insights into Stortorget square that maybe a standard onthe-site planning process would not have been the same. The added value of the process was twofold: rstly the process of network design know-how achieved by the participants and the actual proposals which were of high quality and focused on different approaches to the problem: a regional or supra-local analysis of the square, on participation, on the actual uses and program for the square among other issues. Secondly we had the chance, and the privilege of supporting our network design process with the inputs of some local stakeholders. Geir Cock and Mocci Ryan have been very involved in the project and have collaborated with us more than enthusiastically. Geir is an architect that works for the city of Hamar and has a good knowledge of the planning and governance variables that were relevant for our virtual workshop. Mocci, is a well known vocalist and community leader committed with her city and with a substantive footprint in it with her children´s multicultural festival. She was of great help for understanding the people of Hamar and through this, the role that the square has been playing for several generations of residents. With their comments that often responded to questions or debates arisen in our virtual seminar the nal proposals were outstandingly in tune to what the stakeholders, especially the citizens came out with in the on-site workshops a couple of weeks later. We had a debate at Ecosistema Urbano around whether the participants in the online workshop would be stakeholders of the Dreamhamar project too. From a very broad perspective, they certainly might be, as actors interested in the outcomes of the project and its process, but if we want to be precise I would rather prefer to consider them, and me as the

ONSITE WORKSHOP AT BAZAAR BUILDING DURING DREAMHAMAR PEOPLE WEEK 50

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Our stories differ, but they share a strong emotional dimension, an emotional presence” a Hamar citizen to Andrés during one of Dreamhamar workshops

instructor, as experts or a technical assistance. I think from this position the contribution to the project is more tangible and real. The second stage of my experience took me to Hamar. I had a lot of inputs on the city and the square, but as I mentioned above, the actual physical experience of it put me in my place. I had a somehow contradictory feeling: on the one side everything was different of what I had imagine. The dimensions, the light, the perspective with its steeped angle dominating the bazaar building with its anacronical charm and the lake, grey and dark as a material reection of the lead clouds in the sky. Still, all the proposals of the virtual seminar made sense. Those who targeted a broad scope, placing the square in a regional logic and those who where tempted to design ice furniture for the winter. In Hamar I had to conduct a workshop and a lecture on the social dimension of the project. Mocci Ryen was my counterpart and would address another workshop as a local expert. I have been working on it, intimidated by my lack of knowledge of the space and the people. Mocci and I prepared the social dimension week together. Skype proved to be an amazing tool for a social scientist: I could have a very talented local stakeholder, which turned into a colleague after a few minutes of exchange on the project, the city and its people. After a few sessions of on-line work together we had decided the format and contents of each of us workshops based on the idea of how important was Stortorget for the people and how identity and personal stories had a role on dening the image and meanings of the square as a place with people living in Hamar or in the territory around it. To everyone´s surprise all the sessions were full of people. The sample of stakeholders was of the kind that every sociologist will dream with: a wide variety of people representing most sectors of society by age and gender, maybe a bit unrepresented if we think in social classes. The use of English as a working language might explain it. We had women ranging between 20 and 80. Men were just a bit underrepresented in the 35-40´s cohort. There were also some participants coming from other countries both from the EU and out of it. The on-site workshop, also titled Public Space and People sought to elaborate a discourse among the participants on their relation with the square in the past, in the present and eventually in the future. Participants were divided into ve -as much as possiblehomogeneous working groups: young

women, young men and women, middle aged women (ended ranging from mid twenties to seventies) and middle age-senior men. The idea was to allow the participants to elaborate in their groups their own narrative on their experiences in the square as a place, how had it changed, and how it stayed the same, and of course how would they dream to use the square in the near future. The outcomes were very valuable for our work, especially through the use of maps of the square to visualize and indicate different references. The session took place along three hours and ended in a common feedback plenary in which the spoke people of the different groups described the group work and add some proposals that were to be discussed in a collective debate. The atmosphere was very positive and even enthusiastic among some participants. Others, also gave a lesson of civic culture declaring their scepticism but also their willingness to listen and be heard. As one of the participants puts it: “Our stories differ, but they share a strong emotional dimension, an emotional presence. We also realized that emotions grow through history, and were the personal/private story connects, grow into and become part of the collective history”. We felt a strong desire to make both history and stories present for more people – and available for all. We felt that that presence could be captured and given growth through collection and representation of stories. The second session was a lecture, but somehow it turned a bit into a mini-workshop with a very enriching debate at the end in which participants did not seem to want to stop despite it was 9 in the night. My personal and professional experience as a social scientist can be summarized from what I have already mentioned and a few more impressions based on the traits of civic and political culture of the people of Hamar. These are quick notions taken out from a short, but yet intense experience, and a few conversations and interviews with different stakeholders. I could say that I was using Nigel Barley´s “eldwork gear” concept. I will summarize some of my impressions about the people in Hamar and my perception of the participative process at Stortorget. Doing a workshop about things that are important for participants is always a good chance of seeing a small sample of a wider social group in action. Often general cultural

“ The stakeholders have been contacted, people´s attention has been called with some simple but highly visible interventions in the square like painting the parking lot in bright colours, “planting” and old car with local plants or doing a kind of playground with tree stumps. ”

Painted Stortorget during the Urban Action PAINTHAMAR by artist collective BOAMISTURA photo: Emilio P. Doiztúa

and social patterns are depicted. Some of them have to do with the way they behave in public, the way they present and argue in public and how conict and consensus are managed. The workshops were quite intense in terms of group work. Participants were willing to participate, even if they disagreed with some aspects of the project. Participants were very assertive in their opinions, but also rather open to listen to other positions and understand them. Respect and tolerance was probably the dominant note in the sessions. It also has to be mentioned that some participants showed up thinking that the workshops were going to be public hearings and they were ready to read their own text. After nding out that it was a participative workshop they decided not to stay. Conclusions These dynamics showed some of the features about participation that we have discussed above. For participation to happen you need will, you need people and institutions wanting to participate. Sometimes its just one of the parts. If the initiative comes from the institutions we are talking about a topdown process. If the process is the result of a claim from the civil society i.e. grassroots, neighbour organizations, minorities, etc. then it is a bottom-up process. Dreamhamar is a top-down process. In these cases the process can be corresponded by other stakeholders or not, or it might launch just because “it has to”. In other words participation has showed up in most local authorities agendas but not always with the real commitment of having non-institutional stakeholders inuencing policymaking. Sometimes it is feared and the top-down processes become some trivial exercise of making people think that they can really inuence. Other times non-institutional stakeholders are not really interested and do not take part. This has to do with the way the participative process is visualized both to the authorities and to civil society. From my own experience Dreamhamar is a very ambitious and complex participative process. Participation, through network design is the tool to develop an urban intervention which would be very important for the city in the next few years in two ways: how people living in Hamar regard and use their city´s most important public space and how others living in the surroundings, but also visitors and tourist will perceive it. My impressions are probably biased by another of the features that I have mentioned before: legitimacy, or putting it in other words: who takes part. Public Space and People workshops took place after weeks

of work by Ecosistema Urbano in Hamar. The stakeholders have been contacted, people´s attention has been called with some simple but highly visible interventions in the square like painting the parking lot in bright colours, “planting” an old car with local plants or doing a kind of playground with tree stumps. The previous work of Belinda Tato and the members of the Ecosistema both in Madrid and in Hamar, with the strong commitment of the City of Hamar have simply open doors and minds to the project. The Participants were quite enthusiastic and constructive and my feeling is that they took with them from the seminar a lot of acquired knowledge both from the Ecosistema Urbano team, as from, and specially, the other participants. The people taking part in the seminars wanted to be there and to contribute to the project both from the local institutions, the university and the citizenry. Ecosistema Urbano´s work has been very appealing for a lot of stakeholders: innovation, participation, new technologies and a strong and easy contact with planners has been regarded as a real and promising opportunity of taking part and inuencing in how the new Stortorget will look like and what it will mean for the city. Still the strong relation of Norwegians with public institutions required stronger communication from the City of Hamar with its citizens, maybe through more standard or classic means. There seemed to be a split between those citizens that “bought” the project and were willing to take part and make their ideas heard, and others that heard some bells around a big budget that was being spent in painting a parking lot and mutilating the city and its visitors from a convenient parking facility. For me, it was a kind of luxury to have the chance of developing a workshop with the wide sample that I mentioned before in terms of age and gender, but also with the social and technical composition that I found: politicians, house wives, architects, landscapers, communication students, artists, teachers, retired citizens, art historians, business men, managers etc. They all consider themselves equals and peers, or at least that was the image they portrayed in the sessions. Members of the council in an opposite position to the party in ofce did enthusiastically help me out with any question, or issue helping me to ne tune the contents of the workshop, calibrating people´s needs with their attitudes and their identity traits. Seeing all these people working together empathizing on their experiences and expectations gave me a good hint of how the process could end. Hopefully to me transforming Stortorget into a new public space that people can appropriate and turn into their own place.

3 THE CITY AS A PLAYGROUND WHY INCLUDE CHILDREN IN CITY PLANNING? STORY N.3

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Children in the city, what role do they have?” PLAYHAMAR WORKSHOP - I visit Burger King with my family! - I always drop by Fraspark on Saturdays! Loudly consensus. A few mention a playground nearby. I am surrounded by children aged 2 to 6 years in the Bazaar building, which a few minutes earlier crawled through the door, and now tell me how they use the center of Hamar. Typical answers from many of them are the names of stores or restaurants, and the absence of activities related to play, fun and exploring. Today 31 children from the Ankerløkka and Sagatun kindergarten are gathered to talk about the city and Stortorget, but it’s hard to keep their attention since there, in the back of the room, stands a long table covered with toys. The open event Playhamar took place in the Bazaar building on Saturday 19th of November with pupils from 11 schools and kids from 32 kindergardens specially invited, but the day before only a few, invited children gathered to switch toys and get to know each other. And to talk about use of the city. Let’s start with the beginning.

THE FIRST PARTICIPANT 1: Bakgården til Oslo City, a case study of Hausmanns area by the Norwegian State Housing Bank and Norsk Form, written by Guro Voss Gabrielsen, Mina Hauge Nærland and Cecilia Stokkeland, rst published in 2004. 2: Oslo City is the biggest shopping centre in downtown Oslo.

Audun Jensen was one of the rst persons who wrote to us and joined the onsite workshops held in the Bazaar building. As he has been working as a Primary School teacher for the last 17 years, he has a great knowledge and engagement about grow-up conditions for children and adolescents in Hamar. He currently combines teaching at Storhamar Primary School with developing a new ball

game called Brettball, an interesting game which wittily combines creativity with physical playing. One of the tasks is that the kids have to design and paint their own board. The vision is to increase both physical activity and creativity among children, as they are also encouraged to nd their own tricks, games and rules to use this creative game. The game is exible, which allows kids to participate in bringing in their own ideas. After some years as an Oslo resident, Audun moved back to Hamar with his familiy in 2009, and brought with him a new look to his hometown. He didn’t leave his commitment to children and young people when he quited work, but always carries with him ideas about how to socialize and activate the youngsters. So this evening, after most workshop participants had left the Bazaar building, Audun stayed and shared with us some of his thoughts on the role Stortorget could have for the younger generation in Hamar. This is how the Playhamar event took shape; a local initiative to activate a group of people, and with the Bazaar building and Stortorget as the arena.

THE TRAMPOLINES: If you take a look at Norway through Google Earthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lens, you will soon discover many black, round circles scattered around the residential areas around the entire country outside the city centers. And if you zoom further in, you will be able to see that almost every little green garden patch contains a trampoline. The trampoline has become a distinctively Norwegian thing, where the dominant housing structure is the single-house dwelling with a small garden, providing the opportunity to place a play device of such size. A very popular activity that you can do alone, but with even more fun doing it together with others. That is why 5 trampolines found their way to the square during Playhamar.

“I was outside from the beginning, getting the trampolines ready. Here, the cold and the clouded sky turned the whole thing even more into a challenge. As people begun to enter the Bazaar building I realized that nobody was coming to the trampolines. So I just thought: let’s demonstrate how fun this can be. I took off my shoes, pulled myself onto the cold dark cloth and started jumping from one trampoline to another. Nobody was coming anyway, but hey, that was fun! I soon got rid of the cold and after a while the kids passing around begun to get interested in the new activity offered to them in that formerly plain square. The sight of it attracted more and more people, and soon there were one or two kids in each trampoline, jumping around and even trying some basic acrobatics. At some point, I felt that the “social engine” could keep working on its own, so I took a break and became a formal adult again.” Jorge Toledo Dreamhamar team

CHILDREN IN THE CITY Children in the city, what role do they have? Cities are traditionally designed and built for adults, as reected in materiality, scale, dimensions, design and infrastructure. However, children and young people constitute a large proportion of the population, and they have their own needs and desires of how a city should work. Children can act as social glue, creating contact, activity and enjoyment. In a good city children, adolescents, adults and elderly live side by side, and take advantage of the proximity to each other and to what the city offers.

