NGO, practice and university driven research by design on performative wood

The present paper discusses the possibilities of a relationship between academy, NGOs and practice in Research by Design on the case study of the first author’s PhD research in performative wood and chairing of NGO Collaborative Collective, o.s. [1]The more common link to commercial practice in this case might not reach the goal due to the long lasting sampling and prototyping compare to the timeframe of commercial projects. On the other side, academy is often not as flexible as small NGOs in its organisation and goals. While, in this case, the academic research is focused on responsive wood material, design and environmental science, the NGO can link this with society, culture, education and popularisation of science. By doing so, the project is reaching higher complexity, connecting art, science and public life. Within this project, two Environmental Summer Pavilions, pareSITE [2] and LOOP [3], have been built in the city centre of Prague and hosted multi-genres festivals, reSITE [4] and EnviroCity [5], related to public space during summer 2013 and 2014, respectively. The pavilions themselves relate to hot and dry summer city environments by absorbing moisture at night, when the relative humidity is high and evaporating it during arid summer noon of the Prague city centre, thus pleasing the stay of festivals’ visitors