URBAN WILDERNESS: Platz nehmen - Mitmach-Bauaktion

In the organizer's words:

On May 9 and 10 from 10:00 - 18:00, the forecourt of the former Schauspielhaus will become a place of communal design: as part of the URBAN WILDERNESS project, the Pina Bausch Center under construction invites citizens to actively participate in the temporary transformation of the previously little-used area. How can public space become a place of community? From families and schoolchildren to groups of friends and committed city dwellers, everyone who wants a greener, livelier environment and wants to help shape it is welcome. Under the guidance of architect and carpenter Alex Römer from Constructlab in Berlin, the first wooden elements are being created to improve the quality of life on site. Constructlab is a transdisciplinary network for planning and construction.

The organization breaks with traditional divisions of labor and employs a team of sociologists, urban planners, graphic designers, curators, educators and web developers who accompany the creative process from the drawing board to the construction site. Their shared vision of a collaborative way of working combines creativity with practice, thinking with action. The Kiosk of Solidarity stood in front of the Schauspielhaus in 2024 at the BUW Architecture Faculty Summer School. For the Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025, they brought together artists, activists, designers, architects, researchers and the population of Chemnitz with the School of Garage.

"Over the course of the project, further elements and plant modules will transform the forecourt into a meeting place with green and shaded areas," explains Uwe Peter from project partner Neue Effizienz gemeinnützige GmbH.

"Young and old from the neighborhood are invited, but of course also from all over Wuppertal. It's a community-building activity - the playful design of a city square, our public space," says Bettina Milz, head of the preliminary phase of the Pina Bausch Center. "We want to invent, build, saw, think, laugh, cook, exchange ideas, get creative, design space together... The experience we are gaining now can also provide important impetus for the future redesign from 2027/2028."