Non-profit organisation Expresión Espacio
EE_Community/Environment/Participative Systems
EXPLORING & UNDERSTANDING
Espacio Expresión’s projects emerge from the firm conviction that there is a need to work with knowledge derived from local culture and identity as well as the desires of citizens, in order to achieve a better design and use of public space. Public space thus becomes an essential element for society’s development; and for reimagining and reconstructing a city like Pisco. We understand these places as spaces for everyday encounters which are capable of transforming themselves into platforms for the development of productive social networks and catalysers for the encouragement of culture and the integration of the community with its immediate environment. In the case of Pisco, a feeling of local identity aims to transform the community member into a participant of the reconstruction of their city, after the August 2007 earthquake.
Espacio Expresión believes in an initial phase of creative exploration for the understanding of public space and its relation with society. This is done through planned events and activities which maintain a certain degree of experimentation in order to allow for unplanned results to be read after evaluating the interaction between the participant and the space being altered by the event. Events include temporary occupations, exhibitions, reflective and analytical walks, short artistic workshops sessions and media interventions.
EE_Community/Environment/Participative Systems
CREATING A STRATEGY
Most creative planning processes are carried out through participative design workshops in public spaces which are planned to encourage intervention or as organized sessions where leaders of the community and other important actors involved in the transformation of the built environment (such as local authorities and private investors) take part. This is part of an interdisciplinary phase of analysis and design where we bring together groups of professionals and students in the creation of an urban development plan through a series of intervention ideas. In August 2009 the projects were developed and presented in the format of international workshops and conferences where we invited Colombian architects, such as Natalia Castaño and Sebastián Bustamante, in the direction of the process, as well as recognised Latin American urban planners and architects such as Alejandro Echeverri, Tito Fernández Dávila and Manuel de Rivero. We developed a series of areas of intervention located by particular economic, social and environmental situations with specific potentials or problems.
Part of the participative process is to bring these results back to the community and actors involved through interactive exhibitions in public spaces where local authorities take an active part, and where the ideas can be discussed and created. This process leads to the definition of the larger urban-architectural project.
EE_Community/Environment/Participative Systems
INTERVENTION & ACTIVATION
Physical involvement of the community in small scale interventions aimed at improving public space are crucial throughout the process, as these can generate small but powerful results which have the ability to change perceptions about the potential of run down urban environments in the community.
Becoming active participants in the process of these transformations; the community actors are empowered to decide, rethink, debate and have an opinion on the future changes that should take place in their city.
The strategy for the community’s interaction with public space is enabled by developing an empowerment network of participants through a cultural program of events and workshops. Once the network is consolidated, it allows for the activation of all spaces and programs through festivals, parades and artistic performances.
After the 2009 workshop and conferences, the wetlands restoration project was identified as the lever of urban and architectural intervention for the creation of economic development possibilities through an eco-touristic proposal where residents can be identified with a cultural and natural public space.
The general focus of all projects and activities is to enforce this proposal where both a physical and social transformation is taking place.
EE_Community/Environment/Participative Systems
