Nest logbook

NEST

living on the ideas of others

team Isabel Bahiana Wotzasek Lena Pfeiffer Maximilian Schneider Tassilo Weber coaches Elias Barrasch Galina Emelina Prof. Carl Frech hpi school of design thinking summer track 2013

beach volleyball summer flowers

discovering new

rio de jan graphic design exploring the world

critical capitalism industrial sales internet phil rock climbing swimming innovation healthy snacking urban web ap engineering berlin cheries scub

bus

K端r

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tastes

neiro writing

losophy gardening

pplications ba diving

siness

rbiskerne

wuppertal poetry

design

Sthe NEST In our research we found out that living and working at the same place is currently not a suitable long-term solution for most people. Through short-term generations of inhabitants, our project gives people the opportunity to experience this in reality, while taking part in a long term project that aims to make tangible the real needs of working communities.

It is a real life laboratory. People are given the opportunity to experiment on sustainable living solutions in a collaborative way, whilst making the needs of modern urban communities visual. They will design and redesign the temporary living spaces they inhabiting during the project in a continuous, dynamic and evolutionary way. And they will start with restricted resources to establish a mindset of sustainability.

We want people to experiment on alternative ways of living. We want people to reflect upon their deeds. We want people to express themselves and to inspire each other. Starting from zero, in an empty space, through this real-life laboratory we will create a communal and sustainable mindset and foster a community spirit where there is nothing at the moment.

Wunderstand

To understand our challenge and gain empathy for our potential users, we started by mapping out topics that we believed were of interest to the project. After these topics were established we discussed how we would research them, which led us to a plan: hit the road and get to know inspiring projects in Berlin, and hit the web for a broader view.

Presearch on THE road

UFA Fabrik

Holzmarkt Kater Holzig

Eis Fabrik

Kรถpi Beta House Bethanien Tassilo's House

Fairnopoly

Tempelhofer Freiheit

on THE ROAD Holzmarkt

Bethanien

We started our research visitng the construction site of the future Holzmarkt community. What struck us was that even in an early stage of contruction, the important elements of this community were already visible at the site: art, beauty and sustainability. This led us to the insight that these elements should be strong driving forces in our project. Another visible aspect was the very hands on, do it yourself feel of the construction. This communitiy was being built by it's inhabitants so we felt it should not only inspire who would live there but also be inspired by the people.

Our main question after the visit was what mechanisms would be developed to help the inspiring community grow out of an empty construction space.

At the Bethanien we had the opportunity to interview Nadine, a 32 year old artist that has an atelier in the space. She works as a freelance artist, developing masks and props for theater, as well as creating concepts for performances. An interesting aspect that she pointed out was that it was good to have the possibility to spend the night at her atelier (which she does when there is an overload of work) but that she found important to separate her personal life from her professional life. The most surprising point of the interview was when she shared with us her vision for a coworking space where artists could live and work as well as collaborate with each other. As the collaboration aspect was important, she had even envisioned the architecture of the building, in a hexagonal shape that would stimulate and facilitate this purpose. And since Nadine believes that nature is the main source of beauty and inspiration, she imagines this space in a place where it would be surrounded by nature.

Kรถpi & Eis Fabrik We visited the Eis Fabrik and Kรถpi to gain understanding on these self initiated communities.

Although we were not able to speak to the people living there, we observed that even with reused and recycled items, the need for beauty and the possibility to shape the space in an artistic way was a key element in both spaces.

The main insights we gained with this interview were: . living and working in the same space is a challenge and sometimes not desirable . environment and architecture are important sources of inspiration

Tassilo's place Tassilo, one of the members of our group, lives in a self administrative student housing complex in Kreuzberg. This complex was built in the 70s as a living and working project and is working well up to now. We visited the complex to gain insights on how a community can organize itself in a harmonious way. Another interesting aspect for our project were the common shared spaces available in the complex.

An important insight we gained with this visit was that being able to influence the choice of the people you live with is important for shared living spaces and communities.

Fairnopoly Fairnopoly is a project that tries to construct a new version of the market with constraints according to the values of the economy for the common good. This inspired us that our project could also be measured by these parameters of common good.