1: Bakgården til Oslo City, a case study of Hausmanns area by the Norwegian State Housing Bank and Norsk Form, written by Guro Voss Gabrielsen, Mina Hauge Nærland and Cecilia Stokkeland, rst published in 2004. 2: Oslo City is the biggest shopping centre in downtown Oslo. 59

A study called Bakgården til Oslo City1, (The backyard to Oslo City2), revealed the conditions for leisure and playing for children who lived and resided in the area of Hausmann in downtown Oslo. According to the report the youngest children (up to 7-8 years) were using the backyards as their main play areas, while the older children were using the streets and urban spaces due to the lack of playgrounds and park areas. The shopping centre Oslo City and other big stores in the area played an increasingly important role as the children grew older, both as a social arena and for entertainment purpose. At the same time many children cultivated their social lives indoors, in front of the TV or the computer screen, with both virtual and realtime friends. CHILDREN + DREAMHAMAR = PLAYHAMAR The reason for involving children in the Dreamhamar project, is to include them in the

citylife and cityplanning. To show that children can learn something from the city, to enjoy the city, to meet others and that there are activities and space for them. Stortorget can be a place for playing, learn and gather without lling it up with traditionally designed play equipment or with the conventional design as a football eld. Through the Playhamar event, we wanted to activate the younger segment of the population giving them a natural place in the city and on the square. We had three intentions in arranging Playhamar: - What’s an “old” toy for a child, can be a new and exciting toy for other children! - It’s fun, and a nice way to meet other children and families; maybe you get a new friend! - Arranged before Christmas when the focus of consumption is very high, Playhamar promotes sustainable values through re-use and nonconsumerism. YOUNGSTERS AND THE SPACE OF THEIR OWN IN THE CITY When a person is reaching a certain age, it can be said to be human nature to start seeking independence from its family, and at this stage the network of friends becomes increasingly important. So where to meet? Not everyone has furnished their “basement rooms” (particularly popular in the 80’s in Norway), or other rooms reserved for the younger generation. Also, one might want to meet without risking the parental

NAME : Audun AGE: 45 years old STATUS: Married to Heidi, father of two, Sondre (10) and Soe (7). PROFESSION: Teacher at Storhamar primary school (7-12 years) FROM: Born and raised in Hamar, and moved back after 15 years in Oslo. QUOTE: “Many children have a too sedentary indoor life and are not physically active socially. I believe more stimulating public space can prevent passivity. In my opinion it is need for innovation, development and better maintenance of both schoolyards, playgrounds, parks / squares and recreational areas in Hamar. In order to entice children to meet outdoor, we need more attractive outdoor areas / meeting points. Children should be able to activate in an organized and not least disorganized way without economical costs. Spaces that encourage physical and social activity, play and imagination, varied sensory stimulation and learning, facilitate good development. Stortorget can be a brilliant example of this. My dream is that Stortorget will be a playful, creative and social meeting point for people of all ages. Together with the culture house, Stortorget may contribute to making Hamar city centre an attraction full of life. Perhaps Playhamar could be a permanent event at Stortorget in the future?”

AUDUN JENSEN 60

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My dream is that Stortorget will be a playful, creative and social meeting point for people of all ages... ...Perhaps Playhamar could be a permanent event at Stortorget in the future?” Audun Jensen

generation rushing through the door any minute. Since many cities have this challenge of meeting the needs for social meeting places for youngsters, often the commercial shopping centers become the preferred arena. This is not unproblematic, given that shopping malls often mimic the public spaces in the design and use of materials, but still differ from the public space regarding their opening hours, limited access and monitoring. Shopping centers and malls might appear non-committal, but you as a visitor, will always be considered in relation to your purchasing power and behavior.

PLAYHAMAR FUTURE The non-commercial Playhamar event aimed at children, is an example of how to include children in activities in the city with an educational aspect. It is not only about meeting others and playing, but

also encourages children to reect about alternative and creative uses of buildings and public space in the city center, and our culture of consumerism. The event Playhamar can just as easily be implemented outdoors in Stortorget, during the months when the sun rise higher in the sky. Having initiated and taken part in the preparations for the Playhamar event, Audun has ownership of the idea and is well equipped to continue with similar activities for children and young people once the square is completed. And that is one of the main goals of the urban actions, that the activities and networks created during the participation process, can continue living on without Dreamhamar and ecosistema urbano’s help.

4 ON STOOLS AND PEOPLE TESTING THE PRELIMINARY DESIGN? STORY N.4

SOME BACKGROUND ON REAL-LIFE COLLECTIVE PROTOTYPING Sometimes the best way to understand the potential impact of some proposals in urban space is building and testing a lighter, cheaper and faster version of them. This allows citizens, politicians, planners and designers to experience by themselves the aesthetics, the atmospheres, and the new activities made possible by the soon-coming design. So one of the challenges this project was proposed to face was the testing of ideas and designs even during the ongoing participatory process. In line with the network design methodology, we decided to do that by involving the local community and getting Hamarsings to use their own means and skills, instead of bringing a totally foreign object and placing it in the square. This way, we were also testing the new interactions between people around the future new place in the city centre. How would they react to the idea of building something for a common space? How would their perception of that place change after that? Could the public space be used as a catalyst for relationships between groups, collectives and individuals? CARPENTRY COLLABORATION WITH UNGDOM I FARTA During our stay in Hamar we had the pleasure of meeting Dagnn Nettum and Morten F. Rustad, teachers at the Ungdom i farta school in Hamar. That school has a very interesting program that aims to show different professional opportunities to those who do not want to attend the high school in the regular programs. The school provides education in various skills, including carpentry, giving the youngsters the opportunity to try different occupations and test their own skills before deciding how they would like their future to be. The teachers support and assist them to make the most out of the experience and to help them to really succeed and get where they want to get. We were very lucky to get to know the school 65

and share our ideas about Dreamhamar. They were excited about collaborating with the project, so we started working together right away. We suggested they could produce new seats for Stortorget; they would be used for the Lighthamar event on December the 3rd and of course they would remain there afterwards as a contribution from the school to the city, and also as a rst approach and mockup for the future urban furniture of Stortorget. Both teachers and students inmmediately liked the idea and agreed to work on it. We worked together with the school and our ofce at Madrid to nd the best looking and most efcient design to make this dream come true, and then the new wooden furniture went on production by the students at the school’s great carpentry workshop.

UNGDOM I FARTA SCHOOL

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The fascinating process of handcrafted but optimized production of the wooden seats involved cutting more than 700 meters of wood into 2500 pieces ... But that didn’t put off Dagnn and the youngsters at Ungdom i farta! ”

THE BUILDING PROCESS The fascinating process of handcrafted but optimized production of the wooden seats involved cutting more than 700 meters of wood into 2500 pieces between 20 and 50 centimeters long, tinting many of them with a darker hue and then gluing and screwing them together following a three-dimensional pattern. But that didn’t put off Dagnn and the youngsters at Ungdom i farta! They set up a real factory at the workshop, using a chain production method in which each of the seven students had a specic task and did it efciently. A description of the whole process, from the rst drawings and partial prototype to the nished design, follows: First, they cut the long wood laths into different sized pieces. During the rst day of work, the pieces were drilled in order to receive the screws without splitting, but then they decided to use nails instead, as it would speed up the work dramatically. Next, some of the pieces were tinted with a darker hue in order to form the letters H-A-MA-R on the top of some of the seats. Something like the well-known Scrabble game, but in an urban scale. Then, the resulting pieces were arranged together as in the nal design, to see if they were being correctly matched. At the next production step, the pieces were lined up in rows (using a specially designed wooden frame) and glued and nailed together. The result so far was one of the rows that, when glued together with nine similar (but slightly different) ones, would form a wooden seat made of 100 pieces. So this process was reproduced 250 times in order to form the 25 wooden seats.

The nal task was grinding and sanding the most exposed surfaces in order to soften some rough edges and to remove wooden chips that could harm the people using them. The resulting seats were resistant, sturdy and light enough to be moved and placed freely around the square by the people, but also heavy enough to avoid them to be easily taken away. THE PLACING AT THE SQUARE After a really fast production process that took barely one week and a half, we took the new stools to Stortorget, where they took part on an artistic installation and Hamar’s rst ash mob. We arranged them in rows and three interaction designers connected them to big helium-lled balloons containing interactive LEDs. During that evening, the seats were lit from above with a mild, almost magical blueish light that changed according to the music of live choirs singing in the square. People began to use them, to sit on them, and nally they rested there as a wooden evidence of the power of collaboration and citizen engagement. Two days after that, the rst snow of the winter covered them, denitely merging them with the new urban landscape around Stortorget. Will they now slowly blend with the rest of the urban furniture in people’s habits? Will Hamarsings like them, use them, move them around and become used to their presence? Will we see more of them produced after the winter?

5 “ INDOOR, OUTDOOR” CREATING COMMUNITY AROUND STORTORGET STORY N.5

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By the way, we are putting RFID* tags on all the books as we speak. It is part of our moving actions.”

* Radio-frequency identication

Berit Borgen, library manager.

BOOKS ON THE GO LET’S TAKE BOOKS FOR A WALK! Hamar library was looking over Stortorget for more than 20 years. From a far it looked like a building made out of paper, simple in form and construction. When we arrived in Hamar the building was about to be demolished. On its foundation, the new culture house was going to be constructed. Almost everyone in Hamar got an opinion about this project - about it’s cost, how it would affect the future of the city, what activities were planned to happen, etc. Until Dreamhamar came to the picture, shaking things even more... By our arrival to Hamar we knew much about the coming culture house and we just started to understand, little by little, how will be the new Stortorget; but what about the future relation between these two? Just two days before it’s demolition, we met with the library manager - Berit Borgen for a video interview. The same day we collected chairs and tables that were previously used in the library and now were going to be trashed. A great re-use action for the new pop-up Physical Lab. Berit was preoccupied with the moving and packing, they were basically boxing thousands of books and shelves, the place was naked. It was surprising to nd what used to be the main reading space pretty majestic to a building that looked like it was made of paper... a central stairs hall and open spaces around it. It felt spacious and cramped at the same time. Berit set on a couch that now looked like it was completely out of place, and she was asked the usual questions about Hamar and what she thought about Stortorget before the conversation developed around technology in the world of printed books and libraries, and what would be the future library like, how

can it be connected to the new square we are designing. “By the way”, she said, “we are putting RFID tags on all the books as we speak. It is part of our moving actions.” RFID (Radio-frequency identication) is a technology that uses radio waves to transfer data from an electronic tag, called RFID tag or label, attached to an object, through a reader for the purpose of identifying and tracking the object. That could be easier for making anything available outside the physical space of the library, and for classifying the books between the interior and exterior space. If RFID becomes an open web-based platform, and users can tag, share, and contribute content to the digital existence of their own places and objects, we can truly speak of an Internet of Things. This opens perspectives for new sustainability scenario’s, for new relations between people and the stuff they own, and for other locative applications. The end of the “old” library is the beginning of the implementation of new innovative ideas. A few weeks later we held the rst on-site workshop set in the Physical Lab under the theme Technology. For that occasion we had invited Juan Freire to lead a workshop and a lecture. As an expert on the role of innovation, technology and digital culture in social networks and cities, it was an opportunity to use his knowledge and analysis to the case Hamar, by organizing a meeting between him, the future residents of the culture house and ecosistema urbano team. The idea was to use his knowledge in applied technology to implement future solutions, such as the RFID, to the better use of public space.

NAME: Juan Freire NAME : Joanna PROFESSION: Biologist AGE: 28 years old QUOTE: ”My experience with the PROFESSION: Culture Animator. Worked workshop yesterday has shown me the on various project engaging the local huge potential here in Hamar for new community to explore their local initiatives promoting collaborations history. between people... For me it would have FROM: Warsaw, Poland. been great to see the future library as a CURRENTLY: Hamar, Norway place where these kind of things occur regularly, where people meet and think QUOTE: “In the beginning I would like to about project and needs of the local say something what is maybe obvious community and library is a place where - “Dream Hamar” (called by my friends you can nd help and methodology” from Hamar “magenta project”) will not happen without ecosistemo urbano.

