We were delighted to be selected as part of an intense month-long residency project by Placemaking Europe, working in a Valencia municipality devastated by the 2024 DANA floods.

Alongside a team of architects and designers, we will be transforming an outdoor public space of around 1,000 m² into a temporary playground and climate shelter; combining water-play, shade, resting areas, climate comfort and community use.

Get It Done director and artist Mimi Dearing will be providing artistic direction of the playground site, incorporating nature-activated artworks, gamified mural elements and water-play structures.

Our process will be participatory; bringing in local children, teens and residents to shape designs, embed local identity, contributing to programming of the space and... help us undertake this mammoth task!

The site itself is huge, still heavily damaged from the floods, and we're working outdoors in 40 degree heat... and in Spanish. But the biggest challenge is navigating the context: working in the aftermath of a climate disaster, with a community where trauma is still raw, and where sensitivity, trust and meaningful collaboration are essential.

We began on 3rd July and finish on the 31st. Each week, we will be documenting the team's process over on our Instagram, so follow along for an insiders perspective on working on intense live public design briefs.

The five residents include:

Mimi Dearing (UK)

Javier Molinero (Spain)

Ximena Fuentes (Colombia)

Francesco Caneschi (Italy)

Estelle Jullian (Spain / France)