Around fifty independent cultural centers, including Stanica, creates the European network Trans Euroope Halles (TEH). That means more than fifty venues at a bit less number of cities in Europe (for example in Helsinki there are 3 centers that are part of the network). But the most important fact is that it means at least fifty unique stories that we have been focused on more then two years.

Usually the classic is a story of young enthusiastic people who refused to follow up the traditional 9 to 5 working schedule and decided to inhabit an empty factory building to create a cultural center. And after several years of professional growth they become an important spot on the map of European culture, co-operating with local community, authorities and other international partners, contributing to the civil society.

This kind of story in fifty different variants. Some of those people were already working in other fields and still created the cultural center during their leisure time. Some of the stories did not manage to last long. And of course, sometimes it was totally a different story.

Recently we come back from an intense two-weeks trip. We visited ten centers in the direction from Zilina, Slovakia to Helsinki, Finland. We mapped the venues. Some of them are former factories (e.g. the old Nokia buildings, a sinked fairy rebuilt into a venue in Riga or former gas container …, and so on. All our efforts in the search of the stories for the „TEH Design Book“ that will be an encyclopedia of creative architectural ideas used in the independent cultural venues in Europe. We plan to produce the book in the spring 2014. And now enjoy the pictures from our study and exploring trip to the North!

text by Peter Lényi, architect and the head researcher of the TEH architecture within the project Engine Room Europe

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