SHARING KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICE

The meeting took place in the physical lab with Terje Halvorsen (Cultural department manager), Berit Andersen (Cultural department Advisor), Berit Borgen (Library manager) and Hanne Sine Andresen. One of the challenges that was mentioned by library manager Berit was “how to use technology to promote reading and the library?”. The new culture house is going to have a 3000 square meters library. It is going to be a mixed environment holding after-school cultural activities, concert hall, theatre, cinema. The estimation is that approx. 800 000 people will frequent the house a year (today 200 000 people are visiting the library). Within the new culture house the library is the most open - democratic space, not asking for entry fees and more inviting for multitude actions.

One of the statements during the meeting was that as the culture house is the indoor public space and Stortorget is the outdoor public space, they are facing a similar challenge - they look for ways of attracting users. How can we create a community around both cultural house and Stortorget as meeting places? It is important also to develop a strategy and communicate to the people that the digital and the physical spaces are working together - culture house, the square and the website, so that they can participate. Dreamhamar is building a network around the square, engaging communities to work together. As the participation phase nishes, there will be a rich database of people that will most 75

likely participate in the building of their future community. “Since the library building was removed, we moved to a temporary space underground, so we are literally without any visibility. We are thinking of ways to attract attention creating a project where we are making people taking part producing a text for the web” said Berit Borgen. Juan Freire was giving the example of Localpedia - a wikipedia of topics related to local interests. It is a tool to using the knowledge of the citizens, to document the local culture and to involve people from the community, which can connect elder with youngsters, inter-age and cross cultural collaboration. This kind of meetings prove the importance of exchanging between the Culture house and the future Stortorget as they will be born, grow and coexist together in the heart of Hamar.

RECIPE / MAKING A FRUITFUL DISCUSSION PREPARATION TIME: few weeks to months to locate the stakeholders, few hours for the invitations COOKING TIME: 1-2 hours INGREDIENTS: 1-3 active members from a local organization / institution 1-2 decision makers 1 exterior expert related to the organization / institution 1 moderator DIRECTIONS: 1. Schedule a meeting with everyone in a neutral place 2. Start-up the conversation around the actual situation of the organization / institution 3. make it ow

How can the culture house be a place of production rather than consumption? - Juan Freire We would like to offer a place for production - Berit Borgen The tag “LAB” is very popular today for associating with places of production - Juan Freire Out the emphasize on the active part of the users - Belinda Tato Use existing creative groups in Hamar to use the library and to attract other people to use these kind of services - Juan Freire The big challenge we are facing now is putting together different actors of the future culture to see what kind of interaction they can have - Treje Halvorsen I think that the library can have a strong digital identity to involve the users not only when they are there but also from home -Juan Freire 76

“

let’s organize the rst ash mob in Hamar!” Thomas Caplin, choir conductor at Hedmark University College.

THE CHOIRS COMMUNITY RECLAIM THE PUBLIC SPACE One interview with Thomas Caplin and Tori Årva was revealing the need for practicing the public space; Tori is a utist working at Hamar music school, Thomas is a choir conductor working with Hedmark University college and the young choir. Both of them were mentioning that basically each institution is working on its own, and that there is a beautiful opportunity through the future Culture House to enhance a real collaboration. We asked them about the outdoor public space and what it can represent for music. It raise a discussion, and at the end of it Thomas had an idea: “let’s organize the rst ash mob in Hamar! we can make it for Christmas, as a surprise during an outdoor event on Stortorget, we can sing Hallelujah!”. We thought it was an exciting initiative, coming from a local organization. It also uncovered the utility of the outdoor public space as an open place for spontaneous activities, free of charge. The rst rehearsal was a moving sight; around 70 students, standing on a circle from tenor to bass, rst warming up by doing strange voices practicing Hallelujah. Then, we met the other choirs, and they were practicing parallel for the same event, Lighthamar, that was the wrapping up event marking the nal of our stay in Hamar. December arrived (but not the snow!), almost three months after the meeting with Tori and Thomas and this was happening - Lighthamar. An event including light installation on Stortorget was invaded by 250 77

singers, professionals and amateurs from Solheimkoret, Toneheim and the Cathedral Choir.

“

We have long dreamed of a ‘street chapel’ in the city” Øyvind Fjellestad, pastor of Hamar Frikirke

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE WAGON?

CREATING COMMUNITY

Once upon a time, Hamar was an industrial site. It left strong marks on the town’s plan: now abandoned factories and warehouses, browneld land and the main train line cutting the town from the lake shore. The factories are now slowly being converted and taking new functions, the browneld land will be changed for more housing along the shore. That gave us an inspiration for proposing an intervention on the square: using one of the abandoned train wagons in the browneld land to temporally host different activities on the square. The rst idea we had in mind was to use it as a library pavilion - promoting reading and offering a place to meet and interact.

As time went by, we have managed to reach more and more members of the local community, seeking a place for practicing their activities, to exchange and interact. We are now, in coordination with the kommune, developing a program which combines the existing activities in Hamar, trying to promote Stortorget as a new scenario for these to happen.

Like the square, a library represents a space where one can stay for free, without former planning. In that way, its resembles outdoor public spaces, and would work good as a program for the wagon. Unfortunately, we met many logistic and technical challenges when planning to transform the wagon into a library branch. As books require a dry, temperature stable ambient, and we were also looking for a more ephemeral use of the wagon, to ensure a diverse and manifold use of the space. That led us to perceive the wagon more as a temporary shelter and service device for popup events while the new Stortorget is waiting to be constructed, to ensure continuation of activities on the main square.

The future design of Stortorget is inuenced from many interconnected factors. During the on-site workshops and while talking about the topic with locals, a question keeps repeating: “what would be the correlation between the culture house and the square?” “Could we watch the inside from outside?”. It is quite clear that the correlation between the square and the new culture house is strong. The different people engaged in both projects should work cooperatively to make the most about this interrelation. If this cooperation is well dened, Stortorget can strongly complement the Culture house program by absorbing, giving visibility, expanding and multiplying it.

6 STORTORGET, THE AGORA OF HAMAR ENHANCING DEBATE THROUGH PUBLIC SPACE STORY N.6 81

“

One of the biggest challenges of Dreamhamar beyond coordinating the large amount of networks, was enhancing local participation...”

“Architecture is a political act, by nature. It has to do with the relationships between people and how they decide to change their conditions of living. And architecture is a prime instrument of making that change – because it has to do with building the environment they live in, and the relationships that exist in that environment.” Lebbeus Woods 83

MOVING HAMAR - THE IMPORTANCE OF LOCAL CONTACTS One of the biggest challenges in Dreamhamar, beyond coordinating the large amount of networks, was enhancing local participation. I remember talking with some Norwegian architects before we launched the project, they were always very excited about it, but less condent about the challenge of moving people out of their ‘natural environment’ to participate. “Norwegians are not easy to move” one said. Pretty quickly we understood the scoop of the challenge. Before coming to Hamar, we sent over one hundred emails to local associations as we wanted to meet them and discuss the project. But there were few responses. We discovered the importance of meeting stakeholders personally, coming from abroad, we had to build up condence among the locals. As the process was starting we had several meetings with the Municipality’s communication department, to test our communication strategy and to respond the question of “how to get people’s attention?”. “The newspaper” said Ingse Kjernmoen, “whatever you plan and do, make sure the newspaper is talking about it and you will reach the people”. So we got in touch with Hamar Arbeiderblad, the local daily newspaper. The rst and logical contact was the Culture section, and we had a few feature articles about getting to Hamar and looking forward to meet with people. But getting in touch only with the Culture section was not enough, it almost didn’t do anything to the local residents. In addition, Dreamhamar suffered from an indistinct status, unable to classify into the well-known categories as an “art project”, “commercial event” or “entertainment”. Even people who were familiar with participation processes, found Dreamhamar very complex for it contained a wide range of networks, experts and more various activities than just workshops. The fact that the project was shortened from 1,5 year to 4 month to the request of the city council executive board, it was even more challenging to communicate the different events and workshops in a distinctive way through the channels available. Throughout the process we have tested various means of communication such as the local newspapers,

radio, printed advertisement, posters, local agendas and our constantly updated web page, dreamhamar.org. Since the web page was designed to mainly communicate English content (with a Norwegian section), it turned out to work well as a platform for discussions among the global online participants, and as a window to the world about what was going on on Hamar, but we gained little activity from the locals. In addition, to work as an info source, dreamhamar.org is documenting the process, and is therefore an easy available, important document that inhabitants and others interested can turn to whenever in the past. As part of the original project strategy, we looked to hire a person who would direct the on-site workshops and would help us map the local community when we arrived to Hamar, but after short time we made a little change of plan: Instead of one person, we decided to engage ve different community activators, one for each of the ve topics featuring the on-site workshops. They were savvy on the topic and local community members, and one of their responsibilities was to spread the word about the project and ensure participation in their activities. Like ambassadors, they represented Dreamhamar. One of the things we found out during the participation process was that more people participated in the workshops where we had an active, local, community activator. EMPOWERING COMMUNITY Painthamar, also called the opening event, was planned to launch Dreamhamar and introduce it to the maximum amount of stakeholders. To celebrate this new beginning for Stortorget, the parking lot was closed for trafc by simply moving and changing the use of the existing granite bollards, from being the limit of the parking lot, to benches and tables for this temporary public space. It was a simple, but impressive, transformation. We also invited Boa Mistura, an urban art collective from Madrid, to re-interpret the temporary public space. It took 52 hours of work, 120 liters of paint and 10 hands, to transform the space into a cheerful, colorful, stage for creativity and innovation.

THE PHYSICAL LAB: The Bazaar building was Dreamhamar’s Physical Laboratory, where workshops, lectures and exhibitions took place through the fall of 2011. It is placed in Hamar, facing Stortorget square. It was also Ecosistema Urbano’s pop up ofce during the whole participation process. All Hedmark residents were invited to join the events on weekdays and weekends from September to December and say how they want Stortorget to become. 84

“

In the future, the question will be: - Where were you when Stortorget was redesigned?” Einar Busterud (former) mayor of Hamar

During the opening event two important and revelatory events took place. First, it was the speech by the (former) mayor Einar Busterud: “Today we are building the foundation of what the citizens, in a hundred years from now, are going to feel about our main square. In the future, the question will be: Where were you when Stortorget was redesigned? Then you will have two possible answers: Either you can tell us about your participation, or you can explain why you weren’t there. If you are not participating, don’t complain afterwards. The only certain thing is that the square has to change. So please, come join us for this process. Stand up and be a responsible citizen!” When we think about it now, this was an invitation to participate in the process, but also adding Dreamhamar an important political layer by making us the one providing the answers for the citizen’s needs. Short time after Knut Bakke, a local artist, demonstrated because the municipality had not provided a museum for local art in Hamar. He therefore decided to burn a piece of art in the centre of the square, as an action of protest.

Stortorget was ofcially re-entitled a public space, Agora, a political space where discussion and confrontation for the sake of the public interest take place. As stated before, getting people to participate was the challenge. After the opening event, we had more than 60 people registered for the coming workshops. It was a good result we thought, but later it turned out to be a challenge to make people show up at the rst workshops. During the rst week of workshops there were few participants. REVOLVING DOORS Nonetheless, the physical lab was visited regularly by locals. The physical location - in the heart of the city and in-front of Stortorget - along with the inviting nature of the building made it easy for people to come by and see us. Sometimes it felt like the physical lab was a meeting point, as people were constantly coming by to discuss their agendas, whether 85

related to the square, to problems in Hamar, or even their own wishes and personal thoughts. This was also part of the ambivalent status of Dreamhamar - we were hired by the municipality, and therefore we were often perceived as the kommune, we were Spanish and therefore we were outsiders, a rather undened entity, and we were placed in the centre of town, in a mythical building, and therefore we were open for visits. We were open for all sort of comments and discussions, not only ones related to Stortorget. ON PROVOCATION AND COMMUNICATION “You need to provoke!” said Geir Cock once while we were talking about how to get people to participate. The purpose of Dreamhamar was not only about arranging on-site workshops where dedicated inhabitants could discuss and write down their suggestions and preferences for the new Stortorget. It was also about engaging the people that would normally not approach these kind of discussions, and make them think, talk (and do) something about public space in general, and especially Stortorget. So as Dreamhamar progressed, urban actions also became a more important tool to empower the local population. With help from the National school of Gardeners and Flower decorators; VEA, which is located in the region, two installations were made and remained on the square until the 5th of December. An old car wreck was lled up with plants both inside and outside and transformed into an untraditional owerpot , and a huge circle was made of 400 meters of tree trunks cut in pieces, creating a playful and colorful landscape. The children seemed to enjoy it from the rst second, while others did not see the point in adding a new layer to the square. Creating these two installations made the inhabitants of Hamar look at Stortorget with new eyes, not only as an indifferent left-overspace covered with asphalt, but as an exposed, public space that one should handle with respect. With the help of the editor in chief of Hamar Arbeiderblad we met with the editor of the debate section, Anne Ekornholmen, and a journalist who wanted to help us in communicating the project to the citizens. They suggested to use the debate section to publish articles and any content to communicate what Dreamhamar was about. They also suggested to schedule an online debate where people could ask questions “live” about the project. We were very keen of these opportunities.

