Welcome to the Living Underground board! The aim of the workshop is to inspire you and also to prepare material for the book based on the live stories. It is about sharing and creation. You will have also an opportunity to discuss with other creative and experienced people and go deeper into the topics that personally interest you.

The participants should contribute to the design book that will tell stories about architecture of independent cultural centers. The main source of inspiration for the book are the people from Trans Europe Halles cultural centers and other professionals. We invite a few of them to tell us a different story everyday during our workshop. They will bring stories about the creation of their cultural centers. They will talk about the relation between the purpose of the center and its design.

The book should be a source of inspiration for the cultural managers, people starting or running a venue or architects dealing with renovations of cultural venues. We believe that the the guest-lectors can share their experience connected to architecture and also to management of cultural venues.

The group of the participants consists of 17 people from all corners of Europe and the World. This is not a cold conference. It is a friendly meeting of high motivated people.

Everyday structure of the workshop:
LATE MORNING AND AFTERNOON PROGRAM
*creation of the book: preparing materials and content (texts, visual materials, structure) for the part of the book
*design of the book
*creative work (making architectural models)
*discussions

EVENING: GUEST-LECTORS PRESENTATIONS, every day at 5 p. m.
*Presentation of the guest lectors start everyday at 5 p. m. We expect around 30 minutes long presentations.
*After the presentation there will be a discussion with the group of participants (up to 60 minutes). The dialogue is very important.
*A Meal Together – informal part. We can talk and have a beer or any drink you like (write us what do you like to drink ;-)

EXTRA ACTIVITIES
*We try to prepare some activities to relax and have fun too because only to discuss for one week would not be that fun. A day to day program will be ready soon.

List of guest-lectors and their presentations
August 5th 0.) Jan Pernecky - Asking Architecture Project for Venice Biennial, (Slovakia)
August 6th 1.) Cor Schlosser - Melkweg, (The Netherlands)
August 7th 2.) Karl Hallberg - Not Quite, (Sweden)
August 8th 3.) Lia Perjovschi - artist/curator Bucharest/Sibiu, Romania
August 9th 4.) Stuba Nikula - Kaapelitehdas, (Finland)
August 10th 5.) Michaele Bee - Manifatture Knos, (Italy) + 2 colleagues + Adam Gebrian (Czech Republic)
August 11th 6.) Semolinika Juliana Tomic - Antic Teatre, (Croatia, Spain)

Workshop leader:
Peter Lenyi (Slovakia) - architect

Participants
Natalia Novik (Belarus) - architect
Alison Killing (Netherlands) - architect
Abdul Wahid (Pakistan, Germany based) - architect
Nir Kami Nave (Israel) - architect
Yaroslav Taranov (Belarus) - architect
Lea Linin (Macedonia) - journalist
Nina Vurdelja (Serbia) - media, journalist
Michaele Bee (Italy) + 2 colleagues (Italy) - cultural manager
Semolinika Juliana Tomic (Croatia, Spain) - cultural manager

Slovak participants:
Martin Jančok - architect
Katariana Gatialova - cultural manager
Peter Liska - designer
Marcel Bencik - designer
Brano Matis - designer
Zuzana Godalova - cultural manger
+ Stanica team (Living Underground Core Team)

Content of the guest-lectors’ presentations
The story of the creation of a cultural center. Each cultural center is different and was created in different circumstances. Why your center was created? Who were the people behind it? What need the center addresses? What type of activities does it provide? Who is it for? How it is financed?

How did you deal with the architecture and the design. What was your philosophy of the renovation or rebuilding? How did you built your center? What were the phases of the renovations? What is the relation between the purpose of the center and its design?

We would like to know the troubles that you faced, the mistakes that you made. What lesson did you learn? What was the biggest surprise during all those years? What is the advantage and the disadvantage of the center’s architecture?

SPECIAL ASK FOR PARTICIPANTS:
1. Please, if you have a book about architecture that is your favourite, please bring it with you to show us.
2 . Please, prepare 10 pieces of .jpg pictures that represents you and your work to share it with other participants
Registration time for the participants is in August 5th at 4 p.m. at cultural centre Stanica Žilina-Záriečie in Slovakia.

THANK YOU! The Living Underground team is looking forward to you.

This action is part of Engine Room Europe project which is an initiative of Trans Europe Halles cultural centers.
We got also a support by Anna Lindh Foundation.