Architects and facade-fanatics, design-lovers and hobby mechanics of the NION community were asked to gather and create wonderful collages of future NION Berlin.
The 7th NION Community Meeting took place on July 7th at Atelier Fanelsa. The founders of NION have extended an invitation to all creative people for this occasion: they were asked to gather in keeping with the hands-on motto “We are building NION!” And they followed NION’s call.
Unlike the last meeting at the end of May, when all NION supports got together to discuss vividly about upcoming social media activities and community events, this meeting aimed at taking a big step further in the actual realization of NION’s most ambitious project in the future: NION Berlin will be an integrated neighborhood and open community to become THE place to be for Japanese, international visitors and locals alike. On a cloudy Friday evening, a numerous group of dedicated and curious people met to work on making NION Berlin to come alive – for now – with the help of realistic analogue collages to aspire to create the future of NION Berlin.
Our host for this workshop was Niklas, the owner of the Atelier Fanelsa, who not only provided the relevant materials to call our imaginations into existence, but also initiated a small catering to make sure that our brains keep bubbling over with ideas. In order to get started, we browsed through ancient Japanese drawings and detailed “look books” to get inspired and collect ideas for our creative collages.
After that, we split into smaller groups, spread out and chose a specific region to be designed according to our ideas and amount of creativity within NION Berlin such as a spacious garden and relaxation area, an educational and tech hub or a residency and cultural complex. Very typical and traditional Japanese elements such a Dojo (a study and training hall) or a Yokocho (an alleyway with small shops, bars and dining options) were not to be missed out.
Impressions of NION in the making
We allowed our creativity to take over and visualize our vivid imaginations by transforming images, shapes and colors into beautiful pieces of art and architecture. With the help of our visionary collages we have laid the foundation for the visual implementation of NION Berlin in the future. All of the process and progress during this workshop was captured in photographs and video content. A big thank you goes to our diligent cameraman Phillip.
The final collages of future NION Berlin
The garden and recreation area will smoothly blend into nature, connect with its surroundings and enable people to co-work outdoors.
The Yokocho area will be a vivid and open space traversed by water elements that flow through the market place that will give a warm atmosphere (with the sound and speed of water) to allow every visitor a clear view to the sky.
The Craftsmenship area will allow skilled craftsmen to come over to Berlin and initiate workshops that teach their ancient handicrafts. A big table in the middle will make the people gather in the center of the space and allow a look outside of the area to let the ideas flow. In contrast, people passing by can look inside the area and therefore participate in the workshop.
Tanabata – the star festival
At the end of this community meeting, we celebrated the promiment Japanese summer festival called ‘Tanabata’, or the star festival. On July 7 th every year, the Japanese celebrate the transient beauty of summer and make a wish to the Milky Way in the sky to remember the once-a-year rendezvous opportunity for a weaver (Orihime) and a herder (Hikoboshi) to revive their bond of love in this ancient Japanese myth from the Edo period.
You can read more about it here.