GREENHAMAR: Greenhamar was an urban action organized by Dreamhamar with Vea School Statens fagskole for gartnere og blomsterdekoratører, and the contribution of teachers Gudbrand Kjøs and Frode Degvold. Dreamhamar wanted to give Stortorget the opportunity of becoming a car-free green place for pedestrians to meet. An old picturesque car parked at the square became a ower pot, and a wooden platform/bench/stage/ playground was constructed using 400 meters of trunks and 10 tons of gravel. 86

THE POLEMICS During the last weeks of the participation process, the local newspapers told stories about concerned shop owners around Stortorget, losing their parking lots temporarily. That made us curious: Are surface parking lots what the city needs in competition with the suburb shopping malls?

Stortorget - gives the collection of opinions, viewpoints and projects very important for the understanding of the global community around it. These ideas must be taken into account and the nal product adjusted or reconciled to reect these mandates or values of the community.

It is a fact that nowadays the role of the city center works more as an arena to socialize and for leisure activities than before. So the challenge is to keep the city center attractive and alive the whole year around, and convince the shop owners that they would benet of this in a long-term perspective. Non-commercial events such as Greenhamar and Playhamar could provide the city an important additional aspect that makes the inhabitants connect more closely to it and use it more frequently. As a meeting place, the city confronts a real challenge facing the shopping malls that can always offer temperate, calm and dry conditions regardless of the season (in addition to free parking).

Furthermore, Dreamhamar had, for various reasons, a rather indistinct status; between art, architecture and communication project, between the public sector of the municipality (we were selected as the competition winners), the private sector (with whom we collaborated for the events organization) and the community itself (everybody is invited to participate and contribute their ideas). In addition, being physically placed in the heart of the city, facing Stortorget, and with an all day visiting time gave Dreamhamar an extra challenge of absorbing even more than the ideas during the workshops, it allowed us to watch and be watched. Discovering the local community allowed us to learn much about it, and “being watched” by it also gave us a unique understanding, we were a mirror reecting everything happening around, and the viewpoint of various constituencies, to our own image.

GETTING INTO POLITICS Politics is fundamentally about engaging people while accommodating or reconciling their viewpoints, usually towards a goal or end. Within the ‘conventional’ architectural process, politics become part of the dialogue between the architect and the client, both of whom may have different opinions at different stages of the process; the nal design reconciles these opinions. Ultimately, in a participation process such as Dreamhamar, where both local and global stakeholders are engaged to participate, the project’s success becomes a complex political challenge. The precise goal - the design of

7 ALTERING PERSPECTIVES CHALLENGING STUDENTS TO PARTICIPATE IN THEIR FUTURE COMMUNITY OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL STORY N.7

“

The French curator Nicholas Bourriaud published a book called Relational Aesthetics ...“a set of artistic practices which take as their theoretical and practical point of departure the whole of human relations and their social context, rather than an independent and private space.” He saw artists as facilitators rather than makers...” 90

THE CULTURAL RUCKSACK: 1292 SCHOOL CHILDREN FOR THE NEW STORTORGET. A TEXT BY CARLY TRONCALE

This year, both the Education and Cultural Departments at the Municipality of Hamar have decided to connect the cultural Rucksack project to Dreamhamar by giving 1292 pupils from 9 elementary schools and 3 high schools, the possibility to contribute by sharing their ideas for Stortorget. The idea is to leave an open stage to the young generation to develop their ideas and think how can the main square become a meeting place for everyone? WHY DID I COOPERATE WITH ECOSISTEMA URBANO? I have my Master degree in Social Practice from California College of the Arts in San Francisco, and I chose that particular school and education for their focus on collaboration and cross disciplinary artistic practice. I became involved in Dreamhamar because I found it very exciting that there was a group of creative people being very active and visible and welcoming participation in Hamar. And they welcomed everyone regardless of race, age, and background which is truly a forward thinking and inclusive practice. For me, as an artist dealing with relational aesthetics, it is natural to accept the process of collaboration as an art form. But for some of us, it may have been difcult to accept, so for this reason I will give a little background of the history of this prolic movement that has been a very popular type of contemporary art since the 1970’s. Nicholas Bourriaud helped us all with a good explanation in the late 90’s... FROM THE TATE DICTIONARY: RELATIONAL AESTHETICS The French curator Nicholas Bourriaud published a book called Relational Aesthetics in 1998 in which he described the term as meaning “a set of artistic practices which take as their theoretical and practical point of departure the whole of human relations and their social context, rather than an independent and private space.” He saw artists as facilitators rather than makers and regarded art as information exchanged between the artist and the viewers. The artist, in this sense, gives audiences access to power and the means to change the world. For examples see the art of Gillian Wearing,

Philippe Parreno, Douglas Gordon and Liam Gillick, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Tino Sehgal, Carsten Höller, Louis Althusser, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Félix Guattari, along with many many other artists practicing today. The times have changed, art is no longer conned to the gallery wall or pedestals. Artists see relational aesthetics and social democracy as a response to the consumer society and consumption era. One of the rst questions that Belinda Tato asked me was what I thought the challenges would be to carry out a project of this type. I was skeptical about the project’s chances for success at the beginning. Not because of the democratic format of the project but because the biggest challenge for Ecosistema Urbano could be the people that live in the town itself. I have seen several relational aesthetics projects of a similar model fail because it is very difcult to come into a community as an outsider and tell the people living there how to creatively develop their own environment. It is natural to become protective and think: Who else can know better what a community needs than the community itself? Whether they were invited there or not and regardless of the fact that it is rallied as a democratic process, these “invaders” are still outsiders, and that will always be their greatest obstacle. That seems to be the nature of the beast, it is seen as an unwanted imperialism and soon xenophobia overshadows the positive aspects of the project. After the outsiders have nished their projects, they leave. Their leaving breeds skepticism, distrust, and an eventual return to how things worked before their arrival. History as it tends to do, has repeated itself in Hamar. But it still remains to be seen whether the project was a success or failure. We will see that in the nal design of the square and its uses over time. And now I would like to introduce you to post-relational aesthetics in the long line of movements throughout art history. To give some parallel examples: rst we had, impressionism, then - post-impressionism... modernism, then post-modernism... Relational Aesthetics is actually on its

“

We learned to collaborate in a good way, we were grouped with others who had similar drawings and ideas” “But when you work together you have to use a lot of time to make one decision, if you work alone things can change much faster.”

SIMEN WORKED WITH ARTIST/ TEACHER ANSGAR OLE OLSEN

SIMEN BARFLO AGE: 14 92

“

Students can compare the size of their designs to the reality of the space and that is a very unique experience for them...” Katrine Berg, light artist and teacher.

way out and we are now witness to a type of post-relational aesthetics in the arts that reects a criticality of the movement and its socially democratic process. These works of art utilize the same languages, audiences, time and space frames as the phenomena as they seek to criticize, change and dismantle, and reect the failures and shortcomings of these processes rather than seeking a Utopian location somewhere on the outside that ultimately simply leads back to the connes of the social process.

OVERALL METHODOLOGY 1.SCHOOLS WORKSHOPS: The teachers will help the pupils to structure and draw their ideas in paper. Following a selection process, they will move to step 2 to realize their ideas with the artists. The pupils will be working with their teachers in class. Everybody is invited. Outputs: - 1292 propositions (in A4 format) for Stortorget, made by pupils individually. - 32 selected propositions (in A2 format) for Stortorget, made by pupils in teams. 2. ARTISTS WORKSHOPS: The artists will incubate the selected propositions and will work with the teams to make it live by realizing their ideas using different materials. The pupils, in 32 teams of 5 pupils each (maximum), will be working with artists at the Bazaar building. Outputs: - The selected 32 propositions for Stortorget will be rened and realized by the teams working with the artists. The teams will produce 3D models expressing their ideas with the support and directions of the artists. - 4 texts (900 words) written by the artists, describing the workshops

TEACHERS PROFILES KATRINE BERG Light artist and teacher

Born in 1966. Educated at Norsk kunsthandverksskule, Voss Statens Håndverks og Kunstindustriskole, institutt for metall. Since then, she has worked as an artist with light and sculpture, mostly for public commissions. Kathrine has implemented art projects for several schools and other institutions. Her latest work is an outdoor installation in a forest near Trondheim. She has exhibited her light objects in galleries in several norwegian cities. She works as an adviser and consultant for public commissions. From Interview: “The students feel very safe here to experiment. When they get the experience of coming here to build a model for the new torget they can actually go outside and gain a physical reference to the space they are working with. Then the students can compare the size of their designs to the reality of the torget and that is a very unique experience for them... But I feel that one day was not enough time for them to develope their creativity and social skills...” “I hope this project will bring out some good ideas for Stortorget. The youth will show us their wishes and how they experience the square. What is important for a meeting place, how they move and relax, and their behavior.” “My contribution for the Cultural Rucksack project will be to guide and inspire the youngsters for them to develop their ideas. I will advise them on how to work with space, lights, materials, nature, size, energy, experiences and mind, etc. Together we will see the possibilities to look for the heart of Hamar. I am curious and hope we shall bring in the water

CULTURAL RUCKSACK / RECIPE KULTURELLE SKOLESEKKEN - school workshops: 1292 propositions for Stortorget made by pupils in Hamar - on-site workshops brief + tools - 32 teams of 5 pupils each working with 4 artists INGREDIENTS: 160 students, 4 artists, a lot of pencils glue guns pieces of cardboard

DIRECTIONS: 1. 5 STUDENTS AND ONE ARTIST: Take one drawing of dream town square and 5 students to Basarbygningen, give them one work-day and the tools they need to build their dream town square 3D model. Add one artist to lead the process. Repeat again until you have 32 models from all groups. 2. ON-SITE INSPIRATION: Take students out of their daily element to a professional workspace 3. PHYSICAL DESIGN: 3-4 small groups at different tables each work with one teacher, share supplies, space, ideas 4. COMMUNICATION: Involve the students and you involve the family, blog and photos 5. LOGISTICS: Drawings displayed at Basarbygningen, ď&#x192;&#x17E;nal exhibition of students work at Kunstbanken, teacher and student reports. 94

“

[...] Children can actually inuence the nal result.” Esther Helen Slagsvold, one of the 4 artists involved in the Cultural Rucksack.

and some poetry.”

KARI OLINE OEVERSETH: Ceramic artist and a part time art-teacher

“As I have worked with public commissions for many years I always start with an analysis of the situation. Then I ask myself what I will add for the experience of the space. Most of my work is indoors, only the latest is outside and in nature. So this will be a new experience.” ESTHER HELEN SLAGSVOLD: Goldsmith and teacher

Since 1989 she has been a ceramic artist and a part time art-teacher. She has participated in the Cultural Rucksack project in other Norwegian Municipalities since 1996. In these previous experiences children were introduced to the regulations and organization of public art in Norway expressing their own ideas for public art producing 3D models. This method has become the basis for the workshop at Hamar. She was educated as a goldsmith in Oslo and Pforzheim (Germany) before studying Art at the Statens håndverks- og kunstindustriskole in Oslo. Assistant professor of educational studies at Hedmark University College. She has been artistically active for 25 years through art exhibitions, as a freelance designer and art consultant for public buildings. She has conducted public art projects, organized international art symposium, curated art exhibitions, and participated in 8 solo and more than 70 collective exhibitions. She has received 11 design awards. From Interview: “I hope this project will engage the children so that they will care more about their environment - that, will give them a feeling that their opinions matter and that they can actually inuence the nal result. That said, I think perhaps the most important will be the process and the experiences these students receive by being involved in a project like this, rather than what actually is the specic end result - which is of course great as it is a more long term project!”

