01. WWWWWWHAT?

We propose to implement the current development process with public participation. We think there is no optimal solution but a plenty of them. These closed proposals can fulfill  the expectations of certain groups or accomplished the diverse understandings of what the future of the city should be. However the city cannot depend on the success of a visionary idea. Therefore, we propose an open process  to make sure the different sensibilities are taken into consideration in order to live in a city as complex and diverse as the society that lives in it.

WHY?We are used to closed design processes that show the architect as the oracle and the spaces or the buildings as finished objects. We understand the city as the ongoing result of complex and diverse dyna-mics, and the role of the architect as the manager of these energies always ready to operate on unex-pected scenarios. As a result, our proposal is to open Badel Block development process to the citizens.

WHEN?The process is divided in three stages. The first one takes 12 months and the second one will last two more years. The third one is open to the uncertain future. This is one of the last opportunities of Zagreb to boldly take part in its centre.

WHEN?We propose to refurbish the Distillery in order to use it as the office for the Open Block Agency and to hold the several events and workshops through the process. A rough shell at the beginning, it will co-llect successively a variety of infrastructure, furniture and gadgets that may serve its next use or reused in some of the new buildings. During the firsts stages its purpose can be reconsidered and it could end up as a community social centre, a pioneer collaborative design lab or any other decided purpose. The agency also operates online. Visiting its web page www.openblockzagreb.org you can get to know the project and the process and take part of it whether you live close by or in a far away part of the world. It is possible to access the proposals, extract data and compare them. You can give your opinion, comment others opinion or suggest any idea or modification on the plan or the design

WHO?Not only the Municipality, a main private investor and the architects and urban experts should be able to express their hopes or ideas for the future of Badel Block. Also potential users such as small investors, business potential owners, local associations or citizens should have the chance to express themselves about the convenience or not of the different proposals or even to propose any aspect they consider relevant.In order to meet these unlinked agents we create the Open Block Agency that will have its Office in the refurbish Distillery and will operate both On-site and Online. Several events will be arrange such as Exhibitions, Lectures, Meetings, Workshops and online Applications

02. POTENTIAL

HOW?In a three stages process that completes and opens the current process. For the first stage, we propose an open public debate. We have developed several tools to analyse the different proposals of the present ideas competition. They decompose the so-presented ended propo-sals in four different faces allowing citizens and urban experts debate on the same basis and recombine and synthesise them in partial or global solutions. On the second stage, we propose  a collaborative design process that allow creative people outside the standard path of developing the city to participate. The way to do it cover a broad field from the “do-mestic scale tip giving” to the membership in a work group focused on the guidelines to a bike friendly solution that will inform the Area Master Plan. We understand the third stage, the construction, as a process with no beginning or end. It had already started before the different competitions and plans on Badel block and It will  not be finished with the inhabitation of the buildings or the successful use of the public spaces. We think it is essential to ino-culate the solutions with resiliency abilities in order to be able to cope with stress and adversity in the potential and unexpected scenarios the city will have to face. 

We present 21 significative proposals as 21 closed visions of what the future of Badel block could be. They could be much more and most of the entries of the present ideas competition could be there as well. Among them we can find proposals that dosen´t follow the guidelines of the competition and also the winner proposals of past Badel block competition. We can also sense different programs or see different ways to occupy the plot and densify it. Therefore we have positioned them in a matrix tensed by four forces we believed city is driven by: Agents, Program, Urban parameters and Sustainability. 

03. ANALYSIS

In order to make the 21 proposals useful we need to analyse and decompose them into operative para-meters. These data define the way that proposal responds to each one of the four vertexes that focus the city dynamics. The  diagram is able to describe a proposal as precisely as its physical materialisa-tion and also allows us to evaluate and compare them. It is possible to see which one of them works better in relation with the environment or the different spatial ways of dealing with the same program diversity. We can even start mixing some of these conditions in order to imagine a new proposal. We cannot be sure that any of these visionary ideas will work for Babel Block, but through these analy-sis we can isolate what is the sweet side of every of them

AGENTSThe measurement of the percentage of their participation in the development stage and during its lifeti-me. PROGRAMThe measurement of the distribution of the program percentage URBAN PARAMETERSThe relationship between the Occupation [covered area] and the density [floor area ratio] SUSTAINABILITYThe social and economic sustainability are considered in the overall proposal approach so here the focus is in the environmental sustainability. The estimation of the ecological footprint depending on the production and consumption of three key issues: Natural resources, Energy and Waste.

04. SYNTHESIS

Following the logic of each one of the four vertexes we have synthesised several operative strate-gies  that allow the agents involved in the process combine them building partial solutions. Depending on the vertex, the strategies have a different nature as they focus in different topics

  AGENTSThe description of two possible public-private partnership model and the proposal of a new one in which open block agency links the different agents and manages the relationship between them. PROGRAMA taxonomy of the most interesting programmatic species suitable for Badel block URBAN PARAMETERSThe description of four different spacial logic that can adapt to the plot and grow or decrease through time. SUSTAINABILITYFour approaches to the three key issues addressed in the evaluation diagram. Each one focuses in one of them but all are related. They can work in different scales and with almost every program. 

05. SIMULATION

The way the strategies are assembled and work together depends not only on the decisions made but also on the unexpected events or context that may take place in the future.That is the reason why Open Bock Agency will work to provide resilience abilities to the developing area. Resilience refers to the tendency to cope with stress and adversity and it is understood as a process and not as a trait of an individual. The way to do it is similar to inoculation and it will be introduced in every workshop and event during the collaborative design process.

06. ON-SITE PARTICIPATION

Our only proposal to transform the space at this point is the roughly refurbishment of the Distillery in order to accommodate the head office of Open Block Agency that will also work as Community Social and Cultural Centre.In the first two stages of the open developing process, every activity arranged by the Agency will take place in the Distillery or it surroundings. This fact will benefit socially and spatially both spaces. The workshops production and the goods required for the different activities will become the first assets of the future Badel Community. During the third stage the purpose and the shape of the Distillery might be modified by the community.

Nowadays every event that takes place has an impact in something else that was there before or is yet to come. In the same way, objects, people and places can be strongly linked despite being physically far away from each other. That is the reason why Open Block Agency works also in an on-line level.The creation of networks based on interest, purposes etc. is one of the targets of the process, as well as to relate Open Block Agency to the existing networks. Badel Block can benefit from external agents with previous similar experiences or can help future similar initiatives.

07. ON-LINE PARTICIPATION