DOT TO DOT BLOW- UP PAVILION LAURA PETRUSKEVICIUTE + CRISTIAN SUAU
DOT TO DOT BLOW- UP PAVILION LAURA PETRUSKEVICIUTE + CRISTIAN SUAU
[SPOT] Social Plastic of Tomorrow
SPOT 500
does the act of self-build engage individuals and communities with senses? As a super bag, SPOT can be shipped in a bulky bag from Glasgow to any city aiming to reanimate neglected gap sites and its surroundings throughout multiple sensory experience. Waste is not longer seen as problems but opportunities to creatively reinvent and celebrate the architecture of enjoyment.
THE SOCIAL PLASTIC OF TOMORROW
SPOT PAVILION: THE POWER OF 500
1. SPOT = FREESPACE, an isotropic and polyvalent social form, which is inhabited poetically by co-creation, lightness, temporary, portability; playfulness; and sensory.
Remaking with waste is our societal/environmental challenge. SPOT is a free bubble factory that ideates eco-design made of plastic waste creatively. 100% WIFI Zone.
2. SPOT = PLASTICITY, an art station in motion that think play and make art with waste.
How might open civic collaborations between community, plastic waste and urban data, connect co-creation and remaking activities? How might we help young people to inform creative, ecological or more sustainable design using urban data and Internet of Things?
3. SPOT = PLASTIC2DESIGN4SOCIETY, a social plastic network that connects Youth in Scotland and Europe through ecological design, workshops, talks and games. It spots plastic as cultural material, data and game. 4. SPOT = BLOW-UP ARCHITECTURE. SPOT is a giant bag, an inflatable portable structure co-created by young remakers all around Scotland and Europe. It invites to explore the power of air trapped in plastic geodesic structures. SPOT-MAKING AND SPOT-LEARNING THROUGH REMAKING Nowadays we live the culture of waste, where everything is discarded. We throw away many of the things we buy when we no longer want them. Anything that we intentionally dispose is known as “waste”, visually stigmatised either as useless or as priceless cultural material. However, waste does not hold meaning per se. In Cradle to Cradle (C2C) theory, junk does not exist. It means a technical nutrient. Waste value is given through the power of design, which develops inventive solutions using less.
SPOT is an open design learning space that provides literacy on environmental impact of plastic waste as creative cultural material. Users will be in integrated activities and learning new concepts like Social Plastic, Social Innovation, Smart Citizens, Circular Economy, Systemic Thinking, Users as Designers, Art-Science, Activism, and Ethics of Design and Technology. SPOTness: ISOTROPIC & POLYVALENT FREE-SPACE SPOT is a learning place for DEBATE, LEARN, PLAY, GATHER and CHAT. It is a big-bag portable station, which consists of an isotropic dome and a polyvalent mat made of reused plastic carrier bags. The dome is our shed. Like a magic carpet, the mat acts as our “social circle” where visitors and remakers chill and exchange ideas freely, surrounded by a range of sensory media and activities. This interactive play-place transforms visitors in active players rather than a mere spectator. The dome displays kinetic imagery - videos,
The act of remaking is the product of self-building cultures, complex systems of people, relationships, building types, techniques, and habits in which design and building are anchored with waste reuse. In this study, author employs the term “remake”, which refers to “make again something different” or anew, something with a special value. In material culture, the social value of waste includes the social behaviour around it, the way waste is used, shared, talked about or remade. The act of remaking is multi-sensorial due to it connects material as cultural value, reuse technique and haptic perception. It is about repurposing local and available disused materials with ecological sound design solutions. Low-tech is the cultural building expression, expressed mainly through Do-It-Yourself (DIY) offering systemic design, low environmental impacts, and life cycle thinking. Welcome to the Era of Plastic! There are more than 500 billion plastic bags waiting to be reused in our planet. These residuals are not reused, recycled or recovered causing the death of terrestrial and marine fauna, creating floating dumps of non-biodegradable materials. Some of this oceanic dumps are characterized by giant floating islands with high concentrations of plastic. For instance, the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” in the middle of the Oceans has the size of 1,400,000 km², twice the surface of Chile, 21.5 times the surface of Lithuania, and 17.5 times the surface of Scotland. Let’s imagine all plastic carrier bags waste collected from homes, school, supermarkets, parties and vacant sites being transformed to make the first giant inflatable dome ever made of plastic bag waste. Very often plastic finds its shelter in any gap in cities rivers, countries and seas, staying for some 450 years before it degrades. Plastics are pneumatic constructions themselves. Like bubbles along the coastal shoreline, they can be found in multiples forms and configurations. Plastic bubbles are ephemeral, light and agile air-frame systems. Both simplicity of geometry and plasticity of structures are their main distinctive features. Like a message in a bottle, SPOT will spread the message of creative ecological design as fantastic plastic manifesto. How [1]
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documentary and films- whilst the mat is used to as civic touch point and nomadic studio.
