One of the answers of such a question is the Living Under(ground) workshop “zilinaCITYgarden” that took place at Stanica April 30th - May 5th 2012.

The general topic of the workshop was a navigation in the public space. The workshop group consisted of students and professionals working in the field of architecture, cultural management, design and tourism. The main motivation was to establish a sustainable co-operation with local authorities to improve public space and strength the cultural development in Žilina. At the beginning we asked people working at the municipal office what kind of problems are they facing now. We found several topics to be interesting to cultural sector too. That is why we found this collaboration important. The problems are particularly related to public space in Žilina. The task of the workshop group was to response to the problems.

The workshop group worked on these topics: 1. navigation and design of the public info-point for local people and tourists, 2. educational maps, 3. modern architectural heritage promotion, 4. improvement of the town’s postering system. We addressed these questions: How to inform local people and tourists about the cultural events?, How to navigate people to discover modern architecture in Zilina?, How to make a non-classical map of the city that will be created by inhabitants?, How to attract young tourists and backpackers and navigate them to the spots in the town that are interesting for them besides sightseeing?, How to renovate the ugly building of a public toilet and to turn it into the tourist info-point with limited budget? The group was collaborating tightly with the representatives of the municipality (e.g. Head of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Head of Architect Department) and the local politicians (the Vice Mayor and the Mayor). They discussed their work in progress and gave the feedback. The results were presented to the town representatives at the end of the workshop. The municipality will realize the best ideas that came out of the workshop.

This workshop is part of the project Engine Room Europe - Living Under(ground), within which we are together searching for various ways, how the architecture and design together with a cultural center could possibly contribute to a better public space. We believe that we established a constructive dialogue and showed that we can act and contribute.

The workshop was lectured by architects Michal Marcinov (Architecture department of Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava) and Tomáš Dupkala (Endorfine studios), graphic designers Peter Liška (Ping-Pong studios), Peter Dlhopolček (Atelier314) and Peter Moravčík (David studios). Several guest made an inspiring presentations: Vladimír Majtán (The Monuments Board of the Slovak Republic), expert on modern architecture Dušan Mellner, theoretician on architecture and urbanism Adama Gebrian from Prague, Dušan Dobiaš presenting the project of sound map in Žilina and Petr Slepička (Prague Information Service).