Social participation in the context of the urban public space renewal: the case of Lagarteiro neighborhood in Oporto

Abstract

In 1980, Giancarlo de Carlo wrote in the Perspecta: Yale Journal, “An Architecture of the Participation”. Carlo, proposed a sequence of procedures: the problem definition, the solution and the results evaluation, in all the three steps, the social communities should be integrated in as part of a share and dynamic process. This text corresponds to a new way of understanding the importance of the social communities in the architecture definition. From de Carlo’s text, the main goal of this paper is to present the results of an intervention in public space renewal of the Lagarteiro neighborhood (in Oporto city) and the relation of this process with the participation of the resident population. The urban context of Lagarteiro’s neighborhood presented before the intervention the typical and classic signs of disqualification of environmental and urban peripheral areas of resettlement. The term “disadvantaged areas” is associated with these areas in urban or peri-urban case, was framed in a specific Portuguese policy, called Initiative Critical Neighborhoods. Being a recent intervention, the renewal of the public space in Lagarteiro is a complete case study that allows comprehending the participation phenomenon in nowadays, at the same time that seduces a reflexion about technical and architectural solutions for “critical” neighborhood.