From Interview: “When children became involved in this process, they began to share their experiences with their parents and as a result their families also became involved in the Dreamhamar project. It’s very common for Norwegians to travel throughout Europe, and when we talk about creating a public space that is different from ours, we look at other European towns where it can be very common to see a fountain as the city center. Today our torget is very similar to other spaces in Norway. These outdoor spaces, such as Vigeland Park, are very symmetric. Students in the age group that we are working with are quite traditional in their design choices; that is why we have seen very similar ideas throughout the models and drawings such as symmetry and the location of a central fountain.” “My role here is to inspire and encourage the pupils, to help them reach their goal in visualizing their ideas.”

“

One of the skills they have focused on is the process of elimination, removing what isn’t necessary from the designs and learning what is important to keep.” Ansgar Ole Olsen, one of the 4 artists involved.

ANSGAR OLE OLSEN: Sculptor and craft artist Sculptor and craft artist, working mainly with metals. Before he started his artistic career he worked for 6 years in a ship yard, welding big ships, what has strongly inuenced his artistic approach. Since then, his career has been mainly focused on art for public spaces, taking part both in solo and collective exhibitions in Norway and abroad. From interview: “It was helpful to work with small groups, and some of them have been involved in the process since the rst drawings. One of the skills they have focused on is the process of elimination, removing what isn’t necessary from the designs and learning what is important to keep.”

8 DREAM ON THE CLOUD URBAN SOCIAL LIFE INSIDE THE DIGITAL LAB STORY N.8

A DIGITAL CLOUD OVER HAMAR “The cloud”, referring to Internet’s digital space, is a beautiful metaphor for Dreamhamar Digital Lab: a layer of clouds oating over Hamar, growing from the experiences, ideas and reections that came up from the city like cultural vapour and back down in a rain of proposals, articles, ideas, videos, drawings and all kinds of content.

DREAMHAMAR BLOG dreamhamar.org A DISPLAY TO THE WORLD: THE DIGITAL IDENTITY Up there, a whole new world of interactions and information was created. Rapidly, Dreamhamar had a digital identity that could contain, express and communicate each of its components both locally and globally. This digital identity was built by merging together a series of static pages, a constant stream of updates, and both internal and external social networking proles that could interact with participants and general readers. The different static pages were conceived as sources of updated, structured and reliable information, trying to answer the questions that any visitor could have in mind: What is Dreamhamar? How is it going? What’s that workshop about? Where is it happening? For how long? Who is behind it? How can I get involved? The blog was conceived as a constant stream of articles, news and other contents, all divided in dynamic microsites that would put together all the content related to a specic aspect of the project: an online or onsite workshop, a subproject like the Cultural Rucksack, or a specic content channel like Hamar Experience for example. Clouds forming a bigger cloud.

ONSITE WORKSHOP MICROSITES dreamhamar.org

The videos of the online broadcasted Hamar Experience weekly sessions, were a way for 100

the professional team and local guests to express their impressions and experiences along the process, discuss related topics and keep the followers updated.

HAMAR EXPERIENCE www.dreamhamar.org/category/hamar-experience/

The web and mobile participatory application is a new channel that was developed and given to the city, aiming to encourage and facilitate communication between Hamar citizens, as well as with the municipality and other institutions. In order to combine both static and dynamic contents, lter and highlight the most relevant for each topic, and link everything together in one single page, we created different microsites for the different workshops, as a more simple, purpose driven and precise approach to the complexity of the whole project. This way collaborators, participants and general readers had the opportunity to focus on an specic aspect, a micro-world inside Dreamhamar.

MEMOLANE http://memolane.com/dreamhamar/dreamhamar%20process

DREAMHAMAR APP www.dreamhamar.org/application/ 101

Dreamhamar’s digital activity made Hamar visible and accessible to the world. Thousands of professionals, students and citizens are followers of the project, hundreds of them got involved in some way, and expectations are constantly rising as the project evolves. Some of them just see it as an interesting case, some as an opportunity to trust in their own ideas, some are just curious about public life and culture in Hamar, and others use it as a means for their practice and learning... and all of them connect, mostly for the rst time, to the reality of Hamar and its initiative to evolve in a different way as a city.

A NETWORK WIDE OVER LAND AND SEA Displaying content and expressing the project’s digital identity was not the only purpose of the digital cloud: a great effort was put in building a comfortable place for interaction and debate between professionals in charge, participants and followers. This is why dreamhamar.org included a less visible but not less important part: an internal social network, where more than 50 people, including architects, planners, students, creatives and other proles, published and interacted regularly, contributing to make the project grow.

ONLINE WORKSHOPS

A global network was progressively built, workshop after workshop, activity after activity, drawing people from very different places together in a global conversation around Hamar. How could that even happen? Why would foreign professionals and students get so interested in Hamar? Because it was a unique opportunity for them to meet renowned experts, and share their personal projects, to work with them on topics of common interest.

ONLINE SESSIONS

To get an idea of the diversity of the people involved in this, we can compare not only their professional proles but also their origins: people from Italy, United Kingdom, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Poland, France, Spain, Egypt and more. An especially relevant example is the case of Matias Lecoq, a french social and political researcher and traveler that joined the Tactical Urbanism online workshop from a remote wood cabin at Chamonix, in the French Alps. The online presence of the project allowed him to join the workshop and share his thoughts and research with other professionals, while providing new ideas and reections to the project.

GROUP SITES

MATIAS LECOQ joined an online workshop from a wood cabin

Many participants , like Agata RuchlewiczDzianach, a designer from Gdansk (Poland), got deeply involved in the workshops, not only publishing 7 articles within a few weeks but also sharing over 18 comments on other user’s contents. Considering the professionally thought, drawn and written contents she supplied, this is an impressive amount. 102

As she states in one of her posts: “I had read the last posts and I wanted to comment some of them. When I started to write down some comments, I realized how they were linked one to another so I decided to post a reection about that. Now, I see that we are all working on the same issue and that all proposals and considerations go in the same way. As we started from different points of view and different backgrounds, now I see that more often and often, we have the similar conclusions. It’s an interesting feeling and I nd it super-inspiring!” The online interaction, however, was not limited to posting articles, drawings and opinions: one of the most innovative parts of the online workshops was the online working sessions that participants and experts held with the multi-user video streaming application Google Hangout. These sessions gave everyone the opportunity to meet each other and uidly discuss around their ongoing projects. As workshop participant Sara Armento stated: “I had never thought that an online workshop could be so exciting [...] the blog is a great tool that allows you to reect about your point of view and to go deeper into your ideas before sharing them with others, as democracy is also the responsibility to say something signicant for the others. But the most important thing is that this workshop has been a sort of “SOFT” design experiment: with soft I mean the sensation to feel “light” during the design process, without the typical obsession of the architects to do the greatest square of all times or to demonstrate something to other people. The important thing in this case has been to stimulate the participants with inputs and to be stimulated in return, to mix ideas and to share them is a very friendly way, and the possibility to propose things even in contrast between them.”

AGATA RUCHLEWICZ-DZIANACH www.dreamhamar.org/members/agata/ 103

PARTICIPATION – TO BE CONTINUED. a proposal by Christian Hjelle

A LIBRARY OF DREAMS... AND MORE THAN DREAMS If we look thoroughly at the web platform now, we can get a partial but illustrative idea of its power and reach far beyond communication issues: it acts as a container for a HUGE amount of selected, connected and diverse content. The most important points in the process are there, well documented; the best photographs of all the relevant events are there; the key people that took part in the process are all there; same for the drawings and proposals from students and workshop participants; the theoretical contents of the workshops and the lectures that contain the knowledge of many experts are also published; some testimonials from people that participated in one or another way; the “ying ideas” that were collected at the ofce or through the online and mobile application; the models that kids made during the workshops; the drawings of the preliminary design that Ecosistema Urbano prepared last summer; the reports made by the community activators about the on-site workshops and lectures... a huge effort has been put into making this more than a website, a real database and showcase of the collective memory of the project. This way, the platform represents the digital narration and heritage of the project. It is the window that foreign and local people can look through to see the project, to understand it and get into details as far as they wish. It is the digital lab where the future of Hamar’s urban heart was thought, dened and discussed over and over by many different minds, hands and voices. It is a greatly accessible, participatory and contemporary library of singular and collective dreams, and much more than dreams, for Hamar. We wish and hope it can go on like that for the coming months of further development, and even after that, once a new and lively square will be in place, and deeply rooted in the city, and in the minds of both neighbours and global citizens.

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DIGITAL STATISTICS + dreamhamar.org 10.617 visits 25.023 page views 4.528 absolute unique visitors Norway: 3223 visits Italy: 612 United States: 307 Mexico: 262 France: 198 105

Egypt:145 Denmark: 140 United Kingdom: 125 Ireland: 110 Spain: 4259

+ twitter followers: 288 klout: 40 (very high for such a young project) nb : Klout is an inď&#x192;&#x;uence measurement tool, more relevant than the number of followers

+ facebook likes: 467

THINGS WE HAVE LEARNED FROM HAMAR

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3/3 FUTUREHAMAR

FROM DREAMHAMAR NETWORK DESIGN PROCESS TO URBAN DESIGN ONE THOUSAND SQUARE proposal for the “Art in the main Square” rst phase competition launched by Hamar Kommune, was delivered as an animation in a box together with a 118 pages document describing a participatory art process for Stortorget Square. From the jury’s comments: “The jury believes that the proposal is very interesting, not only because it contains a good planning method, but because it includes Hamar’s clearly stated ideals of transparency, active participation and democratic processes. ONETHOUSANDSQUARE represents an artistic practice and an artistic image of this ideal. In addition, the project is a clear expression of the awareness of the globalized world.” The original proposal involved, among other things, 1.5 years of a participatory process. The project was selected for a second phase development that claried some aspects of the proposal and made it more adapted to the city’s needs and timing. At this point of the process the proposal was selected by the jury, and following the jury’s comments it was elaborated and transformed to provide a project more suitable for Stortorget. The nal decision from the Municipal Executive Board on the 27th of April 2011 was connected to the schedule for the planned opening of the culture-house in December 2013, which meant that the nal design project had to be ready with all necessary documents for tender and construction by June 2012.

The nal approved proposal was linked to a 12 months schedule and was including: 1. A preliminary design for Stortorget to be discussed with Hamar Kommune (3 months). 2. A participatory art process for the nal design of Stortorget square (4 months). 3. A nal design project with all necessary documents for tender and construction (5 months). With Dreamhamar, the municipality of Hamar decided to take a pioneering approach to the construction of the new Square. Instead of handing over a nished square to the citizens, the citizens had the opportunity to participate in a collective brainstorming process that will result in the new design of Stortorget. Ecosistema Urbano team was in Hamar, from August to December, to share with Hamar inhabitants how they saw the city and what dreams they have for Stortorget. With that principle, Ecosistema Urbano, responsible for urban design, will summarize the inputs and all the results of the process, trying to bring into the design of the square the main ideas and concepts that emerged in the workshops. As a starting point for these participation activities Ecosistema Urbano used the material produced in the preliminary project phase. The challenge was to get people to think and react and come up with ideas and concepts, more than to design the square. The panels, booklet with the

preliminary design and interactive model that was made in this phase, were intended to be used as tools that showed some possibilities for Stortorget development, and not as a recipe for how the square could look like. The materials, elements and furniture displayed in the booklet are intended as a proposal that could open up new ideas about the use and design. Participants in the workshops found their own tools to manage Stortorget in terms of scale, materiality and use. The advantages of this process were: + Social engagement: activities and workshops created an environment for people to explore and redene Hamar’s identity expressing themselves in a creative atmosphere. The aim was not only to enrich the ideas database for the urban design, but also to create new connections between people to ensure future rich activities and new social engagements. + Testing ideas: some of the installations have transformed the square temporarily allowing everyone to experience the space differently creating unique atmospheres. + Sharing the experience: the original process attracted worldwide attention.

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COLLECTING DREAMS

INPUT CHANNELS AND TYPES What?

Where?

Who?

