Empowering communities with participation

[Music]

hello

my name is gonzal fogad i’m an architect

and urbanist

and i’m here to talk about the power of

doing things collectively in the

community

but before we go ahead in this talk i’m

going to ask you

three plane questions first question is

that have you said hello to your

neighbors today

do you like the neighborhood that you

live in

and last but not the least do you have

or had

this really cool idea that could change

your street

your neighborhood or even your city

i’ll bet you did now what if i told you

if that could be so much more than an

idea it can be a real project

and all you have to do is start by

talking with your neighbors about it

i’m going to explain you how did it

happen for us

so while we were still students

at the faculty of architecture in 2011

we were in this mixed feeling situation

on one side

we’re really excited by the new tools

that we were learning about urban

transformation

but on the other side were really

frustrated because all we were doing

with those tools

were nothing but fictional projects so

we created this collective to do

something in a neighborhood across the

street

my favorite neighbor in lisbon and as

you can see

there is my it’s located in a real

privileged location

it’s really near to the national palace

of judah it’s really near

to the judeo universitarian campus and

it’s half walled

with monsanto lisbon’s urban forest

and on top of this you got to see the

best river site seeing over the tigers

and then you have those the first thing

we have did as a collective we just went

to the neighborhood

and we start by asking the people in the

streets in whatever ways could be useful

to them

and soon we have realized that we didn’t

have the resources to solve all the

problems

but we have not given up we had it back

to the university

and we have challenged our teachers and

the institution itself to do something

on the neighborhood

and that’s when we got to learn this

real life lesson then

diagnosing is also a tool of

intervention

and once again with university the

community and our newborn collective

we have um draw this uh urban report

about the the territory

a lot more about the neighborhood itself

not only the physical plot

but its history and how deeply connected

it was with the portuguese revolution

i’ll explain you know this neighborhood

it was meant to

those houses what was meant to be

attributed to the former regime’s

employee

a dictatorial one but then something had

magical has happened in portugal in 25

of april

of 1974 it was a carnation revolution

and the people who were living in the

surrounding areas of these under

construction

building neighborhoods they were

compelled by the these revolution values

of right to the housing and better life

conditions to everyone

and they’ve organized themselves in

order to occupy those houses

and not only occupied because they have

finished the houses with their own

resources

now knowing a lot more about the

neighborhood based on this urban report

based on our countless perceptions and

mostly on the endless conversations we

we had with the community we drew up

this uh

local action plan this time with more

funds with more resources by the way we

were being funded by the municipality

program bipzip

which funded local initiatives so

our first principle of of activity

it was to empower people by giving them

tools and the first thing that we have

done

it was to rehabilitate this uh whole

basement it was an open door process

where we invited association companies

informal groups

universities public power citizens you

name it who wanted to be

in that process were more than welcome

one of the most emotional parts

of this uh of this project is that the

ones who had been

children on that on that old basement

were helping uh

as now as parents and that has mobilized

a lot of people in the community to do

something

although this was a real participated

project i must stand out one stakeholder

in particular

which were the kids the kids were there

from the day one and they have done it

all

since breaking down walls guarding the

materials thinking about

what that space could be and due to that

they claim that space for their own even

nowadays

and the space sits quite like this if

you want to be part of a collective

decision

or an improvement process in the

neighborhood

that’s the place you’ve got to go to the

next one i’ll bring you

it’s building communities with urban

gardens and

while we were still doing casa pratoj um

this new opportunity for us to use our

toolbox as architects

has popped up but this time on public

space

and there was this small tension

between the municipality and the

residents on one side the municipality

wanted to reconfigurate the urban

gardens but on the other side

the inhabitants didn’t want to wreck

their gardens down

so our role on this one more than doing

any kind of architectural procedure

it was more of a mediators and we have

three steps planned the first step it

was to re-engage

that local group as a community again

they were no longer a community

the second one was to show the different

kinds of gardens and the different kinds

of

agriculture and permaculture techniques

that they could be using on their

gardens in order to improve the crops

and only by fulfilling these two steps

we would go for the architectural

procedure

so we have done these seminars where we

have invited

other agricultures and permaculturists

from outside lisbon

in order to change it to ex to share

experiences with the urban farmers from

the neighborhoods

then we have done these workshops of how

to do it

how to do the your own composer and

to sign a landmark in the community we

have built this

aromatic spiral in order to to celebrate

that they were no longer a group they

were a community back again

and then we have advanced for the

the architectural procedures and the

collaborative planning things

it was quite easy to do this part

because all of the other

steps were were taken and by telling you

this

