Looking for identity of the place together – engaging inhabitants in the design process

This category goes beyond the main arteries of the large cities and fol-lows student ideas of finding the identity of a place through engaging the local community. The graduate projects related to these issues were based on the experience of the Katowice Academy of Fine Arts faculty

13 Ibidem, p. 75.

124 Anna Machwic

members, who participated in the Design w terenie project. What the projects presented in this category have in common is the particularly large engagement of the local communities, activated at every stage of the project. We must admit that it would be ignorant to design for peo-ple – especially in case of projects with reference to identity of the place where they live – without taking account of their emotions, observing their habits, listening to their complaints and opinions…

a. A legend that wasn’t – creating a new identity for a place Aleksandra Kołodziejek

Mission: Legend. A project of a touristic and recreational service for the town of Myszków.

There are places which cannot boast great architecture, history or tradition. Everything about them is plain – the post-industrial land-scape and farming areas. Sometimes a place is overshadowed by more recognizable neighbouring cities, and even its inhabitants themselves are ignorant of the potential of their own town. Aleksandra Kołodzie-jek had decided to tackle these problems of Myszków, the town situ-ated close to the Eagles’ Nests Landscape Park, and so next to a very strong touristic competition. Based on the series of workshops which included a moderated walk (with a person who knows the place very well and talks about it from the perspective of its everyday user), an impression walk (connected with observation from the perspective of an out-of-towner, a tourist), and workshops with the inhabitants who indicated the strong and weak points of their town, the student came up with a project dedicated to enhance the touristic attractiveness of Myszków and to broaden its recreational offer, tighten the bound the inhabitants have with their town and improve their own opinion about it.

The diploma student had designed a civic game for families with children. A very interesting element of the project was a competi-tion for the middle and secondary school students to write a legend

Silesia Rediscovered – Works by Students of the Design Faculty... 125

connected with the town. Its aim, apart from obtaining an interesting narrative for the game, was to strengthen the young people’s attach-ment to the place. Most of them tend to leave Myszków after high school, going to study or work in another city. The brand-new legend:

O Barbarze, która rozpuściła majątek [On Barbara, Who Squandered Her Fortune] – awarded in the competition organized with support from town authorities and local writers – served as a base for the game, which encouraged families to walk around the town and discover places worth seeing. This complex project was tested during the mass event in the town and attracted great interest and appreciation from the inhabitants and tourists, as well as the authorities, who declared their readiness to implement it further.¹⁴ The identity of a place might not be the established, straightforward or interesting one, but as this diploma student has proven, it can be built anew.

b. Can identity be shaped?

Aleksandra Harazin, Anna Kącka

My Czechowice-Dziedzice. A project of activities encouraging people to learn more about the district.

In the theory part of the joint graduate project of Aleksandra Harazin and Anna Kącka, we read:

The main idea of the Miejsce Spotkań [Meeting Place] project is to create a space that will be a pretext to stop. To talk freely. To spend time together. To look closer and learn more about your home town and share this knowledge and reflections with others.

Miejsce Spotkań is a place to talk about the town, its past, present and future. A place that allows people to get to know each other, unites its inhabitants and supports building up their identity. It is

14 A. Kołodziejek, Misja Legenda. Projekt usługi turystyczno-rekreacyjnej dla miasta Myszków, MFA graduate project 2014, supervisor: Dr J. Kucharczyk.

126 Anna Machwic

a landmark and attraction of the town which presents its history, culture and nature.¹⁵

Work on the diploma engaged the inhabitants and related to strength-ening their bound with the town; it also sought to educate the youngest recipients. The result was a project of seats which invite to stop and find time and place for a conversation, but also to curiously look at what is important for the town, what makes it special. At the local square there were situated benches with milled icons, creating a route of important natural and architectural objects of the town. The diploma students have also designed a cycle of workshops for the youngest inhabitants of Czechowice-Dziedzice that can be conducted at Miejsce Spotkań, and then continued in kindergarten and primary school in order to

“increase kids’ attachment to their home town and sparkle their interest with the district.”¹⁶

c. Get involved!

Maria Prochaczek

How to take control of the world starting with your own yard?

A cycle of illustrated inhabitant’s instructions designed by the Fix Your City Foundation.

Maria Prochaczek took a broader approach to involving the local com-munity and building their ties with the home town. In collaboration with the Napraw Sobie Miasto [Fix Your City] Foundation, she prepared a set of legible picture instructions to help people engage in social activity for the purpose of building, improving and developing their place of residence.

The legibility and precision of message had been repeatedly consulted with the target user. In simple terms, the student has designed clear visual

15 A. Harazin and A. Kącka, Moje Czechowice-Dziedzice. Projekt działań zachęca-jących do poznawania gminy, MFA graduate project 2015, supervisor: Dr hab.

A. Sobaś.

16 Ibidem.

Silesia Rediscovered – Works by Students of the Design Faculty... 127

information, dedicated to those who have the willingness and ideas how to improve their home town, which enables them to get through the binding regulations and procedures, such as participatory budgeting and development scheme. The bureaucratic complexities tend to be discour-aging, but here they have been presented clearly to encourage the inhab-itants to take the fate of their surroundings in their own hands.¹⁷