Autocoles merge 3 interrelated aspects: education through practice, creative reuse of materials using art as a working tool, and social and spatial transformation. Objective is to build playgrounds and meeting spaces, from leftover materials either from the center itself or local institutions together with all the school community in a share learning process.
Auto from self-construction and Cole from a meeting and learning community.

The project will take place in Madrid Sierra Norte, specifically El Boalo, Cerceda and Mataelpino.

Most of the population of Sierra Norte were citizens that during the week work in the city and spend their weekends and holidays on the Sierra Norte to be close to nature, the Guadarrama National Park. But the constant grow of the city itself, the crisis of 2008 and the raise of housing make a lot of young couples with kids to move to this rural areas but pretty well connected with the city center to be in a more natural, peaceful environment to build their home. The region is thus a mixture of permanent resident, newcomers "neorural" and weekenders.

Small rural areas with newcomers from urban areas, that are eager to build community together and work towards creating a better environment from them and their kids.

We are doing it for and with self organized communities that have identify by themselves some needs or problems. But for moving forward self governance and self management some support and mediation is needed. Our role is thus to support beneficiaries and work together to strengthen the community. We are the ones that trigger the action, the ones that allow overcome fear and doubts and just start doing.

Project will benefit primarily school communities with special attention to kids, but also the neighbourhood as some of the school are also open to all citizens during the evening.

In our methodology there is a specific phase to reach and talk with the biggest number of actors and involve them. To that point we design several meeting, encounters, community breakfast… etc.

The project proposes that students be active agents in their training process and in the school community, combining art, theory and practice to end up codesigning the spatial changes that are to be carried out in school. The construction process is an ideal opportunity to address other issues such as coexistence, cultural patterns and citizenship, conflict resolution, decision making ... etc.

1: Planning and appropriation of the project.
2: Co-Design.
3: Micro-projects to promote the habit of the creative process and experiment with materials. 4: Collaborative and participatory construction of infrastructures
5: Evaluation as research of the project (carried out by the students during the project and at the end of it)
6: Consolidation of the Maintenance Commission

*Promote group work and self-organizational capacity (promoting a more horizontal education)
*Generate tools for the construction of our own environment (move towards citizen governance)
*Learn to value and care what surrounds us and belongs to everyone (stimulate critical capacity and the demand for public policies based on the equitable distribution of resources and opportunities)
*Activate the ability to intervene in the daily life of the school from participation
*Appropriation and empowerment of the school community
*Be producers and not mere consumers (move towards an ecological, sustainable and fair consumption and production model)
*Extend the useful life of objects and materials (focus on a socioeconomic model that guarantees the sustainability of life)

Autocoles was born from the need to make cities and towns places where the rights of all people are respected and in which citizen participation, democratic and transparent management of resources and equality are effectively promoted.

It is urgent the transformation of the production and consumption logic towards justice and sustainability criteria. Active citizenship is the way to strengthen democracy on a local level. Communities with critical thinking could implement their capacity to transform their own environments and therefore to demand the change and adaptation of laws to contemporary needs. Make grassroots politics, propose new ways of doing and thinking from the local level.

Our main mission is trying to have a better future for all of us. Change towards a more inclusive, environmental friendly and solidary society. An we believe that education is one of the fundamental pillars of the future and thus of society.

Through participatory process we encourage engagement and we tackle issues important on a local level together with the community that has identify them.

Generating community is a resilience strategy to overcome problems and to start building that transitional change that we need to imagine a better future.

PLANIFICATION AND coDESING 2.250€

CREATIVE WORKSHOPS 4.200€

CONSTRUCTION 10.900€

PSICOAMBIENTAL EVALUATION 2.600€

DOCUMENTATION and COMMUNICATION 3.900€

FEE 21.000€

TOTAL DIRECT COST (no VAT) 44.850€

INDIRECT COST (5%) 2.242,50€

TOTAL (no VAT) 47.092,50€

We'll appreciate comments form members with similar experiences but also from members with a completely different point of view or background, because they will look where we do not use to do it and that will make the project better, more complex, more interesting and more transformative.