Marian Huba
The article’s author teaches at the Secondary School of Utilitarian Art in Bratislava in the design and wood-shaping department. The school building has a favourable position in the terrain but its position does not show a great deal of sense of harmony with the natural environment and the land. Moreover, the area around it is surrounded with dumped building material. The school environment has become a challenge for the re-cultivation and restoration of its surroundings. “The first trial where I officially gave an outdoor task to students was final work for the third year. Students were instructed to create utilitarian objects at a specific location within the school area – a bench, table and chairs, a fence, a bicycle stand… The condition was to compose the work and choose materials in such a way that implementation would not disturb the environment. When needed, students could modify the surroundings, restore the devastating building impacts by forming terrain using ground modification, stone fences, stairs, pavements… They could use wood, stone or if appropriate recycle pieces of dumped cement. The whole task was implemented from discarded materials, starting with the wood, cut by the city due to planned cutting, and ending with piles of soil extracted from trenches. Students worked mainly with hand tools with a minimal use of artificial energy. The task was not a financial burden for the school. We can only hope that even this short, two-week task will leave a mark on students and will broaden their horizons for possible future enforcement.”