MODU_ - a project developed during Holis '18 Sobole

Team facilitator: Joana Braga

Team participants: Ludmiła Lesisz, Tamara Lašič Jurković, Vitalia Safronova, Zuzana Waszczuková and Miguel Lobato

The challenge

During our research, we found out that people lack spaces to gather for different purposes.

In addition we discovered that people wish for more educational input and a variety of activities around the area.

Resulting from these needs, we aim to reveal spaces with potential and to make it easier for people to use them comfortably both collectively and individually.

The idea

In order to tackle both of the issues and several more along the way, we created MODU_.

MODU_ is a mobile modular object which can become a public space anywhere in Radzyn Podlaski County.

It stands for mobile spatial empowerment and makes public space accessible to anyone anywhere. It is diverse, open-source and constantly moving. MODU_ is not an object. MODU_ is its users, whose network is orchestrating its variety, visibility and movement.

It gives people the possibility to gather outside their homes, in nature, around villages and towns and to create something worth caring.

The how

MODU_ consists of various portable modules which address different needs from education to food distribution to social exchange. These modules are conceived as build-it-yourself kits and can be used on their own or in combination with one another.

Possible MODU_s could be the following:

MODU_ryneczek offers eco-farmers from Radzyń Podlaski County the possibility to expand their radius of reach when selling their products. It links rural with more urban regions and provides city-dwellers with unique ecological, regional products.

MODU_kultura is a mobile public institution with an educational purpose. It can host a library, a puppet theater, a cinema, or offer the option of book sharing.

MODU_piekarnia is the perfect addition to stationary bakeries. It increases both the bread availability radius and frequency and gives people from rural areas the possibility to buy fresh bread regularly without having to go to the city.

MODU_kawiarnia becomes a space that is independent from location and time of day. It can offer sitting and hangout possibilities for teenagers after school, for families during weekend trips or for visitors of local festivities.

MODU_ zbuduj: build your own MODU_

MODU_ serves different kinds of users — children and teenagers, as well as local inhabitants and urban citizens will be the primary beneficiaries of MODU_. It also reaches people with initiatives to create their own public spaces.

MODU_ represents an easy-to-implement component to be owned and used by strong-impact organizations such as eco-farms, cultural centers, libraries, schools, and local activists.

Due to its modular design, MODU_ could be considered a facilitator in developing a network of strong cross-village and even cross-regional ties on a long-term scale.

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Holis 2018 was co-financed by the Governments of the Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants from International Visegrad Fund. The mission of the fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.