We are an urban collective who think and transform public places, organized as a nonprofit organization.
Together, we form an interdisciplinary network committed to build fair, innovative, democratic, safe, healthy and vibrant cities.
We act through the activation and improvement of public spaces, as they are vital for our purpose.
We understand that public spaces are a strategic topic in an increasingly urbanized world – according to the UN, public spaces (including squares, parks, streets and sidewalks) will occupy almost half the cities’ territory over the next 20
years.
That's why we work to promote a collaborative production of its use, occupation and management among the various urban actors: community, organized civil movements, third sector, companies and public authorities.
We have no ready-made solutions, but methodologies, trials and experiments.
We act through research, mapping and interaction with the local population,
activating potential of territories to turn them into vibrant places.
We create situations of constructive dialogues, gather and multiply useful
information and connect agents to improve cities through their public spaces.
Our approach
Hands-on
Innovation requires testing. Based in the concept “DIWO” (Do It With Others), we work in a collaborative way to develop temporary and permanent urban furniture and projects for activation of public spaces, as well as produce research materials. We investigate with practical experiments how local innovations can achieve greater scale and turn into public policy. And we develop urban prototyping and community innovation in our Makerspace.
Doing together
Here we investigate how different urban actors can share rights and responsibilities while taking care of public spaces. We researched possible models of PSP (public-social partnerships), how to encourage citizens to cooperate with their talents and abilities in building a fair, democratic and diverse city, and how to guide private investment in favor of public interest.
Urban education
In order to participate in the construction of the city and its public spaces, citizens need to know the processes involved, as well as existing and possible participation tools. By means of courses, seminars and workshops with focus in city rights and active citizenship, we aim to translate urban complex concepts in a simple and didactic language. We also work with prototyping and creation of creative common content.
Participate
Associate
Associated members have access to all activities, research, events and meetings of our institute. They can also actively participate being part of the projects’ teams according to each subject, helping to organize activities, making strategic and practical propositions.