i’m not saying that this was an easy or

a soft process

it wasn’t it took us almost two years to

make

all of this happen but nowadays it’s

quite like this

you can see a lot of people uh on the on

the gardens because this picture was

taken in the afternoon

and these people really go hurly to

their to their to their garden

but fortunately that working in

community isn’t just about architecture

in

urban planning you know party takes a

huge role on this

in fact party is identity and when we

started

planning and co-designing and

co-producing fedor dugal roosters fair

we felt the community suppose

differently on this they were more

engaged than the usual

and this may happen due to

two reasons the first one is that we

were bringing back

an old tradition of making this party

the older ones knew the newer the newer

generations

they just heard uh about these these

parties so they were

really excited to to experiences this

the second one it was the place one

once again the place we were touching in

the in the community’s heart

because in the neighborhood people often

told us that the palace

the national palace of judith belongs to

the rich and the powerful

although the the square the square that

this party would uh

would take place it belongs to the

people so

they were really engaged to do something

in there

and our role on this one it was just to

engage all of the stakeholders in the

community to do something

to to the party and to help them and to

support them to achieve their goals

for instance the faculty of architecture

they have the communication materials

the

the design the flyers providing

really cool and real dignifying looks

for the

for the party then the residents

association

they have operated in a real

professional way

like a communication agency they are

they are from these

small block parties in order to

communicate and to advertise the party

itself

and actually they have them did so well

that

we as a collective were receiving dozens

of volunteers on a daily basis

to do something and to post the

billboards around the the parish and the

territory to advertise the party itself

but we weren’t ready for what was coming

next we started to see the tents

and the stage being assembled well this

happened

everybody was there and by being there

on that particular place

and hurting people talk about uh how

could they be part

of an improvement process in their own

community in their own street

with their own people it was something

that still today give me

give me the the goosebumps and

it was maybe i wouldn’t say maybe but

it was the most impactful thing that

we’ve ever done

by the mindset that was generated on

that on that night

by doing fair dual we have understood

that we weren’t the only ones

doing this kind of projects grass-rooted

and participatory ones

there were other collectives that like

us were doing the same kind of things

and standing up for the same values as

we did

but there was this small gap because

there wasn’t any kind of platform any

kind of

uh local network

that i could be access to others

projects and uh

and methodologies and stuff and so we

came up with this idea

how about if we create this platform

where we can search

this kind of different projects by

activities by

territories by organizations by

objectives

you name it and this is how foreign

urbanus pop-up

in fact foreign isn’t just an archive or

repository of projects

it’s also a hub of partnerships imagine

you want to do a gender equality project

on your neighborhood but you didn’t know

how to do it how to start it

you can go to the platform you can

search who has done what

you can learn from their experience but

more than that

you can invite them to be partners with

you and to do something on your

neighborhoods

but foreign isn’t just this

because due to this recent

coveid 19 virus we were challenged by

the municipality

to map and to systematize again what

were the kind of the responses that

dislike these local networks were

providing

and one more time there we were

in these mixed feeling situations on one

side

we were devastated by the consequences

of this virus

but on the other side our hearts were

filled with joy and hope

because we got to see on real time the

ability that these

local networks have in order to reinvent

themselves

and to provide real and impactful

answers to the communities

we have seen something like

simplification of

juridical content for the the people who

are going on layoff

we were seeing these organizations

producing this digital content to go

online

in order to make people’s lives easier

by

getting them entertained and imagine

these uh local networks were even doing

these

crowdsourcing campaigns in order to get

these computers and tablets

so that the kids could have their online

classes

in a real fair way so it was uh it was

something

quite beautiful seeing all of this

happen at the same time

one of the the coolest things about

platform

as this small marketplace where the

associations can say what are the

the the goods or the resources that they

need but more than that

what are the resources that they have

and that they are

willing to share with others once more

to cross territories

to create partnerships and synergies so

this is uh

really cool by the way when we asked

when we have

started all of these i can

i admit it to you we were playing a deep

bluff

because we didn’t know if this worked

out if participation would be the

the path to go to but almost 10 years

later

i can say it’s not only the it’s not

only effective but it’s the right way to

go to because

first if you bring people to the

decision

they will have their their their value

by their

by bringing their perspective second

people feel heard and this is quite cool

for their self-esteem

and third and that’s the most important

one

by feeling that their opinion it’s taken

in consideration by the ones who decide

people start to believe again in

democracy

and if you want to make a change in the

world

maybe the best place to start with it

it’s in your neighborhood

thank you

you