Creating NEBourhoods Together

June 2024. Developed and built together with the pupils, the "CHILLSPOrT" on the forecourt of the Mittelschule am Gerhart-Hauptmann-Ring is far more than just a meeting place for children and young people. It stands for the positive experience of self-efficacy through the opportunity of actively participating in the design of our public spaces... and the sensitisation to their surroundings that comes with it.

The "CHILLSPOrT" is one of three interventions in the public space that were created as part of the "PEARL – Places for Youth Culture" NEB Action by architect and urban theorist Prof. Andrea Benze and students from the HM (Munich University of Applied Sciences), stage and costume designer Janina Sieber and theatre educator Elke Bauer of the Münchner Kammerspiele.
The starting point was a joint search with young people from Neuperlach for places in the neighbourhood where youth culture takes place or could or should take place. Through conversations, participatory observations, games and discussions, a precise picture of the everyday lives and needs of children and young people emerged.

The young people at the Mittelschule am Gerhart-Hauptmann-Ring, for example, wanted a place to "chill", to hang out with friends – in a place where things are actually happening.

But what exactly does a place like this actually need?

Together with the PEARL team, architecture students from the Munich University of Applied Sciences and Adrian Sölch and Raphael Krome, the team from Raumfragen Neuperlach, the pupils in class 10v1 and their teacher Laura Schalay designed and developed ideas and built and tested them at full scale. Through activist construction and joint design and performance, the elements of the "CHILLSPOrT" were created in co-creative workshops that make it possible to chill out where things are happening. They are equal parts protected observer post and stage, open to all.

Performative experience of the urban space

The pupils tried out the large models in performance workshops with director Demjan Duran and discussed them with headmistress Tatjana Pringsheim. Not only did the concrete examination of the urban space result in the final design, which the pupils enthusiastically built themselves at the end of June with help from the architecture students, but it also inspired the creation of a performance in which, through music, body and language, the pupils connect their stories, moods and emotions to their surroundings to create an image of their new reality. The performance, named "Stimmungsschwankungen" (Mood swings), was given as part of the inauguration of the "CHILLSPOrT" on 28 June 2024.

Opening up and activating the schoolyard

The "CHILLSPOrT" is now reactivating the forecourt of the school. The spiral-shaped timber structure was built on top of the existing, now defunct fountain. Its blue and red paint winds its way further onto the yard and traces a streetball court on the paving. The previously rarely used basketball hoop is thus reactivated, and the two mobile seating elements can be moved here for spectators to watch.

The project made it possible to test new approaches and learning processes for the various participants, who came from universities, schools, the administration and the creative industries. It also gave the City of Munich the opportunity to gain further experience in opening up school playgrounds. As part of the city's "From Schoolyard to Playground" project, which was drawn up in 1993 and confirmed by the city council in 2022, schoolyards are to be opened up outside of school hours. The plan also calls for unsealing schoolyard areas and creating more natural schoolyards with more green space. This project is to be promoted in the city centre in particular. Opening up school playgrounds does not just create space for more playtime fun. It also makes an important contribution to improving the urban climate (further information can be found on the website of the City of Munich).

Projects created in addition to the "CHILLSPOrT" include the "Ciné Vélo Cité" mobile bicycle cinema and the "FeedBack Neuperlach" audio walk.


THEMES
Places for youth culture • Self-efficacy • Opening up school playgrounds • (Re)activation of public squares

PARTICIPANTS
• Prof. Andrea Benze, Janina Sieber, architecture students / Munich University of Applied Sciences
• Elke Bauer / Münchner Kammerspiele
• Demjan Duran
• Patrik Thomas
• Martín Valdés-Stauber
• Raphael Krome, Adrian Sölch / Raumfragen e.V.
• Florian Mayr, Torsten Müller / Stadtteilmanagement Neuperlach
• Dr. Michael Dross / HM:UniverCity

"PEARL - Developing Places for Youth Culture" builds on several years of collaboration between the Munich University of Applied Sciences and the Münchner Kammerspiele and was brought from idea to reality in close cooperation with and with the support of the NEBourhoods Transition Hub and the Neuperlach neighbourhood and Action Space managements.

Picture credits: NEBourhoods/HM:UniverCity, Gabriella Guzman