MAKE HEAVEN FROM WHAT YOU HAVE
RRRUBBLE @ VICTORY SQUARE
RRRUBBLE, the collective research project by Space Saloon and The MAAK, aims to rethink the role of resources and agency in architectural production. In October 2023, the RRRUBBLE methodology was put into action in Timișoara, Romania as part of the Timișoara Architecture Biennial (BETA) European Capital of Culture. Supported through the LINA platform, BETA invited the team to explore ways in which Victory Square could be re-imagined and enhanced by its public users. Together with students from the Polytechnic University of Timisoara, Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, the group chose to focus the temporary interventions inside the abandoned underground stairwells of the square.
The team mined through BETA’s storage archive of previous installations, exhibitions and biennials, mapping usable materials and prototyping on-site. Over the course of a week, participants collectively reframed the use of the staircases through spatial activations and urban actions - transforming one site into a busker-friendly public stage and the other into a tranquil public ‘living-room’.
DESIGN AS A MATERIAL PROCESS
The items from BETA’s archive were prioritized over the sourcing of new or foreign materials. All materials taken from storage had to be kept in their same condition. These constraints produced a creative re-purposing of items, discovered through an on-the-ground, hands-on process of design and making. BETA’s curatorial history was re-discovered through a bricolage of material stories, each explorable through QR codes embedded on the pieces.
TEAM