Wiktor Szwejczewski, a second-cycle student in architecture at the Faculty of Architecture of the Silesian University of Technology, thanks to the project “Zielen-Dobro Wspólne”, jointly prepared with colleagues from the Katowice Academy of Fine Arts, took the first place in Climathon GZM.

It was already the fifth edition of Climathon, organized by the Upper Silesian-Zagłębie Metropolis. This event is a 24-hour competition, during which participants, in cooperation with invited experts and mentors, develop proposals for solutions to protect the climate. The winning idea of Wiktor Szwejczewski’s team is a project of social activation in creating and nurturing common greenery.

- Each group was tasked with finding a problem within the imposed topic "Green in the City" and finding an answer to it. Our project involved the subject of greenery in the city – says Wiktor Szwejczewski. “Common = no-one’s” – this is the problem we have decided to face. There is a common belief that common spaces, such as the lawn in front of the block in which we live, are no-one’s space. The thing is that we forget then that it is really our space, which - what is more - we can shape. We have designated in the centre of Katowice all potential places to which we would like to introduce greenery. How is that possible? Giving seeds to the people. Seed packages will be available at selected points in the city, e.g. schools, libraries, churches, or municipal information points. There will be seeds of plants in them, which we can plant at a given time. We don’t have to “know about plants” or “do research” about which plants are not too demanding to grow, difficult to maintain…

The winners want to reach schools, housing communities and other interested parties with the project.

- Most schools usually have a piece of lawn suitable for garden development. Let’s imagine that one or two lessons of nature are devoted to “creating” a garden from scratch, and then after a year collect our own crops from it. We want to start shaping pro-ecological behaviours focused on green as early as possible – explains the Climathon laureate. - In the case of residential communities, it is about the aforementioned piece of lawn in front of the block, on which a small garden could also be built. The same idea, that is, the garden from which we later obtain our own crops, in the case of housing communities is to translate into something a little different - it is not about education, but rather about shaping a sense of community and responsibility for our immediate surroundings. We believe that participating in the formation of greenery can make these small gardens a kind of micro-local centres. Our proposal contributes to the democratization of green – we want it to be actually accessible to everyone.

Wiktor admits that his friend with whom they have already taken part in various projects many times, persuaded him to participate in the competition and join the team. As he admits, the victory in the competition was not expected at all.

- Many teams took part in the competition, which proposed very creative and interesting solutions. We are all the more pleased that our work has been so positively evaluated – he concludes.

Photo: the organizer's archive.