Experimenting

WHAT IS SÃO VICENTE CÁ FORA?

Under the tool EXPERIMENTING it is presented a Tactical Urbanism Initiative that run in the historic centre of Lisbon, from 12th October to 31st December 2020 at Largo do Cascão. SÃO VICENTE CÁ FORA was an experimental and short-term initiative that was carried out with the purpose of promoting long-term and sustainable transformations in the neighbourhood.

SÃO VICENTE CÁ FORA aimed to stimulate new uses of public space in close dialogue with the local community.

The activity explored the linkage between art-sustainability-creativity-innovation as a path to engage local communities and to transform public spaces.

Main Goals:

  • To encourage local commerce;
  • To promote circular economy;
  • To improve climate resilience;

To test tactical urbanism practices as a way of engaging local communities and increase the acceptance of local interventions in public spaces.

TACTICAL URBANISM IN 4 ACTIONS : ART & SUSTAINABILITY 

Action 1 - EXPLANAR

Means to explain in detail, to communicate. This action was developed around a temporary and artistic terrace, where various activities were carried out.

Local presence & Digital Dissemination

  • Sustainability Workshops
  • Neighbourhood Talks
  • TV Programme

Action 2 -  Extender

Means willingness to extend the ideas started, from scaffolding to the rest of the implementation space. An artistic clothesline was created with the use of reused materials.

Action 3 - Extrapilhar

Represented the moment when functions and infrastructures that the community was interested in change or built in the neighbourhood were designed along the lines of trapilho.

Action 4 - Expectar

Means an expected result, namely in the use of art as a vehicle for sustainability. This activity acted as an artistic epilogue to the entire initiative and was materialized with the painting of a mural on the facade of a vacant building, representing the interior of a sustainable dwelling.

MEET THE TEAM

ArcGIS Hub

Step #1 - Selecting the site of intervention and co-creating the activity 

Selected site of intervention in Calçada do Cascão  

Continuar a sua história (opcional)

Previous work carried out with SUSHI team and stakeholders to select the best site of intervention and previous co-creation sessions to design the contents of the programme.  

Opportunities:

Work together with local authorities and the stakeholders involved to spot urban sites that need interventions and co-create new ways to transform those public spaces.

Main challenges: 

Find a place that meets SUSHI goals and at the same time corresponds to the priorities of local authorities in terms of interventions in public spaces

Step # 2 - Creating public-private partnerships 

Opportunities:

To test management models based on public-private partnerships to adopt in further activities to develop in Alfama Living Lab.

To activate the community of local stakeholders

To create synergies between art and sustainability

To bring together in the same programme an art gallery, a private company, local authorities, start ups and several NGO´s acting in the field of sustainability.

Main challenges:

Integrate different motivations and visions about the role of public spaces towards a sustainable neighbourhood.

The materialization of an activity that results from the union of two different languages, the artistic and the scientific.

Step # 3 - Designing and installing the artistic structures

Action 1 -  EXPLANAR

Option A : Build a scaffolding structure painted and covered with pieces of canvas and fabrics to be reused, sufficient to simulate pieces of clothing on the face of the scaffolding

Option B: Build a scaffolding structure painted and covered with rejected objects of all nature.

source : Descriptive memory of the artistic proposal

Action 2 -  Extender 

“From the structure of one of the scaffoldings a steel cable will be broken which, as a first step, will extend to the window of the parish council above the props where the flags are placed.”

source : Descriptive memory of the artistic proposal

Action 3 - Extrapilhar, 

"The thread is a linear material that allows filling in shapes or delineation of figures. The action will be to fix the lines on a rigid support, such as the floor or walls … Both the position and the way of arranging the rag will depend on the proposals of the residents, which we will record from conversations with them throughout the development of the project. “

Action 4 - Expectar

Option A, B and C : Several options to reuse a vacant space located in calçada do Cascão.

Option D: Painting of a mural on the facade of a vacant building, representing the interior of a sustainable dwelling.

Opportunities:

Use urban art as a vehicle to activate local community and stakeholders towards a sustainable transformation. Promote creativity and community engagement, appealing to the aesthetic dimension as a way to create environmental awareness and improve sustainability in the neighbourhood.

Main challenges:  

Need to articulate artistic concepts with operational constraints. Need to face regulatory issues to act in public space and properties rights and authorizations to use private spaces. For example, option A, B and C (Action 4, Expectar) were not possible to develop due to the impossibility to reach the private owner of the vacant space. The mural painted in the façade of the vacant building was successful developed after the private owner authorization. 

Step # 4 - Co-creating and delivering the program 

Resume of the program

The programme has been developed targeting the local community, with the aim of creating a space for experimentation and information on various topics related to sustainability. Workshops were created for experimentation and information on urban gardens, reduction of energy consumption, reuse of textiles through patchwork techniques. A set of neighbourhood talks involving several stakeholders with activities in the area of sustainability were also held in the physical space of the artistic esplanade. They shared with us innovative ideas on sustainable mobility, on the circularity of textiles and building materials, on social action and inclusiveness and on urban agriculture and new technologies. The conversations with neighbours were very enriching and allowed us to get to know new and old residents of the neighbourhood .

