ARCHITECT IS A MEDIATOR BETWEEN PEOPLE AND ARCHITECTURE / FILM SHOWS IT EXPRESSLY STRAIGHT P.S makes places usable by everyone, regardless of age, ability and circumstance.

Vernacular extensions of modernist buildings have been created since the 1990s as an organic response to the new, “lawless” times after the fall of the Soviet Union. They increase the living space and are usually used as terraces, extra rooms, open refrigerators,It is said that a Russian journalist named them “kamikaze,” drawing a parallel between the romantic and suicidal character of such an endeavour and the typical ending of most Georgian family names “-adze.” This architecture also refers back to the local palimpsestic building technique, which since the Middle Ages has allowed new houses to be built on top of existing ones on the steep slopes of the Caucasus Mountains, thus not monumentalisation of the past but expanding on it for the future. Three residence from different flat which have extensions tell their stories, why they decide to build it and how they use this part of house. The facades of all these types of buildings look chaotic, but from the inside they are all ordered.

Parking is one of the significant city planning problems of Baku. The neighborhoods with high buildings usually lack parking lots and the cars pile up in the backyard of the residence buildings. Children in the neighborhood reclaim the streets! They want to play one more round of soccer, but the already existing limited and shrinking space for a playground is taken away by the cars coming in and out of the yard. Also, children playing in the “playground” of the residential buildings put parked vehicles in danger, and many incidents usually occur. You could see a grumpy person taking their head off of the window and shouting “go play your soccer somewhere else”. City design and the built environment around the residential neighborhoods should take everyone’s needs into account. Including kids who love to play games in the backyard of their apartments…

‘Terrain Vague’ is a term for spaces that have been unintentionally transformed as the result of design and planning action. The short film reveals the qualities of a Terrain Vague and its users in Versailles in an urgent but poetic tone, inspired by the work of Jem Cohen. ‘Terrain Vague’ is an ode to urban margins everywhere that highlights the shelter these places offer to people that find themselves, either through choice or misfortune, outside of the norms society. The explored terrain in the film is the indirect consequence of planning regulations related to the nearby Palace and Gardens of Versailles. Large parts of the urban fabric of the relatively small town of Versailles cannot be significantly altered due to the UNESCO heritage status of the Palace and Gardens. The development and use of these heritage sites are under strict control as a way to manage, preserve and propagate narratives in the collective memory. The static character of the heritage site has led to the developing of a modern margin to host activities, people and developments that are deemed not fitting within the cultural narrative. As such the Terrain Vague provides space for the people and functions that do not comply with the aesthetic and societal standards of heritage preservation.

The short film "PATCH" focuses on homeless people around the world who suffer from a lack of shelter For those who are trying to create their own space in the street or side road with a piece of cloth, home is different for everyone; when you don't have one, you'll come to realize the difficulties. Patch is for those who are always trying to patch something for shelter

Second episode of a mini series about Belgian contemporary architecture commissioned by Wallonie-Bruxelles Architecture in the framework of EUMiesAward 2022 . Let’s discover iMAL, the Brussels based Art Center for Digital Cultures & Technology designed by Central Ofaau and Np2f.

The Benchmark School is a private elementary school in Media, Pennsylvania noted for tailoring its curriculum to the learning styles of its students. SHoP was asked to create an innovation laboratory as a small, freestanding addition to an existing campus building. Recognizing that the new structure itself could operate as a teaching tool, SHoP designed it to embody and exhibit many of the processes and techniques that the students themselves discover in their own experimentation with various 3D modeling and printing tools and platforms.

The streets of Baku used to be full of kids and young people filling them with joy and now we are reclaiming the streets for the use of different human activities! The film is mostly shot in the central streets of Baku where roads are very narrow and cars are allowed to park and commute. Sidewalks are insanely narrow and interrupted by many parked cars and artificial plants. The street design makes it very hard to walk and pass by.

Bolek Ryziński, born in Poland, architect, sculptor, photographer, builder, spent most of his life in NYC. As of 2021, he lives in San Juan, Puerto Rico. This is where his public Caoba Project was born. Bolek inspired by a mahogany trunk left on an island, between highway ramps, decided to give it a shape. The movie introduces the process of sculpting, along with the birth of an idea. Narrated by the artist, the movie is made as a moving collage. Mostly from footage given to me by Bolek, and pictures of objects characteristic of San Juan’s nature. The Caoba Project is continuing. San Juan allocated a “new” mahogany trunk, on a public square, to be sculpted by Bolek. Bolek Ryziński’s Caoba Project is street art, it belongs to everyone.

Artist Mischa Leinkauf conducted an architectional experiment in transforming a square in Chania on the island of Crete into a public meeting point for everyone. In the midst of the covid pandemic he tried, together with students from the local university, to create an open meeting point where locals and tourists come together, talk about Europe and create understanding for eachother

A short film created as a spontaneous action of inclusion of a local taxi driver into the conversation of foreign passengers, three friends. Although we didn’t speak the same language as him, in this short moment in time we let the music he likes become our way of silent communication with him. ‘Marjana therras’ is a personal, poetic view of Tirana, where different simultaneous scenes in a symbolic try to evoke different emotions; scenes of old photographs and bucolic nostalgia, contrasted by estranged people on the streets looking at their phones. While I was staying in Tirana I had a strong feeling of empathy towards older, local people. I saw that often they don’t speak any foreign languages, while at the same time, because of economic challenges Albanian people face they are “forced to” work with tourists. As Tirana is rapidly growing and changing, the city center is full of foreigners, both investors and tourists. Local people don’t take a taxi — they take a bus or they drive a taxi. Local people often don’t go out to eat in restaurants — the eat at home or they work in restaurants. Economic differences between local people and foreigners are felt in all areas of life. In Tirana, I had a strong feeling that local people from Tirana often feel as second-grade citizens in their own city, “occupied” by English-speaking foreigners, surrounded by fancy shops and restaurants, which they, local people — can’t afford. This short film is a documentation of one humble effort of trying to make a local taxi driver feel like he’s at home in his own city, by a simple act of showing an interest in his culture through his own personal — music playlist.