AA visiting school tells world don't panic from vitanje, slovenia

AA visiting school tells world don’t panic from vitanje, slovenia
images courtesy of ajda schmidt, rok deželak, AAVS participants

since the arrival of the cultural center of european space technologies, the tiny slovenian town of vitanje has gained a valuable landmark and tourism attraction. in july 2015, the AA visiting school held a two week design-build-make summer school program — part of london’s AA school of architecture — to help the community explore ‘nano-tourist’ strategies in relation to the KSEVT institution.

vitanje valley and surrounding pohorje hills, slovenia

in its first year of operation the KSEVT attracted over 25,000 visitors to the town, which has a local population of only 800. the 2015 program, led by AA visiting school, continued development on a series of already successful strategies unveiled throughout the year previous. a topic, local vs. planetary was presented, which opened dialogue concerning the integration of the immediate locality into the global context.

video courtesy of AD

KSEVT’s ability to generate and host social, cultural, and scientific activities was capitalized upon in the concept, which was ultimately presented as an ephemeral land installation. ‘don’t panic’, a slogan related to sci-fiction and cultural references of herman potočnik noordung, arthur c. clarke, and douglas adams was chosen for display. through collaboration between program participants and the community, the two word phrase was installed on a hillside sheep pasture overlooking the town. 

‘don’t panic’ 

the program was focused on local and planetary communication 

documentation layers 

behind the phrase 

construction took place on the 15^th of july 2015 

some local kids also participated — adding their names to the global dialogue 

materialization process

landscape triangulation

project info:

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edited by: nick brink | designboom