The proposed installation for the Biennale 2016, “Caution­For Rent”, focuses on the reuse of vacant ground floor spaces and stores. The empty building stock is a phenomenon that in the recent years of crisis, has been very intense in Athens, but also widely in other major cities, radically transforming the urban landscape with parallel social and economic consequences.

The proposed installation, has a direct and dynamic relationship with the visitor, who is invited to answer the question: “How would YOU use the vacant space?”. The installation is placed in the outer courtyard of the Greek pavilion, covering a trace of standard dimensions 3mX 3m, symbolizing one of the empty stores in the urban fabric.

The surrounding walls of the shaped space consist of gabion walls of 20cm width, which are interconnected alongside,and create the permeable notion of vacant and obsolete space. Visitors entering the space are asked to give an answer to the above question, by interacting with existing wooden boxes found in the space, in order to transform the space and experience it temporarily. The existing legend that crosschecks color with potential uses, ( store, co­working space, housing, community space and Other proposal ) lead them to choose a use, and later, to place relevant color plastic bricks inside the gabions perimeter.

During the exhibition, the installation is converted / transformed from vacant to solid and it is a live, interactive chart of visitors selections.

The “construction site” of our city, is on standby mode, as we are asked to work together and to appropriate new ways and models of redevelopment and management of the existing vacant buildings. The installation, “Caution­For Rent”, approaches the urban problem symbolically, while the interaction with visitors becomes a process that follows the overall schedule of the exhibition.

Collaboration with ATH100%