As part of my internship at raumlaborBerlin, I worked on the research, communication and facilitation of A Festival of Creative Urban Living in Milton Keynes, UK. Milton Keynes is one of the UK’s most prominent examples of the “New Towns Movement” of the 60’s and 2019 marked 50 years of its establishment. The festival was titled 'The Built, The Unbuilt, The Unbuildable' was a free public programme bringing together artists, architects, designers, urban planners, thinkers, creatives and many others, exploring the question ‘how do we live well in cities – now and in the future?

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During the festival, I was mainly involved in activities of the Utopia Station, a temporary pavilion, where city dwellers learnt about the planning of the New Town, reflecting on their experiences of living in it and giving ideas for how the future should look. The pavilion was divided into four floors, where we ran a participatory activity. On the first floor, there was an exhibition of different New Towns around the world and a big map of MK. The second floor was the Ideas Kitchen, where people came and drew ideas for their ideal future. They were then taken to the rooftop, where ideas were gambled on a roulette. The winning ideas were brought to the Production Chamber and converted into drawings and models that replaced the original model of the city. Nearly 200 participated in the Utopia Station.