Designed for a pre-pandemic time, the COVID-19 caused the disruption of an entire initial plan, whose intention was to attract population, residents and visitors. It was necessary to rethink the initiative, to explore different formats and methodologies, in order to ensure effective and safe conditions for the continuation of activities. However, these new programming models ensured the fulfilment of the initial objectives: to explore new ways of using public space, linking concepts of art, sustainability, creativity and innovation, through actions to raise awareness of local urban, climate and circularity challenges. 

Opportunities:

Increase local community awareness about reuse of materials, sustainable energy and mobility and green spaces.

Activate the linkage between innovation, creativity and sustainability.

Activate the linkage between innovation, creativity and sustainability

Densify the network of local stakeholders

To test activities in the context of Alfama Living Lab.

Main challenges:

To face unforeseen situations and to deal and manage delays due to work overload when moved from physical to digital format.

To bring together different visions about the role of art as a vehicle to support sustainability .

To integrate different understandings and languages: artists and scientists.

New disseminations strategies were developed for the digital format in order to reach the local community. 

Step # 5 - Communication and dissemination 

From 12th October to 31st December 2020 Largo do Cascão, Lisbon Historic Centre and on deferred social media

Communication activities and Dissemination in social media Channels

Primary Sources of dissemination

Facebook/Linkedin/Youtube: Lisboa E-Nova, Lisbon Green Capital, Municipality of Lisbon, Parish São Vicente, SUSHI

Secondary Sources of dissemination

Zero Desperdício , Thinker & Sinner, Bicicultura, Construção Sustentável,

Locals Approach, Zero Wast Lab, NGO João 13, Quercus

KEY LEARNINGS & BOTTLENECKS

LEARNINGS 

Interventions in public spaces requires several logistics measures and an important articulation with local authorities;

The activity SÃO VICENTE CÁ FORA was a fruitful opportunity to meet new facets of the Alfama community and understand the role of sustainability from different perspectives:

  • The elderly residents that remember vibrant Alfama from the past and show how their rural roots influenced the importance of present life styles based on sustainability practices;
  • The new residents that have chosen Alfama and lives a sustainable life, creating communitarian gardens or experiencing new composting technics;
  • The solidarity association that takes care of homeless people and promotes the reutilization of textiles.
  • The densification of local ecosystem with the engagement and participation of entities working in several sustainable fields: textiles circularity, construction circularity, sustainable mobility and local development. 

The activity allowed us to improve the integration between art & science by bridging the gaps between these two different languages and ways of communication. This approach allowed a visual engagement appealing to the aesthetic sensibility of the local communities.

BOTTLENECKS

Restrictions imposed by COVID 19, caused delays and deviation from the initial plans which required more creativity and constant adaptation to unforeseen circumstances and additional expenses;

It was necessary to find new ways of engaging local communities and create sustainability awareness, exploring the digital solution.

The workshops and talks were filmed and a digital version of SÃO VICENTE CÁ FORA was released in social media.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Contributions at an early stage by studying of project location and exploring the synergies with municipal programs.

Sofia Mourão , Câmara Municipal de Lisboa

Isabel Maciel, Câmara Municipal de Lisboa

Filomena Marques e Cristina Rocha, Municipality of Lisboa, Brand and Communication Department

Luisa Dornellas, Ana Rodrigues e Isabel Roque, Municipality of Lisboa, Development and Training Department

Ângelo Mesquita and Amélia Cabaço, Municipal Direction of Environment, Green Structure, Climate and Energy

Ângelo Garcia, Rui Simão and Ana Francisco, Municipality of Lisboa, Green Structure Maintenance and Re-qualification Division

Catarina Valente and Célia Costa, Municipality of Lisboa, Department of Urban Hygiene

André Gomes, Câmara, Municipality of Lisboa, Mechanical Repair and Maintenance Department

Communication Team - Lisboa Capital Verde 2020 

Local support for project implementation

Nuno Rico e Afonso Dias - Junta de Freguesia de São Vicente

Interviewed in neighbourhood talks and workshops

José Sá Fernandes - Deputy Mayor of Lisbon, Environment, Green Structure, Climate and Energy

Sara Morais Pinto - Zero Waste Lab

Gonçalo Folgado - Local Approaches

Paula Policarpo and André Gonçalves - Zero Desperdício

António Peres and João Galvão - The Thinker & the Sinner

Carmen Lima - Quercus

Diana Henriques and Sara Freitas- Lisboa E-Nova

Ana Pereira - Bicicultura

Frei Filipe - Associação João 13 

Neighbourhours

Alex Macdonald

Dona Júlia

Ângela Carvalho

Márcio Santos

Gabriel Correia

William Dell 

Authorisation granted by the owner for the painting of the mural

António Gama