Byverksted

About the organisation

Byverksted is created with a vision to rethink the city from the bottom and up. Inhabitants are invited to investigate how they actively can build the city together. Through different initiatives people come together to experience the city, gain and share knowledge and build it in different ways. The aim is to create more accessible ways of participating in the decision making processes of the city - based on the values of democracy of inclusion, diversity, equality and representation. We investigate together how we can create more sustainable ways of living. The initiative allows for different people to show up with their own skills and visions in order to communicate, share and benefit society as a whole with a common vision in mind.

Background

As an initiative grown out of Stavanger’s art community, Byverksted is organized by citizens, bringing together a variety of people. Responding to top-down development without real participation of the local residents, Byverksted puts artistic strategies into use to amplify bottom-up urban planning and to explore interventions in the social fabric of the city. Byverksted invites citizens to share experiences, opinions, and ideas and knowledge fears and dreams: a ‘collective production of desires’ (PlanBude Hamburg). Previously, Byverksted has arranged workshops, talks, engaged in debates,

produced posters, flyers, stickers, and a series of zines and publications. Some resources can be found at byverksted.no.

Challenge

The students are invited to figure out how to create better arenas for the citizens. The aim of the project should be to investigate how we can make it easier for the citizens to participate in creating the city. Building communication between people, organisations, the political system would help in making city development into a more democratic process. These arenas could be physical ones, but they could also take on different shapes - as long as they aim to make participation more accessible for all members of society.