Suggestions

Physical inbox Email inbox Cultural Rucksack Cultural Rucksack Website On-site workshops Online workshops UA workshop BAS workshop UA workshop BAS workshop HU workshop

General public General public Children Children General public General public Professionals, students Students Students Students Students Students

Models Drawings Comments Reports Projects Urban actions

METHODOLOGY: HOW WE DID THIS

KEYWORD CLASSIFICATION

When facing the enormous task of processing all the contributions, we established some general methodological criteria:

When reviewing the different contributions and extracting the most relevant keywords, we found that each one of them could be classied inside one or more general thematic groups, which we proceed to describe:

// Building a common framework: trying to establish a format that would allow us to compare very different inputs: drawings, single “ying” ideas, more elaborated projects, suggestions, photos, videos, reports from the workshops, etc. We did this by using tag clouds for visualization and a keyword matrix that was lled and structured during the review process. // Extracting a series of “keywords” from every single document: relating actions, general topics, adjectives, or more particular contexts that proved to be important. // Establishing links between ideas and impressions: while processing all the documents, we kept writing down some general or more particular impressions that could otherwise not be highlighted in a chart. Those interpretations can be either sourcebased (e.g. relating a specic workshop or target) or more topic-based relationships, comparisons, etc.

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Actions Simple actions, expressed as verbs, and divided as dynamic and static ones, depending on the level of movement involved. Activities Suggestions involving one or more actions combined into a more complex activity, like social, political or leisure oriented ones, games, sports, etc. Business Ideas related to business in and around the square. Different approaches are present: temporary and permanent, public or private, company or people-to-people driven ones. Design Some of the inputs were directly referring to design issues and items, specially to urban furniture and general architectural design.

Technology There was a signicant amount of direct references to the possible uses of technology in urban space, mostly related to interaction and communication technologies, light and sound. Environment The presence of seasonal change and nature around the city made this topic stand out by itself. Mainly about water, vegetation and weather changes. Transport/Mobility Transport issues have been also very present during the whole process: different ways of managing car trafc, proposals about bikes and some references to the train culture of Hamar. Culture Diverse cultural proposals in reference to culinary culture, music, memories and other signs of cultural identity, as well as education and family. Art A high number of proposals were related to art in public space, mostly with temporary, performance-like approaches but also graphic

arts and sculpture, and any of them suggested to provide the infrastructure for various exhibitions and even on-site creation. Events A special chapter inside culture and art, with direct references to traditional or new programmed events. Public ones, from speeches to music festivals, or more private ones like birthdays and weddings. Culture House Here we included some proposals that were directly in relation with the new Culture House and its future contents. The square and the building as complementary aspects of public culture. Other keywords Here we gathered various keywords, which are mostly adjectives that describe the expected quality and feel of the new public space.

Tag Cloud from The Cultural Rucksack project

Tag Cloud from Greenhamar urban action preparatory workshops 110

WHAT’S NEXT?

THE FIRST OUTCOMES Now that the rst on-site part of the process has nished, there are different types of results or conclusions that can be extracted from the project. Some of them are related to the way the project was managed and implemented, others affect its future evolution, others refer specically to the future design of the Stortorget square, and others make us think about the conditions that will help make the most out of that new public space for the people. Conclusions about the process This project has been a new experience in many aspects and for many different agents: the municipality, the citizens of Hamar and even, a global community of architects and urban planners who has been regularly following it since the beginning. Now it’s time to look back and see what we have tried, learned, tested, developed and experienced during the process, what surprised us or what happened as expected. What’s the nal balance after four months of intense on-site work? How do we think we could improve this experience next time? Which were the main local reactions? and what about the global reactions? Short term action plan What will happen during the design process, the building process and after the new square is nished? How can we keep things happening towards a more active urban space? How could we handle possible conicts and manage them as part of the project? How can we keep the interest alive? The whole public space making process is going to be much longer than the Dreamhamar project itself, so it’s important to foresee those aspects in both remote and local dimensions (Madrid and Hamar), and to understand that the creation of a community has not nished: it has just started.

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Long term legacy What happens once the project is nished? How to guarantee that participation and urban life will keep on happening? What activities are permitted and encouraged in that new public space? What does a citizen need to do to organize an event outdoors? How simple or complex this procedure is? How long in advance should the application be sent? Can we simplify these procedures, or even automate them? Can they be more transparent and accessible? Together with the design of the new Stortorget we will provide a series of recommendations of how it would be possible to ‘exibilize’ the regulations allowing more and different activities to take place promoted by individuals. Design considerations What are people’s expectations, ideas and dreams for this project? How do we turn them into usable criteria for the urban design of Stortorget? During the participatory process, one of the main goals (together with the creation of a community around Stortorget) was to gather ideas, suggestions and opinions that could provide us as designers (as well as to the municipality ) a proper context and design guidelines in order to better fulll the expectations of the inhabitants and future users of the square.

THINGS WE HAVE LEARNED FROM HAMAR ABOUT THE PROCESS DREAMHAMAR= PLANNING + COMMUNICATION + SOCIAL PROJECT

COMMUNICATION VS. TIME

STORTORGET VS. CITY CENTER

Dreamhamar is a very ambitious and unusual project dealing with different layers of information, stakeholders and conditions. The nal outcome of Dreamhamar will be the physical transformation of Stortorget, and for this reason it has been conceived and ofcially managed as a planning and technnical project.

In a participatory process like this, information is key in order to activate people for getting their reaction and response, and nowadays there is an information overload for which it is a real challenge to get messages through.

The topic of the redesign of the square can not be considered separately from the development of the city centre. It will be in symbiosis with the Culture house, the lake, the shopping streets and other commerces. Its ows, times and activities will be directly related to its surroundings, and all decisions should be taken in a strategical and holistic approach, not just a design one.

Although this is correct, the creation of a community is crucial for the life of the future urban space we are designing, so it is also a social project. Applying similar criteria, the participation phase should have been mainly treated as a communication strategy, putting more emphasis on its social implications. Somehow the power of communication was underestimated as well as its importance for the success of the project during its development as well as afterwards. Dreamhamar is about communication; but not just in one direction, but bidirectionally or even multidirectionally. It is about communicating out information and events whereas collecting back ideas, inputs and feedback and sharing them afterwards. We struggled to get the message out to as many people and over as many different channels as possible. At certain points there was too much to communicate in a very short time. This intensity, while being essentially positive, could become counterproductive at certain points because it could lead to confusion.

Efcient communication requires time and using a range of different tools and strategies to reach the various target groups. The complexity of Dreamhamar required a powerful communication strategy, and even so it was a challenge to communicate the different objectives, parts and stages of Dreamhamar. Some people were confused about what would the nal design be, whether the temporary installations were permanent, etc. This information gap created frustration among some, partially due to the lack of assimilation time. If the process would have been longer, the ow of information would have been slower and deeper and it would have allowed many people to have a better understanding of the context of this work and its implications.

COMMUNITY ACTIVATORS: GETTING PEOPLE INTO ACTION Getting the information out would never guarantee people coming by and participating. It was essential to count on local professionals who were key in the community. By engaging the community activators we were inviting and linking to their own networks. These personalities we chose are well known people in the community and have a great reputation. They could speak the language and they could reach out where we couldn’t. They could represent the spirit of the project and how open it was for all sort of people with different backgrounds and interests. They have been the perfect ambassadors for Dreamhamar.

Stortorget plays a signicant role in the redevelopment of the city centre and its success will be linked to its future life.

DESIGNING A SQUARE: DESIGNING ACTIVITIES, BEHAVIOR, ATMOSPHERES, COMMUNITY As it was evoked during one workshop, it is important, specially for the inhabitants of Hamar and future users of the square, to ask oneself “what would I do on the square?” rather than just “what should be done?”. The square will attract people through shared and individual activities that can also respond to ones needs. People often have an opinion about how the city should be transformed, but usually they don’t take their own perspective and rather think about what could be appropriate for a place, forgetting that a place is only a place as far as it is lled with our own cultural and social contents. Otherwise, it is just empty space.

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PEOPLE+FOOD= CONVIVIALITY Eating and drinking are social activities that make people relate to each other easily, and happened naturally at various moments during of the process. Creamhamar experience, as well as some smaller urban actions driven by students, proved it was possible to gather different people around a table meeting for the rst time and still get a lot of spontaneous conversations going by people exchanging knowledge, ideas and experiences. The setting was very simple and the results very powerful. How much of this relates to the physical conguration of the space? How much of it is related to the activity itself? Can we design Stortorget with tables for this to happen? Or should we design an open calendar for anyone to arrange a venue outdoors?

MOBILITY. CARS VS PEDESTRIANS During participatory processes it is usual that underlying conicts and unsolved problems arise and get onto public debate, and so happened with Dreamhamar, bringing out the discussion around cars vs pedestrians. Although the city centre seems to have enough parking spaces, which remain empty most part of the week, the perception of many people is that there is not enough parking spaces in the city centre. Key research is to be done on this topic, or if it already exists, it should be clearly communicated publicly with objective numbers. Everyone talks from their own perception, but numbers would communicate something beyond personal perceptions. It could be helpful to raise the debate around the past 40 years of pedestrianized experiences from all over Europe, as a way to start thinking about how to copenhagenize Hamar. 113

PARTICIPATION VS. DESIGN, WHEN DOES PARTICIPATION END? WHEN DOES DESIGN START? Now that we are ready to develop the nal proposal for the urban design, we understand it would be necessary to keep an open channel for communication with those interested in knowing more, even during the design process. We are looking for new ways of bridging and allowing interaction also during this period, so it will not just be like a six month period working inside a black box.

TOWARDS A SHORT TERM ACTION PLAN Stortorget is undergoing a huge and potentially traumatic urban transformation that will continue for another 2 years. While we are condent that the nal results for both the Culture House and the new square will be worth, during this in-between period the whole place will see its identity and its relationship with citizens under the risk of changing or even getting completely lost.

REFERENCE GROUP After our stay in Hamar, and specially in our last weeks, different locals came to us showing their interest to organize activities of different nature to take place in the square. These kind of small scale actions could be key to regenerate a space that will be suffering the side effects of the construction process until it is completely accomplished. This networked community will be essential not only during the design and construction period but, also and more importantly, for the urban life of the nal square. We will work in coordination with the municipality to nd out the best ways of knitting links and relationships among the locals that will provide the perfect context for a lively urban heart in Hamar.

THINKING ABOUT LONG TERM LEGACY

BUREAUCRACY VS. FLEXIBILITY Western cities today offer a very restrictive legal framework for public space design, leading to more and more conventional spaces and solutions and less experimentation and innovation. Constructive projects must satisfy an exhaustive list of rules and regulations greatly inuencing the development of innovative responses. At the same time laws and regulations may guarantee the quality and safety, but in return, in many cases this leads to regulatory excess standardization and conventionality in the search for solutions, a complete lack of experimentation and, as a direct result, a very uninspiring urban landscape. Cities are becoming more and more regulated up to the point where citizens doubt what kind of activities are ‘legal’ in the public space and which ones require specic permission.

EXPORT METHODOLOGY Synthesize the experience of the project and generate a base methodology that could be applied to similar situations, both inside the city of Hamar itself and in similar situations in other places. Export “the Hamar way”.

CULTIVATE COMMUNITY

activities, events and similar initiatives, taking care of the good quality of the place and its elements and providing a very valuable feedback for the municipality.

PROVIDE AN INTERFACE FOR CITIZENS Establish an operative synergy between Dreamhamar or other development projects and the new information point, creating a centralized, attractive, easy and accessible interface of communication between planners and citizens, between the municipality and the city. It is worth considering both the physical dimension (information point) and the digital one (website, application) of that interface in order to connect with all different targets and citizen proles in the city.

MANAGE THE DIGITAL IDENTITY A digital identity has emerged in Hamar exceeding the limits of the local territory and jumpsing onto the net and the global world. This can be the beginning of a more attractive way of presenting Hamar, exploiting its charms and identity together with its activity and day to day life. Understanding and promoting this digital identity could progressively place Hamar in a relevant position, attracting economy, culture, visitors, innovation and development in general.

Enhance and carefully grow the community created during the process as a guarantee of future urban life, enabling people to promote initiatives, to discuss options and to make collective use of public space. Engaged citizens can add a whole new dimension to public spaces, generating 114

SOME FIRST DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS The list below is a non exhaustive compilation of the ideas collected at the different activities of Dreamhamar: on site workshops, university students workshops, cultural rucksack, ideas form individuals, etc. We will keep on interpreting and visualizing the vast amount of material we have collected, and extracting conclusions to be taken into account for the nal design, its construction and its future management and maintenance. For more info please see Annex 0 “Keyword matrix” Some ideas regarding the most important topics follow:

REVERSIBILITY, FLEXIBILITY, OPEN FUTURE Can we predict how people will be using Stortorget in 10 years’ time or even in 5? Architecture should also be understood as a reversible, time-limited solution which would not condition the aspirations of the users in the future. Architects, and specially urban designers, should incorporate the concept of time in their strategic thinking as a working material. Cities are living creatures which should remain as open and permeable as possible, summarizing the experience of the past and projecting themselves into the future with the possibility of being evolved, transformed, interpreted and completed by its citizens. Urban space should be capable of responding to the evolution of the city and its occupants, a public space able to respond to its new functions, users, conditions and requirements. There are many examples throughout the recent history of how architects creatively responded to this challenge, designing transformable public spaces where users have the possibility to interact.

