Disco School: The Illegal Future Machine
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image - Disco_Loizeau.jpg
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subject - Supplemental Material
Over a period of eight years, the Illegal Town Plan (ITP) team have worked with the people of Rhyl, North Wales, to use participatory design methods to engage in alternative forms of social, economic and material speculation. Our (co)design and (co)architectural speculations aim to gather momentum around alternative futures for towns that have been stripped of political and economic agency.
In 2019 Loizeau and Ward were invited to Murska Sobota, Slovenia to use their methods with the residents of the town to help them define the form, function and future of a fragile speculation. The project centered around the production of a ‘collective model’... a reimagined town plan, defined and designed by the participants, formed into an architectural model that embodies some of the communities cultural and historical ambitions. During the two year process, the project engaged with over 120 residents in Murska Sobota, including 80 local school children. In this time, we produced; a double sided single produced with local musicians and poetry from the children; ceramic models for the future of Murska; sticks of rock to celebrate the future; prints and graphics of historical modernist buildings; an exhibition to showcase the best work to the rest of the town; a disco to dance in the future.
The project has been disseminated widely through national Slovenia radio and television.