HIC ET NUNC I.
ZHdK, Interdisciplinary Module, Activation of a Asylum Seekers Camp, Zurich.
2016
HIC ET NUNC (Here and Now, in Latin) stands for a design attitude. With this motto, we invited design students to take concrete action, which can be realized in four weeks, to improve the life quality in a refugee camp in Zurich with a simple act.
The project, developed in collaboration with the BA design interdisciplinary program of the Zurich University of the Arts and AOZ (Asylum seekers Organization Zurich), represent a small action to face the first refugee emergency crisis in 2016. Didactically, students were asked to challenge their design skills and competencies to act "here and now" in an emergency condition.
To tackle the crisis, the City of Zurich hosted two hundred fifty refugees in a fair hall. Temporary rooms made of OBS wood were built inside the volume of the fair to guarantee privacy, yet, many small actions could have been taken to improve the quality of life and the integration process during the temporary accommodation in the camp.
Therefore, students were asked to observe and analyze a challenge (that they could take), develop a proposal, implement it, and realize it. The projects would contribute to the space quality and serve as a case study for future improvements by other students.
Hic et Nunc (project in collaboration with Karin Seiler and Martin Bölsterli) in collaboration with:
Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK).
Awards:
- 2017 HOCHPARTERRE GOLDEN RABBIT, best of the year 2017 in category design.
Exhibitions:
- 2020 SOCIAL DESIGN, Braunschweigischen Landesmuseum, Germany.
- 2019 SOCIAL DESIGN, MK&G, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany.
- 2018 SOCIAL DESIGN, Museum für Gestaltung, Zurich, Switzerland.
Publications:
- 2017 M. Ernst, Doppelt Wirksam. Die Zürcher Hochschule der Künste liess Studierende und Asylsuchende clevere Lösungen erarbeiten. dafür erhält das Unterrischtsmodul ‹Hic et Nunc› den Hasen in Gold, in Hochparterre, N. 12, December 2017, pp. 34-39.