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INTERACTION AND CHANGE: RESPONSIVE ENVIRONMENT Scandinavians have one of the highest rates in Internet use and connections, very well related to the climatic conditions of winter, the living standards and the spread over way of living. Internet is growing as a meeting place becoming stronger whereas the public space struggles to survive. XXI century public spaces should explore new ways of bringing together these two different worlds; can we activate, improve, enhance or increase the physical experiences by using the digital tools? Could Stortorget become a paradigm/hybrid space incorporating a digital layer? Can we also promote interaction, opening the conguration of this innovative space to the users? Is it possible to customize a space according to the people using it at one particular moment? Can we keep an ongoing changing experience to make a place always attractive, always interesting to revisit?

CONNECTION WITH NATURE Both physically and mentally, the inhabitants of Hamar have a strong connection with nature, and prefer to live and spend time close to it. Nature and vegetation were often mentioned during the on-site workshops, and the participants are expecting nature represented on the square somehow. Although it was clear that the square should not become a proper garden or park since the city already has got some of these, there should be some natural elements bringing different colors, avours and ambients through the different seasons. Trees bring also a time dimension to cities since they are the longest living element giving identity to those places where they stay for years.

THE IMPORTANCE OF CLIMATE During these months many norwegians came to us to emphasize that the Norwegian culture of public space use differs a lot from the concept in other Southern Europe countries. Norwegians spend much more time at home, indoors, having developed a whole culture and variety of activities based on this. At the same time, every sunny day seems an invitation for everybody to enjoy it and nd any excuse to be out. How much of this is linked to the climate or to the culture itself? If the weather was different would people also behave different? If it is a cultural matter and people live abroad and have so many international experiences, will this then change in the coming years? Is the city centre ready for this change? Can we have pleasant experiences in the public spaces of Hamar as they are? Are they quality spaces? Is it possible to build a successful ‘plaza’ in Hamar with ongoing activity and people all year round?

SEASONAL ATMOSPHERES One of the main challenges we are facing with the design is how to provide comfortable conditions for the winter months. How can we design a space that can be used in different ways between summer and winter? Movable structures, green houses, replaces, warm benches, shelters, etc... are ideas repeated in many different ocasions. It seems that citizens would gather together if the space had the conditions to do so and re is an element very well connected to the Norwegian culture of outdoors and woods. The square can be seen like the lake: if it is conceived in a exible way it could uctuate like the seasons. There seems to be no doubt the urban life will always attract people during summer and spring; but people are more concerned about the winter, specially when

the lighting conditions and the weather are not very inviting to go outdoors to stay. The climatic comfort and public lighting should, somehow, balance the natural conditions.

WATER From fountains sculptured in the models made by the children to videos picturing the drainage system, to our surprise, there seems to be an important place for water on Stortorget. Even if Mjøsa is almost reachable and visible from Stortorget, in many different ways water has appeared as a solution and a necessity for the square: fountains, ice skating, water pumps, streams, canals, purication systems, igloos and snow sculptures... water in its different states: solid, liquid or gaseous. It seems that although Hamar citizens are very strongly connected to Mjøsa, there is the need of a presence of water in the urban structure. Water can be a visual asset but also something to be experienced and enjoyed in many different ways. A water feature may be considered in the design bringing some of its physical qualities to the urban space, like movement and sound. Besides, Mjøsa could also be considered as a white canvas with a great potential to become anything. Some BAS students explored the possibilities of otable structures and how these could provide new uses within the city centre. Warm swimming pool, playground, a stage, etc.. anything is possible and this ‘extra’ spaces could be a temporary arrangement for summer period bringing different activities to the heart of the city in a very special setting.

URBAN SCALE VS. PERSONAL SCALE The actual Stortorget is a 8500 sqm space with only two main purposes: driving and parking. Apart from this there are a few pieces of furniture and the regular commercial activity with up to 3 different stands. From a spatial point of view, this is just not enough activity and intensity for such a large scale space.

Today the feeling you have while crossing Stortorget is like seeking for some kind of protection or shelter. It is not a space where you would stay long. No shadow, no wind protection. You are very much exposed without any kind of comfort. Can we create a more intimate experience within this large public space? Can we have a private perception within a public Stortorget? Can we bring in more activities or possibilities while keeping the space as a public and open square?

CHILDREN AND YOUNGSTERS Children are visible. Many of the inhabitants have chosen to live in Hamar thinking their children will have safer and better growingup conditions than in the bigger cities. Both because of the possibility of living in larger dwellings, and the localization close to nature, playgrounds and sport facilities. The success of Playhamar proves the importance of incorporating places and activities for the young generation in the future square. We understand a public space is the most democratic space and therefore should not just be for a specic target group. Stortorget should be for everyone living, visiting and using Hamar. The landscape/setting provided should be used in a playful way but without being exclusively a playground. Can we design an appealing Stortorget for both parents and children without being “just” a playground? Children are visible. Many of the inhabitants have chosen to live in Hamar thinking their children will have safer and better growingup conditions than in the bigger cities. Both because of the possibility of living in larger dwellings, and the localization close to nature, playgrounds and sport facilities. The success of the Playhamar event proves the importance of incorporating places and activities for the young generation in the future square. We understand a public space is the most democratic space and therefore

should not just be for a specic target group. Stortorget should be for everyone living, visiting and using Hamar. The landscape/ setting provided could be used in a playful way but without being exclusively a playground. Can we design an appealing Stortorget for both parents and children without being “just” a playground? Can we incorporate different materials, textures, colors, sounds, natural topographies and other elements offering a sensorial experience interesting for people of all ages? Can we build a space to be explored and discovered? Can we dream of a recongurable space that we could rediscovered every season? A system with an innite number of possible combinations?

IDENTITY AND CITY BRANDING Increasingly, cities and urban regions compete with other places for attention, investment, visitors, shoppers, talent, events, etc.. This global competition is no longer limited to the capital and big cities; it now directly affects all cities and concentrations of urban settlements. We understand the update of Stortorget together with the new Culture House will become a strong asset for the city attracting attention and interest creating new development opportunities. The question is: what is Hamar’s identity? What is its most characteristic feature? Which one should it be? Some students from Alicante, for instance, thought of Hamar as an ice-skating city; considering this as a feasible solution to move through the city during winter. This would become unique and characteristic but at the same time connected to Hamar’s recent Olympics history. Actually there is already some people using sparking to move around when the city is snowed. This would lead us to create a city with ice melting systems in some streets and ice creating systems in others. Is Mjøsa and its powerful nature Hamar’s branding? Is Hamar mainly a water city? An 116

ice city? Should the concept spread all over Hamar? Should Hamar be more strongly and visually connected to the lake to make this presence more evident? Should this identity be reinforced by other interventions throughout the city?

UNIVERSAL DESIGN Design has to be universal by law. But it is interesting to realize that we all are, at a certain stage of our life, disabled in a particular way. So as urban designers we have to guarantee the inclusion of everybody to make the experience of using the square as public and democratic as possible. During these months we had the opportunity to meet several universal design local activists, which me us aware of how important this topic is in the community.

ART AND PUBLIC SPACE Looking at the diversity of suggestions and points of view, it was made clear to us that the debate should not be centered on which art piece to put on the square nor if the square itself should be or not an art piece, but more on the possibility of enabling the new square as a place for displaying local and foreign creations, a stage where art could be exposed, discussed, expressed or even created, becoming part of Hamar’s public life. Incorporating art as an everyday life experience for everyone.

During these months we realized the importance of seeing the square as an outdoor “stage” where one can reach a broader audience than the Culture house would do. Stortorget could become an innovative and open space for art, creativity and cultural events, and above that, a meeting place for everyone.

MUSIC, READING, STAGE, THEATRE, OPEN AIR CINEMA These ideas have emerged at the different workshops with students and citizens. The natural slope condition of Stortorget provides a perfect setting for all sort of performances, and its close relation to the new Culture House and the existing Kino makes it even stronger. For the nal design it should be taken into account the acoustic conditions of the space and the location of the appropiate technical equipment to allow these happenings take place easily. Can we provide a plug-in stage/platform solution for concerts and other events? As a matter of fact we enjoyed two very short experiences linked to music in this space: the short concert offered by the german Choir consonanz-a-4 and the ash mob with the different Choirs from Hamar and surroundings. on December 3rd.

THE CULTURE HOUSE LIGHTNING VS. STAR AS INDOOR PUBLIC GAZING SPACE, STORTORGET Winter lighting strongly affects and conditions life of Norwegians. Winter requires AS AN OUTDOOR everyday many hours of articial lighting whereas during summer time there is many hours of natural CULTURAL PLACE light. For that reason the lighting should be What should be the relation between these two is one of the most important questions to ask, as both the Culture House and the square are under development and will be the central public spaces of the city. 117

designed in accordance to this to be as efcient as possible. On the other hand Hamar is located close to natural parks in a privileged environment. Can we design the new urban lighting to be more

efcient all through the year? Can we minimize the light pollution to emphasize the natural beauty of the sky even in the city centre? Can we even make light dinamically responsive to people’s desires and needs? Some BAS students have been exploring lighting solutions regarding health, since light, or its lack, plays an enormous role in the regulation of our cycles, especially our sleep cycle.

TECHNOLOGY Throughout the participatory results, there is a remarkable interest in screens, sound and light, specially as channels of popular expression (expose ideas or projects, interact with other people) and data visualization (local agenda, weather, trafc...), but also for broadcasting shows and events: the square as an open extension of the living room, the conference room, the cinema or the pub. A signicant part of the ideas around technology were also related to tracking and interacting with the movement and ow of people or vehicles. This usually involved combining xed and mobile devices, and made the presence of WiFi or similar networks important. All this would also help improving human interaction: participation, mutual aid, sharing, community, collaboration... All of them aided by different technologies but centered on the social side. Another interesting use of technology is making the square livable throughout the year: trafc control, air and surface temperature monitoring and modication, automatic sun and weather protections, etc.

STREET MARKET / COMMERCIAL ACTIVITY There have been commercial activities at Stortorget during the last 50 years. Moreover, the square used to be a big market with intense trading activity, being a space exclusively for pedestrians. Today just a few street stalls keep the activity. They can locate themselves freely all over Stortorget for being a 100% car area. The future Stortorget should keep the commercial activity and make it even stronger, bringing more commercial activity and diverse goods. However their location within the square and the aesthetic qualities of the stalls should be reconsidered. Apart from the most conventional street market many people suggested the idea of having a more informal ea market, the framework for anyone to come and sell their own stuff, furniture, clothes, etc. Can we provide the legal framework for such a thing to happen?

CARS AND PARKING VS. SHOPPING MALLS

experience; mainly focused on pedestrians, air quality and a pleasant experience when coming to the center. Therefore we should look for more innovative and creative ideas of how sharing cars/resources could solve the mobility aspect whereas not destroying the city center experience.

As we stated before, this is a rst overview of some of the results of the participatory process, and will be completed and further developed during the design process of the future square, in order to have both published in the nal book as interwoven processes.

TRAFFIC THROUGH STRANDGATA Strandgata is a two direction street in the south area of Stortorget, just in front of the Bazaar building. In the next months it will be transformed incorporating wider sidewalks and bicycle lane. However it will still allow trafc through. This will keep Stortorget fragmented from the Bazaar building. Some participants considered the idea of redirecting the trafc around the back towards of the Bazaar building. Many people were concerned about the sense of danger when walking by the cars and how this would affect the new coming businesses at Bazaar. Would it be enough to make Strandgata a shared space street slowing down the speed of cars in this area? Many people disagreed and wanted a more radical solution. We also met a visually impaired person who pointed out that shared space solutions are terribly dangerous for this collective as the space is continuos and there is more freedom for cars.

