projects and articles by members
The European Heritage Days – The Open Gardens
Date: 17 - 22 September 2005
Place: the city of Podkowa Lesna, Poland
Time length: two days (the weekend) of the open gardens events and four days of the design workshops concerning the conservation and promotion of the cultural heritage of the garden – city of Podkowa Lesna in the context of its revitalization
Partnerships: the city of Podkowa Lesna, the National Center of the Monuments Research and Documentation, the Council of Europe and 17 partners - local museums, galleries, associations, foundations and individuals
Participants: The Open Gardens - inhabitants of the city of Podkowa Lesna and its visitors; Design workshops – around 30 students of the landscape design, architecture, conservatory issues, young architects, designers, city’s inhabitants and city authorities
Roles: The Open Gardens events participants were inhabitants of the city (around 1000 inhabitants of overall amount of around 4000 city inhabitants). Inhabitants themselves were also tutors introducing exhibitions, concerts and other events to visitors. Invited specialists (also international) tutored the design workshops. Their participants were the city authorities, the group of its inhabitants, the students and young architects.
Goals/Aims:
*The promotion of the city and its cultural heritage.
*The awareness – raising activity by bringing inhabitants closer to their heritage to help them get to know and understand each other better.
*Discussion on the future city development.
Methodology: The organizers created a kind of events framework that was filled up with inhabitants’ ideas and activities.
Description of events
The city of Podkowa Lesna is located in the outskirts of Warsaw, the capital of Poland. It was founded in 1925 based on the Ebenezer Howard garden – movement idea. The city played an important role in the mid-war time in the history of Poland and its literature.
Around 40 events – exhibitions, workshops, concerts, ballet, theatre, film shows and sport competitions were organized during this weekend. The city’s inhabitants invited visitors to their gardens and homes too. Also, four guided tours depicting the city’s natural environment and architecture were led out and the competition on the city’s history and tradition was organized for pupils of local schools. Its results were announced during the opening of the exhibition on the city’s history.
The design workshops introduced with guest lectures resulted with the ideas for the future city development and its cultural heritage promotion.
Outcomes: The events resulted with the integration of the city’s inhabitants, its heritage promotion and the proposals for the future city development.
Evaluation/Feedback: The process of the events organization was a wonderful opportunity for the local community meeting. We were working to raise the awareness of the hometown unique cultural heritage.