to make REPLASTICO© designs to be distributed to loyal backers and sponsors who participated in the entire process.
DESIGN FACTS • • • • • • •
The dome radius and height are 3M The dome surface is 56.55M2 The mat surface is 27.81M A plastic carrier bag is 0.17M2 5 plastic carrier bags = 1kg of CO2 emissions The total number of bags needed to build SPOT is 500 SPOT stores 100kg of CO2 emissions
500 plastic bags –LDPE & HDPE types only- will be collected in eco-schools, colleges, universities, art centres, householders, local businesses, front shops, environmental activists, supermarkets, recycling centres, municipalities, housing associations, street recyclers, Young Scot, STEM Ambassadors network, Stalled Spaces Scotland communities, Glasgow Environmental Task Force volunteers, and other points. DECARBONISED PLASTIC CO-CREATION In order to make the SPOT air-pavilion, SPOT leads will recruit 100 volunteers from our ambassadors and social network. Each remaker will cut and melt 5 bags and deliver them in our collection point, the DOT TO DOT Station, in Maryhill area. Plastic is a social material. Each remaker will iron his/her name in the new plastic sheets. Every participant will contribute to pavilion’s making by donating 5 ironed plastic sheets each and posting them as pictures in an Instagram art gallery. Plastic sheet collection, sorting and remaking processes will be recorded in real time in our SPOT portal and converted into CO2 emissions as well as shown in facts and figures. The final dome and mat canvases will be remanufactured. All SPOT remaker will contribute storing 100kg of CO2 emissions. Every participant will be acknowledged and rewarded in the SPOT portal and social media. SPOT’s canvas pavilion might be reused External view of SPOT
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Interior view. Patterns design and layouts co-created with Scottish youth during the process of workshops.
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FROM SOCIAL NETWORK TO SOCIAL DESIGN FROM SOCIAL NETWORK TO SOCIAL DESIGN
uploading pictures in our portal.
SPOT is a social design network, which aims to gather creative young remakers -students, experimenters, environmentalists, activists, daydreamers, entrepreneurs, researchers and artists- to ideate “outside the box” and remake our cities by connecting waste to design for society. It is about co-creation and experimentation within a circular economy. The duration of each phase is adjustable.
PHASE 2 DESIGN EVENTS Co-creation events: Design workshops, charrettes and open courses on plastic bags collection, sorting, cutting and ironing. Series of events will be locally delivered at IET and CCA in Glasgow to engage creative communities with remaking plastic techniques and test/pilot colouring, pattern and texture surfaces using PLASTCOLLAGE© thermo-plastic art technique invented by Studio Pop. We will also invite remakers to assist in the design development and fabrication of the SPOT free-space pavilion through experimental design and material test sessions, including talks with talented architects, designers and artists on somatic place-learning and remaking. In this stage, leads will collect design feedbacks, data and samplings to co-create the geodesic pavilion design, including modules, pattern composition and exhibition content/programme.