Tempelhofer Freiheit At the old airport, we were able to observe the wonderful urban gardening project that has developed there. It was a great inspiration of how an abandoned space can be reinvented into an area of beauty and

fun by the people's own effort, without the need of the citie's intervention. The garden's aren't just simple green spaces, but an extension of people's house's and pieces of art created with simple, reused materials, like a huge and creative backyard. This led us to the insight that when people are given space and freedom, they can create beautiful and useful pieces of art with simple materials and, therefore, reinvent an empty space.

UFA Fabrik At UFA Fabrik we were able to observe a well establishe living/working community. And the result seemed to us like agreat littlel city, where people could live a complete life in a peaceful way. Here we found a nice bakery, cafe, school, community center, spaces for sports and classes and even a mini farm. We also had the chance to talk with the founders of the community who explained that living and working in the same place was possible when you know yourself an can manage your time and duties well. They also told us that dreams come from doing, so that staying active is essntial for the community to renew it's visions and stay alive. This led us to the insight that a living/ working community is possible wen all the people involved have acive rolls but also space to be individuals.

on THE ROAD

architecture

Presearch

Portable sustainab Living Solutions

on THE web

containers

Favela Communities

simple

art

wood

Urban Gardens

self initiative

space

inspiration

natural living

Alternative Communities

bility

work x leisure

nature

eco vilas Modernism & Utopia

beauty Artist in Residency

dynamic

negative examples open

#Synthesis

#

After our research we set down to figure out how all these different perspectives to living and working fitted into a big picture. With the exception of the inhabitants of the ufa-fabrik most of the interviewees insisted on having a clean separation between their work and their private life. At the same time all of them romanticized about actually combining these two while living in a community of like minds.

They would love to live a “life of the short ways� where their colleagues and friends were always be close to them so that they could inspire each other. Nevertheless they could not imagine actually living this way. Many were missing some part to their lives, when they tried out sleeping in their offices or when spending too much time with their colleagues.

They could not share their private interests and felt that it was not appropriate to introduce those.

Though they insisted on not being able to, we think that they are actually neglecting their need to find people with whom they could create a community in which they would fit in as a whole rather than with just one facet of their personality.

What we identified as missing at these places was a combination of community and culture in which they would gladly lose themselves in. Creative people in the early stage of their career actually want to connect with like minds, who are having similar goals personally and for their work. They don’t want to balance between their professional and their private self, but rather combine those two in order to be able to inspire and be inspired by the people who surround them.

Fideation

HMW give visions form?

The identified needs led us to certain brainstorming questions. Finally, we decided to developed ideas especially for three questions which we identified as the most important for the needs we wanted to tacle.

H2 visualize the past?

H2 create a sustainable mindset?

H2 let everybody shape the culture of the community?

H2 get started with a project?

H2 inspire people?

HMW we create an inspiring place that can also be inspired?

H2 change a building?

H2 connect with “wise� people?

HMW integrate projects into society?

H2 to connect projects with the outer world?

H2 help test ideas?

HMW create a place to be individual and part of the community?

H2 earn money for living?

HMW connect past/culture to the community?

H2 create a community out of nothing?

HMW inspire the community?

To filter the ideas, we valued them by the categories: wild idea, sustainable, easy to implement.

The ides which didn’t fulfill a criteria were left behind.

Hour idea NEST is a real life laboratory where a shared living space is built and improved by generations of inhabitants. It is a place of mutual inspiration and collaboration, not only between those who live there at the same time, but also between the different generations of inhabitants.

Therefore, each inhabitant will be given 2 weeks to create a customized and sustainable living space.

They will be free to rethink and redesign the spaces according to their own and future generation’s needs and their sense for beauty.

Everything that is created at and brought to NEST will remain as an inheritance and inspiration for the next generations and their ideas. As this process is supposed to have no end, each inhabitant will temporarily be part of an infinite project.

NEST is not a solution to any particular problem, nor is it mere art.

It aims to tackle the very source

of major problems in our society which is an egoistic, competitive, profit-oriented mindset that forgot its origins and does not connect its actions to repercussions in the far future. With our concept of “living on the ideas of others� we want to let a community with a sustainable mindset grow out of itself. Whatever is created at NEST is not only done by and for a single person, but also a result of the collaboration within and between the different generations.

