Think Space

- A conference about the use of the city’s empty buildings, urban planning and user involvement

The conference

Givrum.nu will organise a yearly conference, Think Space, to celebrate new initiatives in empty buildings. Our aim is to focus on empty buildings and the organisation that goes with them, in order to give visibility to the resource within. Think Space targets all that work professionally, politically or grassroots based with the city.

Think Space will show, with theoretical perspectives and practical examples, how empty buildings can be used through user involvement and bottom-up processes. The conference will introduce, illustrate and further develop the ways in which empty buildings become an active part of a city’s development.

In 2011 the conference will take place at Prags Boulevard 43 from the 18^th to the 20^th of August.

Programme

On Thursday and Friday you will have the opportunity to hear inspiring presentations in the Arena and Dansehal. On Thursday we have asked the users of Prags Boulevard 43 to present their projects and spaces, while also being in charge of a series of presentations and debates that will take place in the Kultursalon. An unconference will take place on Saturday and it will put the participants directly in charge.

Unconference

Unconference – what is it?

The participants are themselves in charge at an “unconference”: they are both the audience and the speakers. For more information see – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconference

Think Space Unconference

Think Space is about establishing values and content with bottom-up processes. We have therefore decided to organise the last day of the conference as an unconference in order to activate the participants and hear about their experiences, challenges and happy endings. The Unconference Day targets the Think Space participants that wish to give and receive input on concrete experiences and difficulties.

The purpose of the unconference is to create an informal and inspiring room for dialogue between the audience and the speakers. It is of course absolutely voluntary whether you want to make a presentation, but we certainly invite everyone participating in Think Space to try it.

The unconference day is divided into 45minute intervals for presentations and discussions. If you already have a presentation you wish to make, please send your preferred time, the title and a short description of the content to thinkspace@givrum.nu.

The good Unconference presentation

A short presentation

Since the point is to establish an informal and inspiring space, where all participants get the opportunity to ask questions, it would be appropriate to make a short presentation or a short introduction instead of a long thorough presentation.

Everything is possible

No presentations will be banned, which means that there will be room for all difficulties, challenges, ideas or happy endings in the program.

Relevance

In order to keep a sense of continuity from the rest of the conference, it would be preferable that your presentations are about empty buildings and creative city development based on the city’s hidden resources. In the end it will still be up to the participants to decide what they want to talk about and listen to…

A good title

It would be preferable to formulate a title that corresponds to your presentation in order to allow all interested parties to participate.

Deadline for registration – 12^th of August 2011

Price: 1250 DKK (500 DKK for students)

Registration and questions: thinkspace@givrum.nu

Location

Surrounded by a people’s park, social housing and old industry factories on Amager you will find Givrum.nu’s incredible project: Prags Boulevard 43. In collaboration with its owner, Givrum.nu has made it possible for a number of small businesses, associations and artists groups to take over the space of four empty factory buildings. Prags Boulevard 43 is now a living space for culture, networks and social activities to the delight of the owner, the users and the local area.