Abstract
This paper revisits the event ‘se essa rua fosse nossa’ (if this street was ours) held in 2014, in Curitiba, Brazil, that aimed to provoke, discuss, and propose new ways of thinking and designing the public spaces in the city so they can be more open, accessible, inclusive, and democratic. With the perspective of a decade, the goal is to analyze its positive outcomes in the city, then, and in the present moment. The event consisted of a series of critical and creative activities. Its closure was a pop-up parklet that occupied half a block using urban furniture resulting from one of the workshops. We discuss the event and its outcomes through the light of design activism and critical design. Beyond the local impact, we believe that sharing our results of reimagining public spaces can contribute to the theoretical discussions around the topic, additionally inspiring people to take action.
Keywords
design activim; critical design; cities; public spaces
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.337
Citation
Prado, G., and Mazzarotto, M. (2024) If This Street Was Ours: Provoking the Reimagination of the City as a Democratic Space, in Gray, C., Ciliotta Chehade, E., Hekkert, P., Forlano, L., Ciuccarelli, P., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2024: Boston, 23–28 June, Boston, USA. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.337
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Research Paper
Included in
If This Street Was Ours: Provoking the Reimagination of the City as a Democratic Space
This paper revisits the event ‘se essa rua fosse nossa’ (if this street was ours) held in 2014, in Curitiba, Brazil, that aimed to provoke, discuss, and propose new ways of thinking and designing the public spaces in the city so they can be more open, accessible, inclusive, and democratic. With the perspective of a decade, the goal is to analyze its positive outcomes in the city, then, and in the present moment. The event consisted of a series of critical and creative activities. Its closure was a pop-up parklet that occupied half a block using urban furniture resulting from one of the workshops. We discuss the event and its outcomes through the light of design activism and critical design. Beyond the local impact, we believe that sharing our results of reimagining public spaces can contribute to the theoretical discussions around the topic, additionally inspiring people to take action.