Therefore, apart from being a selfsustaining project NEST also has a representative function and is a mind-generator in order to carry this awareness abroad.

Constraints & Challenges NEST is supposed to be a sustainable, ecofriendly and non-capitalistic place. Therefore, there will be put certain constraints on its inhabitants, their creative work and way of living. The first generation will be given the highly constrictive rules “Don’t produce any waste” and “Don’t buy anything”. If they manage to follow them, the rules will be kept for the next generation.

If not, the inhabitants will be able to slightly modify them in order to make them feasible for the following generation (for example “The only thing you can buy is food.”).

Still, those two constraints will remain as main ideas throughout the whole project.

Additionally, if the (modified) constraints are not challenging enough, at the end of each period the inhabitants will have the chance to formulate a challenge for the next generation because they know the place and what it needs to keep on developing.

Open House At the end of each living period there will be an Open House where the inhabitants who are moving out will present their changes and contributions to the public. It will also be an opportunity for them to mingle with people with different professions and from different disciplines. Artist inhabitants can arrange vernissages, investors and entrepreneurs can find products for new business models among the creations and neighbours can get to know the place and its function. Altogether, the Open House is way to connect the NEST project with the outer world and to spread the word.

History & Documentation NEST is a place of constantly flowing change. Still, the history created there won’t be lost. Therefore, everything created will be captured in the evolution gallery which is part of NEST itself. The way how to capture everything will be open to the creativity of the inhabitants. Pictures, sculptures, paintings, installations – it’s up to them. It will also be a place where innovative living solutions created at NEST will be visible and tangible.

Application NEST is open for everybody who supports its vision and wants to be part of it. Due to a limited number of inhabitants for each generation, there is an online application and a selection process which we designed in a fair way. It takes part in three steps.

First, the applicants will be asked to fill in an online form with the following fields until a certain deadline:

Describe your unique skill and how it will contribute to the NEST project: — What is a unique skill? It is not an official profession, nothing you can become by following a certain career.

It is your special way of expressing yourself, as a single person and as a community member. Only you can find the right name for it. use any uploadable medium of expression (text, images, videos etc.)

Pitch an idea how to design a part of NEST, a container etc. — Keep in mind: the main idea is to neither buy anything nor produce waste. use any uploadable medium of expression (text, images, videos etc.)

Choose a period for which you want to apply for: ( ) Ground Zero: Be part of the first steps of NEST. Build something out of nothing. ( ) CommuNEST: Join the NEST whenever you want and build on the ideas of others. ( ) Zero Degrees: Participate in preparing NEST for the Berlin winter.

After the deadline all applications will be uploaded and visible for all other applicants. Each applicant will be given 10 points and asked to distribute them to other applications than their own.

Only after this the application will be complete.

After a first selection by a selection committee the selected applicants will visit NEST and mingle with the inhabitants who will be able to decide on the final selection for the next generation.

Starting Point The actual project starts when everything is provided that supports the community spirit of the first NEST generation with the potential to grow out of itself. Apart from the mindset of the inhabitants which were selected during the application procedure, the initial infrastructure of NEST will consist of very basic living solutions for a maximum of 8 people. For this purpose 10 spaces (for example insulated containers) will be provided: 8 as individual living and creation spaces, one for sanitary facilities and one as a kitchen. Additionally there will be building materials (especially wood) and tools to enable the inhabitants to start building right away. In order to help the first inhabitants and to clarify possible uncertainties with regard to the project and their role in it, one of the living spaces will be inhabited by a temporal “landlord”. She or he will be someone who is not selected through the normal application procedure, but a member of the NEST team who knows the project well and is in contact with the rest of the team and, as the case may be, other stakeholders. If the presence of such a person will be necessary throughout the whole time of the project or if the inhabitants coming from outside will be able to completely organize themselves has to be decided according to the recommendations of the “landlords”.

