The unMonastery: the space and co-design in Matera

[alberto]

Good points, yet…

[Jessy Jetpacks], these are really good points. Minimal unForniture seems to find almost everybody in agreement, so that’s that (good hing aboit a wooden board in leiu of a desk! I am trying something similar.

Other things are more difficult. For example: I completely agree about gender separation, yet this issue needs to be tackled not in the abstract, but looking at the actual map of the unMonastery. It seems sleeping quarters should be on the first floor, which is where the bathrooms are… have you checked the slides? As for the urban garden: perhaps [antonioelettrico] and [andrea.paoletti] can answer you.

[andrea_paoletti]

DESIGN EMPTY SPACES

Long interesting conversations here on board!

About this comment I do not agree about gender separation. I have had so many experiences about sharing spaces that I like the idea that partecipants will choose what to do.

@Francesco spoke about how to DESIGN EMPTY SPACES and I think this is crucial! It doesn’t matter now if men and women will sleep together or not, they will choose by theirselves > this is part of their co-design.

It’s more important, from my point of view, to understand if TO SLEEP at UnMon means only to SLEEP or work, live and sleep in the same space.

[pacheca]

I agree on this.

It shouldn’t be decided in advance.

It might happen that during unMonastery, some month as one kind of agreement different from the next one…

or even all at the same time, I mean, in one room gender misture, in another separated. who knows?

But the basic concept is Co-present people agree on something, just like we are doing here. Right?

[jessy_jetpacks]

andrea zittel

oops, forgot to mention for anyone interested one of my favourite artists andrea zittel. she has done a lot of work around living spaces and desinging people lives for them . desining comfort units and relax pods. she also uses the idea of uniform, which is illuminating. i really cant reccomend looking at her stuff enough. it has a relevance to this, but requires apreciating on a meta level which isnt as practicle as an answer to a question about design. but food for thought.

[pacheca]

Wheels, Cooking area, the Kitchen and the Outside!

Hello to all!

I’m truly delighted to get on board Edgeryders!

And excited about participating in LOTE3!  :- D

Great work happening! I’m impressed, surprisingly great!

I believe that the design concepts and what as been said above, reuse and recycle approach plus creating flexibility in the use of space through furniture, by allowing the Space to happen and to change as different programs are required or suggested, is really necessary for promoting the process of co-living and co-working.

Thought that beside the idea of modularity (loved the links that have been posted) in adition, it might be a good idea, having the furniture and the modules on wheels (with brakes ), when not being suspended on the wall. It is adaptable as one more piece of the puzzle modules and hopefully in a package might be bargained at an acessible price.

The advantage apart of the ability to be easily modified into different schemes in space, it’s also, in practical terms, incredibly handy when one is vacuuming or cleaning the floor.

About the approach of the outside space, once there is a open field nearby, some of the movable furniture can step outside accompanying the movement of the individuals or the community… if transportable.

It would be great thinking about a light and transportable module for protection of the Sun (?) and/or the rain, it´s just an idea, but the open field could work as an extention space for co-working. (easy to lift for transportation, but it had to be in anyway fixable in terms of not being windblown…).

Another thing is about the Kitchen, I believe, as the Pasta event is making a point, this space is really an important one, kind like the internal patio in the houses of roman architecture, as here there is no central outdoor space (in the unMonastery), the Kitchen should be nurtured like a Queen, I say! and given importance as a space of meeting and promoting the creation of relations and consequently possible good ideas! I believe there is be the possibility to have a big table for meals… and that is really good, I think.

I would like to understand better the ideas for the cooking area, the working place of a kitchen, might not be so flexible, I mean, it will probably need to be design at a more deep level than the rest of the furniture, just like the case of WCs… right? in this drawings (don’t have enought info - I’m at the moment with a technical detail that doesn´t allow me to open the dwg), but the cooking area doesn´t seem to be spacious enough… and might be equipped in a way to better promote this collective yummy ritual of basic nutrition.

(One more detail… sorry! Maybe the bathroom in the kitchen, could be acessed from the corner of room 3, don’t know if this wall is a structural one, but if not possible, wouldn’t it be important not having a strait relation between the WC door from the area where the cooking and food are circulating… again, if I well understood the drawing…)

I’m really interested in participating in the activity “Venue”, but maybe because I’m new here, and still trying to keep up with the struture of the website it self, couldn´t find exactly where I can express this availability! (if anyone could help me, it would be great).

