Designing with the people, on the street: Towards the city

Abstract

Designing with the people, on the street, towards the city. 1. This paper is focused on the project of “Atelier da Rua” (Street Workshop), which goals are the transformation and the activation of ordinary public space using a participative methodology. Animated by a team of four architects of three generations, Atelier da Rua (Fig.1) was one of the 10 projects selected by Ideas of Portuguese Origin, promoted by Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, a competition looking for social entrepreneurism projects created by the Portuguese diaspora. The paper is divided into 2 major parts. Firstly we present a brief characterization of the main problems and objectives. Secondly the working methodology of Atelier da Rua. 2. Many areas in Portugal are marked by negligence, lack of ambition concerning investment, development, use and maintenance of streets. It also demonstrates the instituted power incapacity to promote new strategies to transform and activate public space. The generalized gap between people and their power to change and improve their street, demands to question in a broad perspective: How is your street? In order to contribute to a possible answer, Atelier da Rua firstly aims to: - Defend the street as a structural city element; - Activate the street as a social-human-economic-environmental space vector; - Make the street a place of debate and construction of collective human processes; - Define a strategy with local and global impact that can improve the living quality of the street, the neighborhood, the city and even the country. We propose to create a street project methodology based on a conventional architectural design approach. Issues such as programming, architectural design, implementation/action, relation promoter/usufructuary (QUARONI, 1977) apply and overlap to a bottom-up approach based on a participatory process (BOURDIN, 2011). 3. The working methodology will establish a systematic perspective of each project (Fig. 2, Fig 3). Nevertheless the specific solutions will be based on the work and dialogue between citizens and experts, in a simple, understandable, and architectural tool (ALEXANDER, 1977). Each project is case-sensitive to each particular context, but also submitted to a systematic approach (Fig. 4, Fig 5). 4. Once Atelier da Rua is running it will be crucial to identify the tools and indicators that allow a strategic monitoring. During this period it is possible to assess the design fitness between form, context (ALEXANDER, 1964) and participation, to implement in future improvements. To conclude, Atelier da Rua, through a bottom-up and participative model, proposes to intervene in ordinary public spaces, streets in special, and to create a systematic catalogue of case studies, potentially helpful to other disciplines. The central goal is to enable the emergence of a participated and articulated architectural design that enriches different stakeholders in an active way. The potential of this process is not seen as the dissolution of architectural design, but rather a new strategy that reinforces its character and effectiveness.