The Porto creative agency ADDICT asked me to create and direct a project exploring the question “how creative can Portugal be?”. The result was Bairro Criativo (Creative Quarter). The project was the latest in my City As Platform projects, where the design of the city isn’t the end result of the creative process, but the city itself becomes a platform for open creative development by the public. I put out the call through ADDICT’s communication channels to invite anyone in the city – designers, homemakers, business people, kids with crayons – anyone – to think of one thing they’d like to do to temporarily improve people’s daily lives in Porto. The only criteria was that the proposed ideas had to be simple, quick, and go in and come out with only a light touch on the city – nothing destroyed before they are installed, and no damage when they leave.

The framework for the project was quite simple. I put out the call through ADDICT’s communication channels to invite anyone in the city – designers, homemakers, business people, kids with crayons – anyone – to think of one thing they’d like to do to temporarily improve people’s daily lives in Porto. The only criteria was that the proposed ideas had to be simple, quick, and go in and come out with only a light touch on the city – nothing destroyed before they are installed, and no damage when they leave.

Bus Stop Symbiosis by LIKE Architects

Estrutura Simbiotica by Dioga Aguiar and Teresa Otto is a modular construction that, as they say, “aims not only to increase the space of existing bus stops, but also to entertain those who are still waiting for their transportation.” I like it for both the visual qualities, but also for its symbiotic relationship with the bus stop (as the name would imply), and for its role in getting us to think of other areas and objects of the cities that could host a designed structure that plugs in to existing objects to increase both functionality and enjoyment.

"Farmville for Real" by Rita Maia, José Ricardo Cardoso, Pedro Cruz Lopes

Farmville for Real is a collection of modular structures made of two interlocking pieces. These small strucutres can exist on their own or in a group to enable pop-up community gardens anywhere, depending on the desire of the residents. The objectives of the project, say the creators, are to:

• Provide people with an inexpensive opportunity to participate collectively in a project of common good.
• Promote shared responsibility in public spaces.
• Renew the urban landscape, making it more pleasant and healthy.
• Teach children and young people to start early to enhance the environment.
• Create an alternative way of spending free time.
• Create neighborly ties among the participants of the project.