Let’s keep working! ;- ) 

Rita

[alberto]

Wheels yay! (and welcome)

Hello [pacheca], welcome to Edgeryders and thanks for these excellent points. I am no designer, but everything you say makes plenty of sense to me. Wheels on everything would be a fantastic idea, as it makes the space easy to reconfigure on the fly; and kitchen centrality is a given in every home – especially in Italy. So, why not in the unMonastery? In fact, it would be great if it were possible to move some kitchen elements outside to cook in the open (though the unMonastery prototype phase will start in February, it will be possible to eat outside in May, and perhaps April too).  I wonder what [immaginoteca] thinks!

However, the space itself is pretty much a given. Walls tend to be half a meter thick and in stone: there is no way you can alter the disposition of the rooms. We need to be creative… let’s keep working!

[pacheca]

correction

Ups! sorry, I meant room 4 when I said room 3.

[pacheca]

correction

Ups! sorry, I meant room 4 when I said room 3.

[immaginoteca]

Cook-working

Pacheca I totally agree with you about the kitchen.

In italian culture in the center of the home. But I believe everywhere in the world the kitchen should be the central room of a coworking or coliving space. Nothing is more efficient than sharing a meal or cook something together to establish strong connections among different people, culture, connections.

“Stories about food are stories about us – our history and our values.”. from WHY EATING MATTERS

Some of you already know that I beleive in ultra-minimalist design (almost no-design) and I really like the concept of unFurniture, but I do beleive that it’s different for the kitchen. I think need to be designed in details, even if I would use movable table and chairs (wheels) to eat.

Let’s keep working!

[andrea_paoletti]

What’s NEXT?

WOW, so many Comments!

I feel like I wanna start to put in order all these comments in a “design charrete” so we will not loose anything!

Have you already downloaded the dwg file? Any of you have already worked on it?

[immaginoteca]

DGW FILES : How can we keep working?

Andrea,

It is not clear to me how can I help with DWG files and I guess others have the same problem.

As mentioned in a previous comment, I think transparency is crucial.

I had several experience of collaborative process failures to to a lack of clear information.

I understand that “Mimers” are helping the city with the renovation project (thanks Alberto for the info).

Does it mean that they have a contract for that (are they in charge of that or they are just volunteering?).

In both cases, I think they should define how much they want to open to the design process.

In my experience this point is crucial in order to avoid abortive work and participant frustration.

How can we help exactly?

How many time to we have?

How much money?

How many designers are involved?

What is the decision making process?

Who will “evaluate” the work submitted by designers?

Are we (designers) asked to give general ideas or design a specific room/space ?

What do you think about all this?

[jessy_jetpacks]

the kitchen should be nurtured like a queen!

wow love that quote, make it seem like termites good one pacheca.

i was hesitant to say genders should be separate, because i’d like to belive it doesnt matter. i have certainly lived in mixed gender sleeping quarters, but where as i am free with myself, from experience i know that subtle things can cause distractions and tension.

i was just discussing with my freind who had lived in a really interesting sort of farming commune thing in france in the 80s. he said that their routine and thier disapline had allowed them to get a really good routine and they were about the spritual progression amongst other things. but things took an interesting turn when he was there with the arrival of a young and beautiful, but carefree girl. her openess; they wore a sort of simple conservative uniform and she would go swimming naked, they saw no other way around but to ask her to leave.

that is a very loose parallel with what we are talking about, but when you live 24 hours with people of whom you have little to none inimate knowledge of, its almost polite to assume that a slight conservatism is needed. its not ideal, but i have learned that through experience.

even somthing symbolic like a curtain across rooms or beds would work, its a symbol of respect for the lack of knowledge of anyone elses expereicnes with the genders.

also i find i can sleep in a cardboard box the same length and width as me, so prehaps if others are capable of that, some people could just have fold out movable box beds that they could sleep anywhere, like the kitchen floor, or even outside if weather is good. roll mats? sleeping bags and big inflatable matresses that go in a cupboard when not being used?

[pacheca]

hope you recover in no time!

Hi Jessy, hope you recover in no time!

Yes, that’s an interesting story, and I get your point.

I personally love the idea of movable box beds enabling freely sleep!

I imagine that the balcony, that exists in one of the rooms, could be a great place to sleep, for instance.

This would mean that in the summer time there might be an extra room, and probably with a great panoramic view.

