USA

“Tiny Victories 2.0. A Tale of Empathy” tells the story of Chioco Design's team journey when building a micro home for an individual who has struggled with chronic and sustained homelessness. How organizations like AIA Design Voice and Mobile Loaves & Fishes works timely to offer hope for the community. The word “empathy” serves as a prompt in the development, and execution, but mostly the idea of leaving behind preconceptions of what it is like to live without a home. Director/Editor Gus Bernal www.gusbernal.com Producer: Alexandra Chaves & Gus Bernal Music: www.hooksounds.com Special Thanks to: Chioco Design Jamie Chioco, Christy Taylor, Ben Dimmitt, Vanessa Francis, Tim Petersen, Mau Garza and May Wong Page/ - Design, Architecture, Engineering Shelby Blessing, Wendy Dunnam Tita & Jen Bussinger Mobile Loaves & Fishes Sarah Satterlee Photos Chioco Design - Tiny Victories: Leonid Furmansky AIA Austin DesignVoice: Jason John Paul Haskins & Sarah Satterlee

USA

It took more than a decade of community-led advocacy (1985-1998) to convince leaders to transform the defunct Port Authority terminal into a park. Through their dedicated participation and many years of public engagement, Brooklynites inspired the idea that the park should feel democratic and reconnect people with the riverfront. After opening in late 2021, rather than speaking about the design himself, Michael Van Valkenburgh wanted to know what people think about the park and how they use it. The user experience is what makes the design, and so Spirit of Space spent a week observing the many experiences and chatted, completely at random, with people at various places within the park. Through these many observations and insights with the public, the design intention was revealed. “I was taking care of this elderly gentleman who lives up on Columbia Heights, and I was describing to him what was happening on the piers. He had a big picture of the piers with all the warehouses on it from when he first moved here…and he was in his 80’s, he was blind and sort of housebound. And, once they opened I said I really want to bring you out of the house, take you to the park, and take your shoes off and let you walk on the grass. That was a really special moment, to be able to give that to him…You think, this is probably the only opportunity this man is gonna have to come put his bare feet in the grass after living in Brooklyn all these years.”

Jordan

Mohammad moved to Zaatari village from Syria when he was a young boy with his grandmother. Now a teenager, he helps his uncle by tending to the sheep and plans for a safe future in Syria.

France

‘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.

Georgia

Documentary is about the German colonial heritage in Bolnisi formerly called Katharinenfeld that among other colonies was founded in the Caucasus in 1818 by 95 colonists from Swabia. Film documents cobblestone roads that swabs meticulously made and till today is preserved in some of the house yards in Bolnisi.

Georgia