FROM SCHOOL TO THE MARKET: SENSORY NOMADIC STRUCTURES - LEMUR
Work process within the framework of the Living In-between programme
From May 2016 to February 2017
From school to the market is a shared reflection and collective construction project on the Fabra i Coats factory environment. Through 4 stages designed around the metaphor of nomadism (migrations, explorations, settlements and nomadic ceremony), the project explores the sensory qualities of neighbourhood education and public spaces as a necessary condition for the well-being of the children and the adults accompanying them. At the same time, by reinforcing intergenerational relationships among the people who live in the neighbourhood, they are encouraged to become more involved in improving the quality of their local, everyday spaces. These values are obtained through two strategies: the active participation of the agents involved and by encouraging body awareness, particularly sensory, in the space.
The two main stages proposed are the Can Fabra School and Sant Andreu Palomar Market, two key cultural –in the etymological sense of cultivate–, social and intergenerational coexistence spaces; and two places of transit and therefore nomadic.
The activities with the children were designed to awaken and increase their body awareness through play (suitcases of senses; sensory circuits) and at the same time allow the adults to discover the children’s needs and the quality of the play areas (sensory maps). The design evolved in 3 concepts –from conflict to polysemy; from suitcase to cart; from rug to tangram– and ultimately defined 3 types of intervention. All of the materials used (suitcases, hand and nose boxes; fixed and mobile equipment) were donated to the school so that work can continue on this methodology, adapting it to the changing needs of the community, thanks to the active support of a new mixed committee for outdoor spaces, created during the project process.
Acknowledgements:
The project has become a reality thanks to the generous and enthusiastic participation of many people in the activities organised at the school and the market. We would like to thank each and every one of them. The Living In-between team, for the opportunity and their support. The entire community of the Can Fabra School: management team, teachers, volunteers, parents and grandparents for their warm welcome and unconditional support, mutual learnings and an exemplary involvement and commitment, long may it last. Patricia Caruso and Martina Samaniego, for their support and perspective. Montse Monturiol, director of the Sant Andreu Palomar Market. Eli Pons, president of the stallholders, and to all of the hard-working people at the market and shopping centre for their trust and complicity. Pablo P. Becerra, at LaFundició, essential on the day of the performance. Xavier Gil, for capturing it all live. The tireless and dedicated young construction architects Felipe Gómez, Javier de Higues, Iván López, Adrián Mateo, Olaf Puente and Andrea Xicota. And finally, the boys and girls of the Can Fabra School, who have taught us more than anyone else has and who are the real reason behind all this.