PHASE 1 SOCIAL PLASTIC NETWORK Design outcomes/activities dissemination in our mobile-friendly website. Features and functionalities are: User Registration, Social Plastic Gallery, Real-time Projects in Scotland & Venice, Map Display, Pavilion Design, User Messaging and Display, and plastic/ CO2 converter. For mapping, it uses API geocoding, Angular Google Maps; Google Maps Javascript API v3 and Snazzy Maps. Agile functionalities will search and filter assets using multiple options and retrieving experiments with design and plastic waste. SPOT portal will utilise angular4 framework & Google Firebase. People will be invited to take part in live projects by taking pictures of plastic bags and their homemade plastic sheets posting them in I #SPOTS Instagram gallery [Social Plastic of Tomorrow] or directly
PHASE 3 CO-CREATION For the co-creation of the plastic canvas to erect the SPOT pavilion, we require 84M2 of ironed plastics sheets. It will occur by assembling 500 signature art pieces made by 100 backers, contributors and remake-lovers. To build SPOT we need 40 triangles. We will make two triangular template types, 10 equilateral triangles pieces (1.85M
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size) and 30 isosceles triangles pieces (1.85m x 1.85m x 1.64m). The whole production takes 5 days max. Preparation and curation of the exhibition material will be review by Studio Pop team and consultants and then displayed in the SPOT portal, videos, and hardcopy pamphlets, including design magazines, journals, press, TV and social network channels. PHASE 4 DEBUT IN SCOTTISH & EUROPEAN CITIES SPOT leads, volunteers and visitors will collect data, get users feedbacks and experiment plastic waste in design workshops, charrettes and talks. They will employ both research-led and experiential learning methods to trigger conversations, make games and self-build live experiments. The SPOT pavilion is a civic forum for urban counter-cultures to debate the ethics and aesthetics of future remaking with fantastic plastics. The themes and activities will be selected via e-voting. The SPOT remake station will process
all recorded data and retrieve them in our social network, portal and public engagement activities in public presentations, festivals and clinics. PHASE 5 SOCIAL DESIGN Like a transformer, SPOT pavilion will be used as REPLASTICOŠ, social plastic brand. SPOT will visit cities in Scotland and Europe promoting local plastic design and art events to engage with creative citizens and recruit best talents to join Studio Pop team. As part of this circular economy model, the 100 kg of CO2 embedded in the SPOT pavilion will be repurposed again into REPLASTICOŠ designs to co-create notebooks, bags, rug rucks, etc.
100kg of C02 would be emited by any of the following activities: An average car could be driven for 4.42 hours non-stop A 13-watt CF lightbulb could be lit for 183 days continuosly.
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Do you know that 500 plastic bags 100kg of CO2!!!
For 3m diameter SPOT we will need 500 bags!
CREATIVE TEAM At Studio Pop we are developing a new practice-led research agenda titled Remaking the City based on the New Urban Agenda Habitat III, circular economy and social innovation, with three cornerstones: Waste, Gaps and Water. Our research informs social teaching and vice versa. This strength lies in our ability to bridge the gaps between research and co-design throughout a pedagogy centred in the culture of sharing knowledge. This is a circular model based on THINK, PLAY & MAKE as catalyst for creative, participatory and playful learning by transforming the city a play-place or evolutionary learning environment that inspires creative community to experience themselves as transformative agents of the built environment. Our work is ruled by utopias, games, and experimentation to stimulate dialogues, research about social forms and experimental designs. Our creative team has experience in running similar projects and is confident to deliver SPOT project in high quality and impact. Our current activities: DOT TO DOT, REPLASTICITY and REPLASTICO are targeting youth wellbeing and creativity. All members of creative team are STEM Ambassadors and have certificates for Disclosure Scotland (PVG). Laura Petruskeviciute I am entrepreneur and artist that apply ecological design principles in experimental and ludic forms. I am a co-founder of STUDIO POP, a social enterprise that pops radical design. I have gained leadership experience in live projects, art exhibitions and talks in Scotland, Lithuania and Germany.) My recent project in STUDIO POP- DOT-TO-DOT© obtained the Young Social Innovator Scotland Award where I am community consortium lead and design developer. It was also nominated in EYA wards for in Sustainable Economics. Previously, I have co-founded Urban Restart, design collective that focuses on temporary architecture and DIY design culture. My projects are MOBILELAND©, temporary garden (Glasgow, 20142016); CEPELINA, inflatable airship for public forum and CINEMA PNEUMATICA, inflatable cinematic pavilion (Glasgow, 2015); and YELLOW SUBMARINE, temporary shelter (Munich, 2015) Professionally I expanded my architectural proficiency by working in architectural practices in London and Glasgow on residential and educational projects.I obtained my Master in Advanced Architecture degree (hons) in the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow (Scotland) where I also completed my BSc degree in Architectural Studies (1:1 hons). I was ERASMUS exchange student in Technische Universität Berlin, Germany (2012), where I gained great experience in the fields of Urban Design and Cybernetics in Urbanism.
