MOOD Workshop by MELEEM Skopje

Mood Workshop is part of Tbilisi Architecture Biennial – What do we have in common? This workshop is organized by MELEEM Skopje and it is consisted of two parts: First part was designing an urban intervention in public space in two cities Skopje and Tbilisi during an online workshop, led by mentors from Skopje and Tbilisi. Participants of this workshop were students in architecture from Skopje, Tbilisi and Novi Sad. The main goal was to discover what do we have in common between cities and more specifically: How does public space can have an effect on our mood? During more discussionс with students and their experience in the cities we came up with different parametric test models.

This intervention creates a space that is dynamic and vibrant and create different sitting positions but also movement of climbing up and down. During the workshop students were thinking about creating some place for sitting, inspired by theater. Place where people can be near to each other, but also distant and respecting the COVID measurements. The goal is to escape from the classical way of sitting in the public space, but create different sitting positions where people can create new relations, feel more relaxed and enjoy the public space. The intervention is set in the yard of elementary school in Skopje. On the existing location was found one tree which is passing through the wooden net.

At the position previously there were concrete leftovers from previous urban interventions and mood workshop is using this as a basement for settling. The intervention is transparent from all the sides because of the rhythm of wooden columns which are positioned on distance of 20 cm. It could be seen through the wooden intervention and from behind because the columns are parallel and there are no additional substructures. This make the intervention easy and light. The second part of the workshop was its construction, where students could practically learn the process of constructing the intervention and learn new skills while working with wood. The construction on site lasted for 3 weeks because of the complexity of the project. During the construction, children from the school were constantly asking about the project. We believe that is important children from small ages to be included in this kind of projects which can increase their immagination.