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08/06 - 28/06/2015

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Very soon, on Friday 20 September, we will be converting one of the parking spaces in Plac Kolegiacki into a PICNIC-BAR where we will invite the residents of Poznań to have lunch on the grass with us. The project, designed by Katarzyna Zaręba, will happen as part of the worldwide PARK(ING) DAY event.

In May we announced the PARK(ING) DAY Architectural Competition to select the most interesting idea for availing of a micro public space in one of the parking spots in Plac Kolegiacki in Poznań. The PARK(ING) DAY event is held annually on every third Friday of September when urban inhabitants worldwide transform a single parking spot into a people-friendly space. They bring deck chairs and tables, they roll out grass, they spend time together, eat, read… they simply hold a pacifistic demonstration to show that the most important in public space are people. The project began in 2005 when a metered parking spot in San Francisco was turned into a leisure area where an open discussion was held on the growing priority given to cars over people in public space. Since then, once a year, more and more parking spots across the world have been changing their image, attracting the attention of urban residents and initiating debates about the quality of public space. Every year PARK(ING) DAY amounts to nearly 1000 parking spaces turned into green oases in over 160 cities in 35 countries on 6 continents.

14 projects were submitted for the competition from various parts of Poland (from Krakow, Łódź, Szczecin and Poznań). The jury, comprising Dawid Strębicki (chairman), Jola Starzak, Marta Skowrońska, Paweł Grobelny, Marcin Kostaszuk, Monika Lisiecka and Małgorzata Lisiecka, awarded the main prize, i.e. an opportunity to realise the winning project, to Katarzyna Zaręba for PICNIC-BAR, OR THE URBAN LUNCH ON THE GRASS (Eindhoven, the Netherlands). What the jury liked most about the project was its concept: a picnic table makes it possible to spend time together and invites people to stop for a rest. This is important, especially in the context of Plac Kolegiacki which is an interesting space, albeit not very people-friendly: deprived of benches and packed with parked vehicles.

The jury also awarded three equal honourable mentions to projects submitted by Wiktor Kłyk (Szczecin), Małgorzata Kujawska and Natalia Moskalik (Poznań), and Joanna Łuczak and Aleksandra Jutrzenka-Trzebiatowska (Poznań).

We congratulate the winners and invite everybody to join us on first PARK(ING) DAY in Poznań, 20 September, Plac Kolegiacki.