Cristian Suau I am a social entrepreneur, ecological designer and architectural researcher. As remaker, I am the founding director of Studio Pop C.I.C. I am SAR/MSA full member of Sveriges Arkitekt (Sweden); MC member, EU COST Action CA16229 ENEC; and WG full member, EU COST Action CA16114 RESTORE. I also work independently as international development consultant (CMIS), British Council. I hold BSc/MArch in Architecture (honours 1:1); Master in Urban Design (1997); & PhD in Architecture (cum laude, 2001), School of Architecture of Barcelona (ETSAB), with educational postgraduates in University Teaching and Learning from Cardiff University (2009)/Fellow in High Educational Academy (UK, 2010). In addition, I successfully completed three postdoctoral research fellows on ecological and experimental architectural design in Sweden, Norway and Spain (2003-2006). I have researched and taught in world-class universities such as Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB), Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Universidad de Chile; NTNU Norway; The Welsh School of Architecture; Architectural Association and Strathclyde University, along with 19 universities worldwide as guest academic and design studio lead. The city is my “living laboratory”, which demands creative ways of thinking, playing and remaking collaboratively an architecture of enjoyment. My intellectual production is the result of systemic, user-centred design and participatory design triangulating arts, sciences and humanities. Following the principles of the New Urban Agenda Habitat III, circular economy and social innovation, my strategic design themes are Waste, Gaps and Water. Based on recent awards like ERASMUS+ Young Enterprise Award, Stalled Spaces 2017 and EU ESP ACF my team is testing/piloting DOT TO DOT Remaking the City, an agile social technology and portable station for creative live experiments in Glasgow. Dave Ball I am a creative thinker and problem solver. I have worked in the past on various national initiatives. For 10 year he worked on the modernizing government program. Originally as part of the team at Renfrewshire Council and then moving to the Improvement Service to work at a national level. Helping to successfully delivery various national initiatives; the One Scotland Gazetteer, the public information notice portal( http://www.tellmescotland.gov.uk/ ), The National Entitlement Card, and the My Account system (formerly citizen account). I am the ICT coordinator and electronics engineer who obtained both a BEng and MSc from Glasgow University. My interest in computers dates back to when I was a child and I have been programming since the age of 12. With over 20 years of professional experience working in ICT and two and half year experience as lecturer in computing, I have worked on major ICT projects for both the UK and Scottish Governments, including the My Account System, National Entitlement Card, One Scotland Gazetteer, Tell Me Scotland and other projects. I have a proven track record of resolving problems and removing issues to allow for the successful delivery of many projects. I am also a Certified Prince2 Practitioner and a member of the Institute of engineering and technology as well as a STEM Ambassador and founding force behind Clyde Electronics C.I.C.
