Azerbaijan’s education culture is built in a way that after graduation from high school those who are capable of having to move to Baku for university education and eventually to start a “better” life there. It is mostly because, unfortunately, there are not many opportunities for young people in the other districts of the country and the decentralization process is very slow in the regions. The situation makes many young people leave their life behind and start a new beginning in a huge and gray city. Many things do not translate the same when you move from a district where life is slower, nature is beautiful and green, people are kinder and know each other and most importantly there is a sense of community around the neighborhood you used to live in. In return, Baku is very hectic, the weather is toxic, people always rush somewhere and the high buildings and city infrastructure leave you with minimum contact with people and nature. Most women who have mental health problems such as general anxiety and depression find it hard to adapt to a new toxic environment. Most women also feel more insecure about their safety and security in Baku due to the higher chances of harassment compared to the regions. The sense of being a “stranger” to a big city you newly moved in also adds up to the general anxiety and mental health problems. Some spaces help to relax and find peace such as the shore of the Caspian Sea. However, it is getting increasingly crowded and dirtier every other day. Conditions in the country leave many young people with little to no choice but to move to the capital city at some point in their lives. The city design with its many problems from transport to overpopulation makes it hard for most to adapt.

Natur Park Amager, an urban nature park in the south of Copenhagen offers many ways to enter nature. In this short film Johnny shares how walking the Amarmino trail helps him recharge and renew. Even if urban parks in theory are accessible to everyone, much is still needed to make them both more sustainable and more accessible. In this ongoing project I ask how more people can get access to nature experiences in the city, and what is needed to use these natural resources in a more sustainable way.

The stories brought to us is history made alive by local elder Natela. With great nostalgia and sadness she tells us about times before when schwabs came to Bolnisi.

Vincent Van Gogh's on his descence to madness

A personal short story about one fractured foot.

The booming, architecturally and socially chaotic city of Tirana, Albania, as seen through the eyes of the many stray dogs who, thanks to an ear tags (they are vaccinated and sterilized) live in the streets of downtown, in harmony with the people and their surroundings.

The film aims to repurpose 2000 acres of underperforming and marginalized land for shared timber farming to enact a more adequate synergistic relationship (socio-economically and environmentally) between the built space and the fragmented Hudson Valley’s forest. In Hudson Valley, most of the trees are privately owned, growing on land at the fringe of urban development- Wildland Urban Intermix (WUI). Tackling the large-scale U.S. monopoly of engineered-timber products, the project envisions a bottom-up timber economy- a vertically integrated, resilient timber supply chain- as a way to incentivize private landowners to sustainably manage their own forests while directly accessing a shared infrastructure of researching, harvesting, manufacturing, and retail, waste-recycling, and branding for their timber product. By creating shared collaborative infrastructure for local forest and small-timber-business owners and entrepreneurs, new social partnerships and equally-distributed amenities will be created, boosting local economies while preserving the local and regional forest ecologies. By sustaining long-term forest-plant-based economic development through this shared co-op system, Hudson Valley’s scaled-down timber industry will be funneled while a more socially adequate distribution of profits between diverse communities will be achieved. Composed of four entities, the Center for Resilient Forestry, which is clustered with Wood Innovation Facilities, the Certification Centers, the Sawmill and Distribution Center with additional facilities for Recycling and Storage and Renewable Energy Generation, this project provides a lasting infrastructure that promotes a holistic framework for profitable and sustainable timber agroforestry that ensures the wellbeing of both the forest and its inhabitants.

The Milk Float was conceived by Global Generation, Jan Kattein Architects and young people from Somers Town. The left side of the vehicle is equipped with a kitchen featuring a gas stove, lighting, storage and running water. The right side is equipped with hand tools for gardening. The rear has a micro gallery displaying projects and artefacts made during community workshops. The electric float is being deployed in the ‘Knowledge Quarter’ across Somers Town, West Euston and Kings Cross. It unfolds on arrival, embraces its location and calls for attention with its brightly coloured canopies and electric lights. Global Generation run community programmes out of the float including ‘Lunch and Learning,’ ‘Twilight Gardening’ and various making programmes. Working in schools and housing estates and with community groups, the float can service allotments, gardens and neighbourhood parks and support the planting of tree saplings pre-grown in a local community nursery. At the end of each day, the tools go back in to the float, the canopy is folded up and the float moves on to its next destination leaving behind the legacy of a communal meal, a joint building effort or seeds for a new season. The activities inaugurated around the float eventually take root. Adopted by neighbours, citizens, residents, workers, constituents and playgroups they develop a permanent presence, becoming centrepieces of truly public spaces.

There was no public space to gather and form a community for the alternative youth, marginalized communities, and those who enjoy arts and crafts. Salaam cinema opened its doors to different communities and started its activity with movie screenings. The space got so much attention from youth and in return, from its owner as well. To a point, the owner claimed to destroy the building which is a historical Molokan worship house and said that he plans to build a mall instead of it. The community around Salaam liked the space so much and slowly it was turning into their “home”. And when someone tried to demolish the community and the “home” they newly brought back to life, young people started to resist keeping the space for its further use. Weeks of resistance happened where at some point people physically fought against the owner and carried out a sitting protest not to leave the space. Eventually, with the support of urban activists and the community, the resistance won and Salaam could survive! Now the space hosts many arts and entertainment events and it is a safe space for different marginalized communities. For many, there is a strong feeling of community around Salaam and since its start, the building has been flourishing and getting bigger!

Contrast (the Setareh Baran mall) is about a commercial project (mall) in the lower part of Tabriz, which was completed in June 2016. And it has a beautiful design that attracts people from nearby and even further away, and it is one of the rarest cases, because such projects are implemented in high-end and expensive areas of Iranian cities, and we do not see such projects in the lower parts of the city. This is very admirable.

The system of construction of seismic-resistant houses "LOTOS" allows you to build both low-rise and multi-store residential buildings with the possibility of building 30-40 store buildings. These are not ordinary houses, but they are 20-30% cheaper than even today's most economical large-panel houses. In an earthquake-resistant version, the savings can be much greater. This is achieved through the use of more stable curved walls and a three-ray coordinate system. Concrete consumption is 0.4 -0.5 m3 per square meter. High-rise buildings have high seismic resistance at minimal cost.