We have entered a new period

filled with a lot of uncertainties,

particularly climatic,

economic and social.

In our cities,

planning has been focusing more

on the functionality of spaces,

rather than the human aspect.

One of the biggest challenges

that we are facing today

is the demographic problem,

the ageing of the population.

We are suffering from climate change,

whose effect is clearly visible in our territory.

We cannot do something for the climate

without taking into consideration the building sector.

In a time where we have taken from nature

in the last decades,

we believe it's time to give back.

When your aim is to regenerate,

you can't take more than you give.

We worked with farmers

as well as with chefs

to start teaching at the culinary school.

We want everybody from this school

to have access to these skills,

so they can also bring them into their daily work

after they graduate.

When we first talked about the regenerative menu,

I was impressed

by the idea of doing such a great project.

Now students learn about everything

starting from the farm to the table.

They have the chance to develop an attitude:

“Why do I work with every part of a chicken?

Why do I use every leaf?”

And they changed a lot.

They changed about throwing away things.

That's a very big change.

We believe that

we will need mutual aid,

sharing and social connections.

Architecture offers possibilities.

Utopia offers another way of living together.

There are more than 1000 square metres

in which you can exchange, share, meet.

It was the compromise between the average apartment

and the house.

You don't feel like you're in the city.

For our travels,

we go by bike, we go on foot.

We have drastically reduced car usage.

It really is our cocoon.

It's like our bubble.

The architecture is designed so that

all the buildings face the courtyard.

It gives life, it's beautiful.

I feel good here actually.

It’s an added experience

that helps us develop the flexibility and expertise

to handle complex projects.

We obviously hope that it will be beneficial

and that it will allow us

to carry out other projects of this type in Europe.

I used to think

that I had no future

as an artist in Gabrovo.

And my viewpoint has completely changed.

This building engages everyone who enters it.

There are going to be event spaces,

educational spaces,

restaurants and cafes.

We've had a lot of artists,

curators, musicians,

theatre people.

Our big dream is to have

a living organism

where things are happening.

Part of our endeavours

is this former textile school

that we are planning to transform

into a centre for arts,

named after Christo and Jeanne-Claude.

I wouldn't go anywhere else,

especially with the opportunity

to have a studio

here in this building.

Our main goal is

to do upcycling of materials,

upcycling of spaces.

It's important to try to see the potential in something

that seems abandoned and old, and useless.

You have cities made of earth

that are still here,

that are more than 900 years old.

We have been researching

traditional building materials and techniques

in order to preserve them and bring them

into the contemporary construction sector.

You have big companies

that are interested in selling products like cement,

because it's quick, it's easy,

and it's safe for the direct results.

The natural building materials have an image of

not being very serious,

but you have articles, you have books,

you have, like, proof all over the world.

This combination of aggregates is working well.

So I want a bucket of lime,

two buckets of sand,

and one bucket of marble sand.

This is tacit knowledge,

how to build with local resources,

how to be resilient.

The idea was to redevelop

and rearrange the common spaces of this building

mainly in favour of the elderly

who are in need of socialising.

Through a self-building workshop,

participants helped the project team to renovate

the building in Via Pirinoli.

We designed modular tables and chairs

so that they could be moved around the rooms

according to the residents’ needs and different activities.

At the beginning,

everything was a little abandoned.

And now, we have a place to meet more often.

For instance, if someone is there,

we can spend time and have fun together.

While young people party, we play cards.

I didn’t have company before.

It was like: “Hi, hi, bye”.

But with time, we have become friends.

With our modular urban furniture, we can create

tiny pocket parks in urban landscapes.

We design for and with people

by giving the most flexibility to our system.

I like that we have more colours and more fun.

I was voting for this colour.

We are talking about a variety of components

that can be combined in different formations.

So it's an evolving and interchangeable system.

This system thinking also helps us

manufacture our components relatively quickly.

And as we are reducing the amount of pieces

to the absolute minimum

and re-utilising them in many different products and designs,

we can also do this very cost-effectively.

We want to bring more greenery and places for people

to enjoy their neighbourhoods.

Parkly has started here in Helsinki,

but it's already in use in more than 20 cities across Europe.

And I want to see it everywhere.