[nadia]

Kitchen kithcen kitchen

Hi Guys, especiallly Antonio and Rita

Don’t know if it has been mentioned above but from experience the importance of a well equipped kItchen is often underestimated in building community and convening people around shared tasks and goals. Cooking and eating food together is an important social ritual, and a key to personal and community health…it can also act as a great way to build bridges to the community hosting the unMonastery. Dinners and parties are hard to match in terms of gathering very different people and building the kinds of bonds that are key to making amazing things happen together. And in Italy food is a BIG  deal.

I would really really like to see a restaurant grade kitchen (8 cooker stove, free standing ovens, restaurant style dishwasher, several work tops, wood cutting boards & many knives, kitchen aid, plates cups and cutlery for 50 people) in the space. Ideally in place ahead of #LOTE3. Is this feasible? How can we get the local community of makers involved in this in record time? Im in the venue right next to the unMonastery and across from me there is an occupied space run by a community of craftspeople that also run a small market in Matera.

Can someone get a hold of information about how much if any resources are available for kitting out the space with equipment and post it here? This kind of transparency would make it easier to coordinate a collaborative process of building the unMonastery space I think, and in a low trust environment is especially important.

[nadia]

Kitchen kitchen kitchen!!

Hi Guys, especiallly Antonio and Rita

Don’t know if it has been mentioned above but from experience the importance of a well equipped kItchen is often underestimated in building community and convening people around shared tasks and goals. Cooking and eating food together is an important social ritual, and a key to personal and community health…it can also act as a great way to build bridges to the community hosting the unMonastery. Dinners and parties are hard to match in terms of gathering very different people and building the kinds of bonds that are key to making amazing things happen together. And in Italy food is a BIG  deal.

I would really really like to see a restaurant grade kitchen (8 cooker stove, free standing ovens, restaurant style dishwasher, several work tops, wood cutting boards & many knives, kitchen aid, plates cups and cutlery for 50 people) in the space. Ideally in place ahead of #LOTE3. Is this feasible? How can we get the local community of makers involved in this in record time? Im in the venue right next to the unMonastery and across from me there is an occupied space run by a community of craftspeople that also run a small market in Matera.

Can someone get a hold of information about how much if any resources are available for kitting out the space with equipment and post it here? This kind of transparency would make it easier to coordinate a collaborative process of building the unMonastery space I think, and in a low trust environment is especially important.

[ritao]

KITCHEN AND RESOURCES

Hi Nadia

I really don’t know what to say, I myself don’t know anything about financial resources and how are they meant to be used. I completely agree with you about the well equipped kitchen, I’ll try to figure out who we can ask and then post all the info here. Ciao!

[iwas]

rocket stoves

If there’s any interest in Rocket Stoves for cooking or for heating in the unMonastery I’d be happy to contribute from my experience.

It would be possible to demonstrate, build models or even a location specific prototype during Lote3 (though different preparations need to be made for different applications).

[ritao]

cooking issues

this would be great [iamronen]! Let’s start produce a prototype during LOTE: why don’t you propose a session? I think that also [immaginoteca], [antonioelettrico] and [Pacheca]could be interested too in addition to others. What will be needed?

[iwas]

depends on what we want to achieve

1. simple cooking rocket stove:  approx. 20 firebricks
2. better cooking rocket stove: approx. 40 firebricks
3. The "better" cooking rocket stove is a good demonstration of the core of heating rocket stove ... though to build a heating rocket stove is much more work and requires more materials including: a metal barrel, chimney pipes, rocks, clay and cob. This would require much more planning and preparation in advance. Since we will be in a city setting, building it (legally!) may also require quite a bit of approvals and such.

My guts tell me option (2) is easiest and most effective at this point in time. It really demonstrates the magic of rocket stoves and maybe we could use for cooking for the pasta party - making it not just a show piece but actually a relevant tool?

[iwas]

depends on what we want to achieve

1. simple cooking rocket stove:  approx. 20 firebricks
2. better cooking rocket stove: approx. 40 firebricks
3. The "better" cooking rocket stove is a good demonstration of the core of heating rocket stove ... though to build a heating rocket stove is much more work and requires more materials including: a metal barrel, chimney pipes, rocks, clay and cob. This would require much more planning and preparation in advance. Since we will be in a city setting, building it (legally!) may also require quite a bit of approvals and such.

My guts tell me option (2) is easiest and most effective at this point in time. It really demonstrates the magic of rocket stoves and maybe we could use for cooking for the pasta party - making it not just a show piece but actually a relevant tool?