Hamar is a city with a strong presence of cars and an intense use of private transportation by citizens. The spread structure of the city and the winter conditions invite people to use their own car for their everyday life commuting. Meanwhile the shopping malls build large parking lots to provide free parking to their customers. How can a city center compete with this? What kind of “plus” should a city center give the users to support the city center businesses? Urban center should provide an urban 118

DREAMHAMAR FACTS / CREDITS Dreamhamar is a network design process conceived, designed and coordinated by Ecosistema Urbano around the Stortorget Square in Hamar (Norway). Dreamhamar is related to OneThousandSquare, a project by Lluis Sabadell Artiga and Ecosistema Urbano.

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CURATORIAL TEAM ECOSISTEMA URBANO

DREAMHAMAR ARTISTS

INTERNATIONAL NETWORK

Dreamhamar Project directors + Overall coordination · Belinda Tato (Spain) · Jose Luis Vallejo (Spain)

Dreamhamar involved various artists from different fields: Lluis Sabadell (1artist) - Artist (Barcelona) codesign Dreamhamar artistic participative approach, network design process artistic advisor.

Network design + Communication + Graphics · Liz Eva Tollefsen (Norway) · Noa Peer (Israel)

Boamistura (5 artists) - Street Art (Madrid) - creation Painthamar art installation.

Dreamhamar created a group of professionals from different backgrounds (architecture, art, urbanism, engineering, sociology and other fields) directed and coordinated by ecosistema urbano. This team of creative professionals directed the workshops, gave lectures and participated in building the local network among stakeholders in Hamar. They all contributed with their experience and knowledge to the progress of the project and worked to provide Hamar with a fruitful, rich and enjoyable experience.

Urban Design + Multimedia design: · Jaime Eizaguirre (Spain) · Luisa Zancada (Spain) · Urska Cernigoj (Slovenia) · Gitte Larsen (Denmark) · Petrusjka Skjerning (Denmark) Network Design + New media tools · Jorge Toledo (Spain) · Francesco Cingolani (Italy) · Domenico di Siena (Italy) Media + Communication · Maria Luisa Rodriguez (Spain) · Manon Bublot (France) · Thomas Nordby (Norway) Photography + Communication + Graphics · Christoffer Nielsen (Norway) Anthropology · Héctor Grad (Spain) · Alejandra Lopez (Spain) · Diego Sanz (Spain) Administration · Julia Casado (Spain)

EXTERNAL COLLABORATIONS Landscape + Engineering COWI AS Norge Kathrine Strøm / Øyvind Hillestad web/app designers elpixelvivo / montera34 / pumpun digital model makers hch model

Eva Kun (1 artist) - Artist, Professor (Bergen) director Arthamar installations+performaces. Uncoded (2 artists) - Interactive Artist (Berlin/ Madrid) - creation Lighthamar installation. Fitzmedia (2 artists) -Interactive Artist (Barcelona/Madrid) creation Lighthamar installation. Pablo Santacana (1artist) - Video Artist+Graphic designer (Madrid) - video creation for Stortorget interactive model. Carly Troncale (1artists) - Social Artist (USA/ Hamar) - interpretation and artistic analysis of the Cultural Rucksack Project Hilde Gustava (1 artist)- Artist (Hamar) - direction and conduction of workshop as community activator during the Activities Dreamhamar Week. Kulturelle Skolesekken (4 artists) LOCAL ARTISTS (Hamar) - direction and conduction of Cultural Rucksack Project workshops around future Stortorget. Kari Oline Øverseth - ceramic artist Ansgar Ole Olsen - metal sculptor Esther Helèn Slagsvold- goldsmith Kathrine Berg - light artist Elise Bringslid - architect

PROFESSIONAL

Among the professionals are: Jeffrey Schnapp (USA) - Professor and Director of MetaLab at Harvard, with pioneering work in the domains of digital humanities and digitally augmented approaches to cultural programming, including artistic curatorial work for different international institutions. Jenny Pfau (Germany) - Geo-ecologist, buildingbiologist and scientist linked with cradle to cradle ecological design approach. Juan Freire (Spain) - Professor, blogger and biologist focused in research projects about strategy and innovation management in organizations; environmental, urban and territorial management; digital culture and education. Elger Blitz (Nederland) - Landscape architect specialized in playful public space design. Andrés Walliser (Spain) urban sociologist specialized in urban transformation processes, regeneration, participation and sustainable city design. Kristine Jensen (Denmark), Professor and Landscape architect, specialized in public space design, awarded with the European Public Space Prize. Joanna Miskulska (Poland) culture animator and event organizer linking public space history and local memory. Fredrik Lund (Norway) architect, artist and professor at NTNU Trondheim. Ethel Baraona (Guatemala) + Paco Gonzalez (Spain) researchers and publishers specialized in art, architecture and technology, with linking activities to cultural management and new technologies.

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ACADEMIC NETWORK

DIGITAL LAB

Dreamhamar engaged different European universities into its global participative brainstorming. Students from different backgrounds worked around Stortorget square for their university course, and contributed with their work and creativity to rethink Hamar’s main public space identity.

Dreamhamar turned Stortorget into a digital square by means of a large and international system of integrated communication and participation tools, that connected it to a global network. Dreamhamar’s main digital platform is dreamhamar.org, an open and participatory website that includes social network channels (facebook, twitter, flickr) and gathers all the information collected during the process.

265 STUDENTS 9 ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS University of Alicante, Spain / The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen – Denmark / University of Limerick, Ireland / Hedmark University, Norway / Politecnico di Milano, Italy / Bergen School of Architecture, Norway / Istituto Europeo di Design, Madrid-Spain / Vea School for gardeners and flowerdecorators, Norway 5 COUNTRIES Spain / Denmark / Ireland / Norway / Italy

LOCAL COMMUNITY ACTIVATORS Dreamhamar involved 5 community activators, local individuals with different professional backgrounds to lead the on-site lectures and workshops and boost the participatory process thanks to their own local network. Bjarte Ytre-Arne / Entepreneur/Technology week Hilde Gustava / Artist / Activities week Romy Ortiz / Biologist / Environment week Mocci Ryen / Vocalist / People week Siv Og Rune / Landscape architect and Teacher at VEA / Seasonal strategy week

PHOTOGRAPHERS Dreamhamar engaged two photographers to keep track of the process with photographic support. All photos are available on Dreamhamar Flickr, under creative commons license. EMILIO P. DOIZTUA (SPAIN) CHRISTOFFER NILSEN (NORWAY)

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HAMAR EXPERIENCE Hamar Experience was a weekly live broadcast to share Dreamhamar’s progress and activities every Monday at 6 pm (Norway time). It was also a tool to make the whole process more transparent for Hamar citizens. ONLINE WORKSHOPS Dreamhamar allowed citizens and creatives from all over the world to work together through online workshops. + 20 hours of online sessions + an online network of 21 international active users: 3 directors, 2 coordinators, 3 special guests, 10 designers, 3 architecture schools + hundreds of open followers + 116 posts with connections, links, ideas, comments and interaction between users + At least 7 countries involved Italy, Spain, Egypt, France, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Venezuela. MOBILE APP Dreamhamar.app is a digital application developed for Dreamhamar process that lets you share georeferenced data (text, image or video) about the urban aspects of Hamar.

DIGITAL STATISTICS First 3 months of activity september-december + dreamhamar.org 327 post published 10.617 visits 25.023 page views 4.528 absolute unique visitors Norway: 3223 visits / Italy: 612 / United States: 307 / Mexico: 262 / France: 198 / Egypt:145 / Denmark: 140 / United Kingdom: 125 / Ireland: 110 / Spain: 4259 + @dreamhamar twitter 469 tweets followers: 288 klout: 40 (very high for such a young project) Klout is an influence measurement tool, more relevant than the number of followers. + facebook likes: 467

PHYSICAL LAB / BAZAAR BUILDING The Bazaar building was transformed into the Dreamhamar’s Physical Laboratory, where workshops, lectures and exhibitions took place through the fall of 2011. It is placed in Hamar, facing Stortorget square. It was also conceived as a flexible space for Ecosistema Urbano’s pop up office during the participation process.

URBAN ACTIONS

THE CULTURAL RUCKSACK

THEMATIC WEEKS - ONSITE WORKSHOPS

PAINTHAMAR - with Boamistura artists First Urban Action and ofcial opening event of the Dreamhamar process. In three days, Boamistura transformed the parking lot into a colourful pedestrian public space. CREAMHAMAR - with Bergen school of architecture The students came to Hamar to imagine a second instant urban action on Stortorget, to attract people and arouse curiosity: a free public lunch of local products and fresh milk that directly came from a local cow. GREENHAMAR - with Vea School for gardeners and owerdecorators. Transformation of Stortorget into a car-free and eco-friendly green space, where people could enjoy homemade mushroom soup and bike-powered smoothies. The students participated in making a wooden platform-bench-stage-playground and turned an old car into a plant container. ARTHAMAR - with Bergen school of architecture and artist Eva Kun Installations and performances in Hamar to reveal unvalued spaces around the city and suggest potential uses, transformations and approprations of public space. PLAYHAMAR - with 10 local schools and kindergartens Invitation to all Hamar children to come with their old toys, and switch them with others, while playing and getting to know each other. Students from the Høgskolen i Hedmark gave out wafes in exchange of people’s wishes for the future square and ve trampolines invaded Stortorget. FILMHAMAR - with Hedmark University College students Open air cinema for Hedmark students to publicly show their own audiovisual works. ALICANTEHAMAR - with Alicante school of architecture students LIGHTHAMAR - with uncoded+tzmedia interactive artists and students of Ungdom i farta school from Hamar. Interactive lighting installation, new urban furniture for Stortorget (Hamar stools), a ashmob and performance of various singers from the local choirs, and ofcial closing event of Dreamhamar’s rst phase.

Dreamhamar was connected to this year’s Kulturelle Ryggsekkprosjekt, for students from elementary and high schools of Hedmark county to contribute by sharing their ideas for Stortorget.

Dreamhamar included open onsite workshops and lectures at the Bazaar building: 5 topics to bring people together, debate and share ideas. Each topic lasted a week and was led by one community activator and one creative guest. 13 workshops / 6 lectures / more than 400 participants

+ 12 local schools working on Stortorget future Solvang / Ajer / Greveløkka / Ener / Lovisenberg / Ridabu / Rollsløkken / Storhamar / Lunden / Prestrud / Børstad / Ingeberg + 1292 students involved + 4 local artists + 1 exhibition at Kunstbanken + 32 models of stortorget

PRELIMINARY URBAN DESIGN The preliminary urban design is a document created by ecosistema urbano. It was the rst phase of the design process: an urban and architectural approach to Stortorget, analysing its main characteristics and suggesting principles and tools to design the future square. It denes the main aspects to be taken into consideration and gives some guidelines that can be useful to work with.

INTERACTIVE MODEL The interactive model was a tool conceived for citizen participation. It is both a conventional model (scale 1 / 250) and a device to display the progress of the creative teams involved in the process of network design. It contains an Led HD screen inside that can display the images and videos generated during the different workshops.

- TECHNOLOGY WEEK (2 workshops + 1 lecture) How can Stortorget incorporate technology as a way to dene a new concept of public space? + Community activator, Bjarte Ytre-Arne / Creative guest, Juan Freire - ACTIVITIES WEEK (2 ws + 1 lect) Can Stortorget be a creative and exible enough place to hold leisure events, cultural and commercial activities and social interaction? + Community activator, Hilde Gustava Ovesen / Creative guest, Elger Blitz - ENVIRONMENT WEEK (2 ws + 1 lect) How can Stortorget incite citizens to be more conscious and concerned about their environmental responsibility? + Community activator, Romy Ortiz / Creative guest, Jenny Pfau - PEOPLE WEEK (2 ws + 1 lect) How can Stortorget encourage teamwork, arouse creativity, facilitate communication, imply selforganization and welcome people with different ages and backgrounds? + Community activator, Mocci Ryen / Creative guest, Andrés Walliser - SEASONAL STRATEGY WEEK (2 ws + 1 lect) Can Stortorget become responsive and adaptable environment to the changing conditions? + Community activator, Siv Engen/ Creative guests, Kristine Jensen + Fredrik Lund - FUTURE HAMAR WEEK (2 ws + 1 lect) 25 students fron Alicante School of Architecture workshoping at Bazaar Building and interacting outdoors with Hamar citizens. + Creative guest, Jeffrey Schnapp - STORYHAMAR (1ws) How to link the future Stortorget with its history and with the local memories? + Creative guest, Joanna Mikulska

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FUTURE HAMAR BOOK THE STORY OF THE DREAMHAMAR PROCESS

BOOK VERSION 1.0 STAY UPDATED dreamhamar.org

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