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PROJECTS DOT TO DOT (on going) STUDIO POP + DOT TO DOT Community Consortium Our habitats are being urbanised, refurnished and restructured and, in this process, our cultural landscape is being radically altered. The city is our open lab. Its demand innovative ways of thinking, playing and remaking waste as social value with new designs for our society. The DOT TO DOT© is a social technology created by Studio Pop’s founding directors. Last year we obtained the “Year of Innovation Architecture and Design - Young Social Innovation Award” (2016), ENCOSI ERASMUS+ “Young Entrepreneurs Award” (2016-17), and recently the “Stalled Spaces Glasgow Award 2017”, among other prizes, to co-develop our social technology. DOT TO DOT© works as a cross-disciplinary ecosystem that enables creative social entrepreneurs, researchers, educators, and youth to remake our cities by connecting waste to design for society through ecological design and real projects. DOT TO DOT is both digital and live platform. It represents an innovative social and environmental model that allows smart communities to remake the city by connecting waste and local communities through “real projects” in Glasgow and then Scotland. The digital dimension is an app/mobile-friendly website titled DOT TO DOT©. This social technology offers new opportunities to reuse ecologically empty sites and buildings on a temporary basis to improve youth life and disadvantaged communities by remaking with waste and time-banking exchange. It aims to connect schools, social enterprises, young designers, housing associations, community gardens, municipalities and stakeholders locally to design and build live projects to transform stalled spaces creatively. An interactive map allows user find, select and upload projects to refill gap sites. Visit for more information: https://www.studiopop.net/dottodot
REPLASTICITY© is a Social Plastic Network. This initiative is aligned to socio-economic sectors in Scotland, Creative Industries (ecodesign), Environment (waste reuse) and ITC (social technologies); co-led by Studio Pop. It is focused on social interaction of plastic waste as creative material culture and place-making. REPLASTICITY© is both community-led waste self-management and local plastic workshop (Remake Station). It will deploy portable remake stations to test/pilot remaking technologies in our city by connecting waste to design for society through eco-design, clinics and live projects. Visit for more information: https://www.studiopop.net/replasticity
REPLASTICO© is both local plastic station and community-led waste self-management. We will deploy portable remake stations to test/pilot remaking technologies and extend the lifespan of plastics by co-creation. It will offset CO2 emissions by diverting them away from street litters/recycling centres/landfills as well as reducing the embodied-energy emissions. REPLASTICO© is our social plastic brand that connects craft design, plastic waste and Remake network. We assist with experimental design, environmental education and creative production of reused plastic waste. Visit for more information: https://www.studiopop.net/replastico
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PROJECTS CINEMA PNEUMATICA (2015) Laura Petruskeviciute + Urban Restart “Cinema pneumatica” is a mobile inflatable pavilion where people instead of watching a movie in a conventional manner becomes the scene of the cinematic spectacle. There are multiple projection surfaces with different textures and material properties which allows the images to materialize in many layers. Furthermore, bodies of the visitors interact with light and projections creating constantly changing patterns and scenarios. Cinema PNEUMATICA is the project about air, light and motion in architecture. In architecture which leaves a static presence and permanence behind. Fabrics were picked in order to achieve ergonomics, mobility and lighteness factor. As easy transportation, quick construction and disassembly on site appeared to be the main issue in creation on temporary spaces. Furthermore, fabric is easy and inspiring material to work with having a limited budget, offering opportunities to play with shape, light, translucency, vibration and reflection. Cinema Pneumatica consists of two bubbles , one embedded into another. The skin of the outer bubble offers lighteness throughout the day and prjection place during the night. It is made out of polythene sheet. The inner bubble offers the dark space, where projections could happen during the day as well. It is made out of silver reflecting sheeting which gives expanded and decomposed view of the video making the whole space to feel as the projection. We also provide the instructions of making the “Cinema Pneumatica” with the budget of around £200. Visit for more information: https://www.studiopop.net/cinema-pneumatica
CEPELINA ARTSHIP (2015) Laura Petruskeviciute+ URBAN RESTART CEPELINA ARTSHIP is a space invader in Scotland. It is the reincarnation and also tribute to the epic of all Zeppelins crossing the Atlantic Ocean to connect urbanites from shore to shore. The construction of CEPELINA ARTSHIP© is a pioneering pocket airlab, easy to transport, light and easy to inflate. It remains me my childhood making the dove and then baking ‘empanadas’. This technology enables to inflate the entire air-frame in few steps. You can inhabit the in-between of two films! The lesson of this pavilion triggers the potential playability for future elementary designs. CEPELINA ARTSHIP© interrogates to transform our conventional mind setting as designers or artists into new scenarios governed by ludic actions and self-ruled by spatial explorations, drifts and transgressiveness. The simplicity of the equation of this pavilion is High-Design + Low-Tech. CEPELINA ARTSHIP© reveals the power of playing with less by exploring DIY; spatial compactness; structural lightness and speed of fabrication within a Life Cycle Thinking (LCT). Visit for more information: https://www.studiopop.net/cepelina
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DOT TO DOT BLOW- UP PAVILION LAURA PETRUSKEVICIUTE + CRISTIAN SUAU