2. MEDS (Meeting of Design Students) was
founded in 2010 by students from different
countries, and it was created with an aim to join
all design departments together. Architecture,
interior architecture, industrial design, graphic
design and all other departments of design.
MEDS REACTION LX student workshop was held
from the 3rd
to 18th
of August 2013 in Lisbon
with 250 internationals, both design students
and young professionals.
The goal of the workshop was reflection and
action on small-scale city issues. The process
consisted of finding areas that the community
of Graça would have liked to see recovered.
meeting of design students
3. Re.face was an action dealing with a
current issue in Lisbon - a large number of
unoccupied and demolished buildings in its
neighbourhoods.
According to the survey done by the
Municipality, Graça ranks fourth place
in the survey done throughout Lisbon’s
neighbourhoods with a total of 173 empty
homes.
Many of these buildings’ façades and walls
are in poor condition, ruined or vandalized.
Re.face’s task was to improve the image of
the neighbourhood by gathering urban artists,
the community (old and young) and the
participants from the workshop, to promote
a sense of responsibility for taking care of the
neighbourhood’s outer face.
re.face action #11
4. exploring Graça and doing one day exercises
The preliminary idea was to create a 3d canvas
from the ruined and demolished facades. The
facade is a border and a membrane that splits
the public and the private. It is a border of the
protected inside and the exposed outside. The
first question asked was how do we bring these
two elements together.
We percieved it with an extrusion of the facade
from the flat, 2d surface to a 3d surface, with
it creating a transition that interacts on and
with the street. If there is no one living in the
building anymore then we can create and
inhabit a new life on its face - the facade.
idea
5. With lots of abandoned buildings the urban
art scene in Lisbon became one of the most
interesting in Europe. For preliminary research
the group did a tour visiting works from street
artists like Diogo Machado (Addfuell), Vhys and
artwork on facades on Avenida Fontes Pereira de
Melo.
Another important input were tiles, a symbol of
facades in Lisbon and also a burning issue today.
Facades are being torn down and traditional
painted tiles are being sold on the black market.
The spikes on the facade of Casa Dos Bicos which
was built in the early 16th
century were also an
interesting detail that showed how the rhythm
of shadows on the facade changes the whole
appearance of a building.
reseach and references
6. In the workshop we included talks with local
artists - one of them was freelance graphic
designer and illustrator Pedro Campiche
Akacorleone.
He introduced us to his work which ranges
from street art to graphic design. He currently
lives and works in Lisbon. In the previous year
he participated in art shows Tour Paris 13 ,
FESTIVAL TODOS, FUSING Culture Experience
2013 and others.
Perdo Campiche Akacorleone
local artist
9. During the workshop we encountered a
problem - lack of location. Our group was (due
to bureaucracy) not able to get a facade to work
on in the time frame of two weeks that the
workshop was held.
We just got a wall located nearby the main street
of Graça, Rue de Graça.
This change made us reprogramme and redesign
our final product. Since we were not able to get
a facade and act with it and its elements we
decided to design a facade with a message on the
wall.
We used the geometry of portugese tiles and
designed a stencil that together with white tiles
creates a facade for the wall.
context and dealing with it
13. As previously mentioned Graça ranks fourth in the
survey done throughout Lisbon’s neighbourhoods
with a total of 173 empty homes.
On our wall there are 173 white tiles that want to
emphasize that fact.
They were tiled in one day together with the local
residents of Graça and random passersby.
With this wall we wanted to raise an awareness.
Neglect for your neighbourhood and environment
causes rapid decay of an image of a city.
Lisbon is one of those cities.
Constant tile theft and tile black markets cause
beautiful facades to vanish quickly.
We must try and make it stop.
http://vimeo.com/72930240
173
14. the team
Erzë Dinarama Ignacio A. Bocigas AriasArbenita F. Gashi
Sabina Hodović Senad AlibegovićAida Botonjić
Ella Renneus Kia LundorffMahyar Moharramzadeh
Razvan Constantinescu Sara DimitrijevićPaola Sannicandro
15. tutors
Federica Natalia Rosati (Rimini, Italy) - is in her final year of study at the
Faculty of Architecture in Ferrara. She spent one year abroad on Erasmus at
the Technical University of Munich (TUM). That’s where she met Lana.
Shortly after she did an internship in Munich at the architecture office
Hild&K. She is currently doing her final project in Ferrara.
Lana Petrak (Zagreb, Croatia) - is also in her final year of study at the
Faculty of Architecture in Zagreb. She spent one year abroad on Erasmus
student at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). Shortly after she did
an internship at the Amsterdam based office ZZDP Architecten. She is
currently doing her final Masters project in Zagreb.
Andrej Vuk (Zagreb, Croatia) - is in his final year of study at the Faculty
of Architecture in Zagreb. He is a veteran od MEDS and EASA student
workshops. In 2011 he did an architectural internship in Shanghai and
afterwards an Erasmus exchange in Ljubljana (Slovenia). He is currently
doing his final Masters project.
