Let’s take on responsibility as a community. This organization (EASA) is not a hierarchy, but an open, horizontal assembly of individuals. We should not depend solely on the organisers to provide us with an unforgettable experience. EASA is something we build together as a community. Let’s DIO, Do-It-Ourselves.

 

 

DIO was an installation workshop at the 2023 Summer Assembly of the European Architecture Students’ Assembly (EASA, easanetwork.org). In this horizontally-organised assembly, much of the responsibility falls on the yearly organising team. DIO radically advocated for the taking on responsibility as a community. EASA is not a hierarchy, but an open, horizontal assembly of individuals and as such should not depend solely on the organisers to provide for an unforgettable experience.

DIO took responsibility for the summer assembly’s common infrastructures: shading installations, much needed coatracks and hangers, bathroom stools, and a plethora of other small installations for other workshops. Most of its interventions manifested their need throughout the event: through continuous conversations with all attendees, these needs were identified and then tackled according to their relative importance. For instance, as rainfall was common in on the EASA grounds, coatracks and hangers were absolutely vital to improve everyone’s experience. The rationale behind the locally informed and improvised character of the DIO interventions was twofold. Firstly, there was no way to know how attendees would appropriate the space and hence which needs would emerge from that appropriation. Secondly, the workshop’s end goal was for the participants to adopt the DIO-attitude of identifying a problem and then working out a solution on the spot.

 

 

The workshop’s aimed outcomes were imagined across three categories:

Physical: interventions or spatial solutions to identified problems

Educational: practical techniques for problem solving & development of a DIO-attitude.

Community-wide: relieve organisers from added stress by being a group dedicated to solving unforeseeable issues

 

Methods and approach

DIO created, augmented, and rethought the EASA commons non-destructively, acting within the timeframe of one day. DIO’s non-destructive approach meant that any installation should be wholly removable after the event without leaving any traces. Materials were reclaimed from skips or junk left behind on Sheffield’s streets, and therefore (at least) temporarily upcycled. As such, few virgin materials had to be used throughout the process. The only virgin materials used were cloth fabric, which was kept as pristine as possible, and thin plastic sheets, which were discarded after serving as a waterproofing layer.

Every day was organised similarly: the mornings were used to decide on the projects to be designed and built within the timeframe of that day, and by midday, construction had started. This approach was justified through the ‘learning-by-doing’ principles put forward in the DIO-mindset. References to this mindset were Enzo Mari and Victor Papanek, who famously mass-pioneered the DIY construction of furniture pieces, and socio-ecological design respectively. The ultimate motto was that we cannot expect everything/something/anything from anyone else. We make the EASA Commons. We Do It Ourselves.

 

 

We want to thank especially our participants and guests throughout the two workshop weeks.

 

Tutors

Jakob D’herde

Sara Dobrijevic

Oscar Levy

 

Participants

Victoria Shishkova

Klara Westfalova

Mina Radovanovic

Milica Mladenovic

Ailenda Krivicka

Mladen Stojanovic

Matt Dodd

 

Guests

Ömer Seçim

Sofia Elldin

 

Collabs

EASA Umbrella

EASA Archive