The photographs document the final form of the work Monsters on Budatínská Street, which was created in collaboration with the Metropolitan Institute of Bratislava (MIB) on the project City for Children. The ambition of the project is to create a safe and pedestrian-friendly space around Bratislava schools. The organisers of the project are convinced that children need to move freely, they are courageous, they want to be active and independent. However, today's children have less freedom of movement than their peers in the past. The task of the students was to design modifications of the public space in the spirit of tactical urbanism in the vicinity of the primary school on Budatínská Street in Petržalka. The students worked on a semester-long project based on a complex participatory process with an interdisciplinary team. The process started with traffic mapping on Budatínská Street in Petržalka during the morning rush hour, continued with observation of the school's surroundings in the afternoon, a walk with the children around the school to jointly identify challenges and problems of public space, and finally the so-called participant observation, in which MIB staff animated activities and games with the children. This helped the students to get to know the children's perspective better. The idea was to find out as much as possible about the real needs and problems of the pupils and to stimulate their interest in public space. At the end of the summer term 2022/2023, the three best ideas from different teams were selected, which were then developed and implemented by the selected team during the summer months. Each of the projects reflected different aspects of the space addressed. The newly proposed space consists of a graphic design of asphalt art on an area of approximately 300 m2, the function of which is to mark out the space belonging to the school and make it safe. Other elements are a navigation system for better orientation in the wider surroundings and urban furniture. The ambition of the students was to design an original multifunctional urban furniture, which, in the spirit of the original idea of the "urban jungle", was given the final name "Monsters of Budatínská". Each Monster is made up of a concrete base and coloured plywood. The fact that urban space is primarily used for human interaction was also demonstrated at the public community event Street to Play on 9 September 2023, where new elements of the urban space were presented to the public. Public space is an interesting area for research and design. In the Slovak context, it offers countless opportunities for designer intervention. It requires a certain degree of courage on the part of municipalities to conceptually enter, modify or redefine the use of public space. For users, it is a challenge to test, understand and constructively comment on proposed changes. It is in the public realm that design thinking and approach is at a premium: As humans, we don't like to change habits, we find it hard to embrace change - even though it has the potential to improve our daily lives and invites us to look at things differently. Do we have the courage to do this? Student Team: Bc. Anna Gergelyová, Bc. Viktória Mikitková, Bc. Ivana Palušová, Bc. Katarína Verešová, Bc. Jana Vlčková Expert and curatorial guidance. Wanda Borysko, ArtD., Mgr. art. art Zuzana Turlíková, ArtD. We plan to present the project on posters placed on stands (we have available), or we can fine-tune after consultation with BADW, exhibition proestor approx. 4 m2
English 
Slovak