"When architecture and urban design project their desire onto a (…) a terrain vague, they seem incapable of doing anything other than introducing violent transformations, changing estrangement into citizenship, and striving at all costs to dissolve the uncontaminated magic of the obsolete into the realism of efficacy. (…) Today, intervention in the existing city, in its residual spaces, in its folded interstices can no longer be either comfortable or efficacious in the manner postulated by the modern movement's efficient model of the enlightened tradition. How can architecture act in the terrain vague without becoming an aggressive instrument of power and abstract reason? Undoubtedly, through attention to continuity: not the continuity of the planned, efficient, and legitimized city, but of the flows, the energies, the rhythms established by the passing of time and the loss of limits... we should treat the residual city with a contradictory complicity that will not shatter the elements that maintain its continuity in time and space." Terrain Vague, Sola Morales, 1995
"Public space is the place of connecting, which may be through Wi-Fi or by means of physical space. A 'smart city' without spatial quality couldn’t be welcoming and it couldn’t be sustainable." European Prize for Urban Public Space, Francis Rambert, 2016
International Conference and Summer School’2018 SUSTAINABLE DESIGN Open Spaces in Lisbon is an event that introduces students to cross-disciplinary collaboration in a design studio (architects, landscape architects, geographers, engineers, sociologists). The urban open space in the city is an opportunity to rethinking city social urban ecosystem. Design is not about form, there is plenty of potential in exploring the concept of Sola-Morales terrain vague, as it offers the opportunity to give shape, both spatial and social, to an existing urban indeterminacy, tapping into the city inhabitants continual seeking of "forces instead of forms, for the incorporated instead of the distant, for the haptic instead of the optic, the rhizomatic instead of the figurative". So what is at the current cutting edge of design when it comes to the open urban public spaces that facilitate these vital connections? For a space to be authentically public, it must be open, democratic and engageable. Users of public spaces should have the opportunity to activate themselves as agents of change in the contemporary city. This challenges the urban designers to look at UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development announced 17 sustainable development goals, in particular, the 11 - Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
During two weeks participants will discuss ways to develop urban solutions based on co-design processes. This is concerned with the engagement and facilitation of stakeholders in the design process. For co-design to be successful it is important to identify networks and involve different types of participants that can take advantage of effective collaborative partnership. The design studio takes place in a real scenario in order to integrate technological knowledge with strategic design concerns. At last, the event points to the importance of public/private partnerships and other neighbourhood entities in guiding local public space planning and decision-making.
Community participation and sustainability
Community participation and sustainability are fundamental tenets of the HABITAT III New Urban Agenda (Quito, 2016), which provides the groundwork for the policies that will influence the future of our cities. With urban expansion across the world, opportunities for citizens to improve their own urban environment are growing steadily, along with a willingness to participate directly on the decision and on the making of urban space. Increasingly, local initiatives create situations of higher social cohesion that illustrate alternatives in the provision of social infrastructure: they aim to improve the living conditions of residents and effectively test possibilities of urban transformation that stem from community initiatives. Their local expertise enlightens possible forms of collaboration in the co-design of the city, thus drafting a possible vision of the city impacted by such processes. On the ground, designing with community participation targets an approximation of design with the real demands, reflecting on the sustainability of collective space based on the engagement of several stakeholders. As Jane Jacobs contended, cities will have the capacity to provide something for everybody, only because, and only when they are created by everybody.
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Ecological urbanism
Ecological urbanism draws from ecology to inspire an urbanism that is more socially inclusive and sensitive to the environment. Mostafavi argues that while climate change, sustainable architecture and green technologies have become increasingly topical issues, concerns regarding the sustainability of the city are rarely addressed. The premise of Ecological Urbanism is that an ecological approach is urgently needed both as a remedial device for the contemporary city and an organizing principle for new cities.
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Digital Social Innovation and experiments in participatory sensing
Digital Social Innovation and experiments in participatory sensing. Manuel Castells argues that our current “network society” is a product of the digital revolution and some major sociocultural changes which take multiple forms and involve diverse actors. With existing digital technologies, urban activities can be mapped and visualized in real time. Each citizen becomes a prosumer of data, using and generating information in the course of the daily activities taking place in smart cities. In this context, the following question arises: How can data driven and open design methods lead to a new design practices in our global networked societies?
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