Nomination

bibliokepos.gardenatlas.net

Seville is one of the southern European cities most threatened by climate change. It is no coincidence that some libraries had to open as climate shelters during the heat waves of 2022 and 2023. Interestingly, Eric Klinenberg recounts in his book Palaces for People how during the great heat wave that devastated Chicago in 1995, neighborhoods with public libraries were more resilient in combating the effects of extreme heat, functioning as human shelters.

Libraries are democratic places, open to everybody, and as the inscription at the entrance to Epicurus‘ Garden Kêpos stated: „Stranger, your time will be pleasant here“. Bibliokepos aspires to rethink the public libraries in Seville as facilities in a climate emergency scenario. The project explores the future of existing libraries as shelters, imagining them as comfortable indoor gardens, sustainable and accessible to all during heat waves.

The design has emerged from a co-creation process carried out between library communities, creators, teachers, and students from University of Seville, a transversal process that encourages encounters between people, books, and plants to advance the adaptation to climate change. Literary dialogues, theatrical performances, concerts, workshops on botany, natural hand soaps, and recycling sink water for watering plants and have been developed in four of the network libraries.

Credits

Promoters:
ICAS – Seville City Council
Municipal Network of Libraries of Seville (Spain)
Chair of Climatic Comfort of the University of Seville
Ecosistema 41

Collaborators:
ETSAS & fablab Sevilla (University of Seville)
Program ‘The Europe Challenge 2024’

Idea and curatorship: Nomad Garden
Production: El Mandaito
Communication: Surnames

Furniture design:
Professors: J. Sánchez, E. Mayoral, M. Carrascal, M. Hernández, R. Herrera, 14:30, J. Navarro.
Students: D. Bilbao, M. Morales, B. Ramírez, J.C. Cañada y M. de Guzmán, E. González, M. Jiménez, S. Labra, A. Rausei, A.M. Castro, B. Gómez-Millán, C. Madrid, A. Abril, L. Láñez, J.C. Rodríguez, P. Tordera, M.J. González, J. Gilles, A. Ruiz. Librarians: M.A. Garfia, M.V de Vaya, J.A. Conde, Y. Gómez, C. Sanchez, M. Aguilar, C. Llácer, C. Serrato, N. Cerrero, P. Herrera
Parametric design: Adriano Jiménez and Jose Mª Sánchez Lauhlé
Botanical design: Nomad Garden

Aljibe 2.o (hydraulic circuit hacking worshop): Pablo Pujol
Hierbos (soap workshop): Bosque Anxanar

Musical composition:
Planetary Bands, Warming World: Daniel Crawford and Scott St. George
Musical performance: Cuarteto Con Fuoco

Dramatized Reading:
Escuela de Arte Dramático de Sevilla, Viento Sur Teatro, and Teatro a pelo
Dialogues:
Ernesto Rodríguez (AEMET), Isabel Ojeda (ICAS), Pablo de Soto (LABoral Centro de Arte), Amanda Masha (Instituto Mutante de Narrativas Ambientales)

Photography: La Marga, Lolo Vasco
Audiovisual piece: Javier Vila, A. García. E. Sánchez, E. Álvarez, J. Carmona, Tres Gatos Sonido

Biography

NOMAD GARDEN (ES). The gardens are spaces of dialogue between society and nature, laboratories where the potential of plants and human desires are linked. Nomad Garden aims to encourage and rethink these alliances by developing ideas and tools to put them in value.