Living Solutions Possible living solutions for the NEST at Ground 0

qimplementation While NEST is not meant to be a profitable project in the first place, it will generate a big social value, concerning sustainable, democratic and communal aspects. In order to measure this value NEST will be part of the Economy for the Common Good (Gemeinwohl-Ökonomie). In the course of joining this movement which translates standards for human relationships into an economic context there will be created a “Common Good Balance Sheet” for the NEST project which is the standard form for measuring the values named above. At this time the Economy for the Common Good is “only” a movement with an increasing number of companies, organizations and private persons joining in by creating a Balance Sheet voluntarily. Its goal, however, is that due to the high profile of the network legislation emerges requiring companies to produce such balance sheets. Therefore, sponsoring the NEST project shows a pioneer spirit which will be rewarded in the future.

Eprototypes To test our idea, we developed a variety of prototypes to be able to get feedback from our users. After a first testing round with d.school students and faculty, we decided to finetune 2 of the prototypes for testing with our potential users: a brochure and a comic. Due to the fact, that the project should be for everybody, who has good ideas and is interested in building up a community, we had a fairly broad target group. But besides the wide range of opinions of all kinds of people, we were especially interested in people, who could imagine to participate in our project and thus are able to give us feedback on needs, problems and expectations.

And so Maria arrives at the open house and sees the container where she's gonna live in for the next two weeks...

Finally an inspiring place that can also be inspired by me! ...

So let's see what the former resident has already made out of it.

on the next day she's moving in.. ah, forntunatly he made a bed - and such a nice one!

so, how can i make this place more liveable?

first of all, i need something to hang up my clothes

this desk fits. i hope the next person moving in will like it... or make it even prettier

voilĂ ! simple, but it works! and maybe one of the other "nestlers" can help me with making it more sophisticated later on...

during the next days maria gets to know her nest-communityneighbours better. they discuss their common task for the two weeks (producing no waste) and exchange skills.

and i didn't know that you can build such a stylish desk out of rest materials!

thanks, maria, i didn't know that painting is so easy!

so, after two joyful and creative weeks in the holznest, maria puts up some final features in her container...

...while paul, the next short time resident of the container, already has some ideas how to build on what maria created.

...and then, at the next open house, she presents the changes she made and talks about her time with the others at holznest.

...and what the holznest might become in the future.

Brochure

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MAIN VISION MAIN VISION

A shared living space built and A shared living space built and improved by generations ofimproved inhabitants! by generations of inhabitants!

Each inhabitant will be given Each 2-4 inhabitant weeks will be given 2-4 weeks to create a customized and sustainable to create a customized and sustainable living space. You will be freeliving to rethink space. You will be free to rethink and redesign the spaces according and redesign to the spaces according to your own and future generation’s your own needs. and future generation’s needs.

Everything that is created atEverything and that is created at and brought to Holznest will remain brought as an to Holznest will remain as an inheritance for future generations inheritance and for future generations and their ideas. The idea is to lettheir a commuideas. The idea is to let a community with sustainable mindset nitygrow without sustainable mindset grow out of nothing. of nothing.

OPEN HOUSE OPEN HOUSE

Every week during the openEvery houseweek the during the open house the nesters who are moving outnesters will present who are moving out will present their contribution. Those who their continue contribution. Those who continue to live in the Holznest will mingle to live in with the Holznest will mingle with the remaining applicants inthe order remaining to applicants in order to come to know them. come to know them.

EVOLUTION

On the next day the nesters, who continue to live in the Holznest will select the future residents. At this point they also decide on new goals in oder to create a truly sustainable community.

Starting with living without money and without producing waste, these will be decided on by the nesters over the total course of the Holznest.

HISTORY

Holznest is a place of constantly flowing change. Still, the history created there won’t be lost. Therefore, everything created will be captured in our evolution gallery. The way how to capture everything will be open to the nestlers. Sculpturs, paintings, pictures, installations – it’s up to you.

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School of Design Thinking Prof.-­‐Dr.-­‐Helmert-­‐Str. 2 -­‐ 3 D-­‐14482 Potsdam Germany Phone: +49-­‐331-­‐5509-­‐123 Email: office-­‐d-­‐school@hpi.uni-­‐potsdam.de Web: www.hpi.uni-­‐potsdam.de/d-­‐school

These ideas were created by a multdisciplinary team of students at the HPI School of Design Thinking.