CREATIVE PLACEMAKING PROJECT
Design for Community Building / Design Thinking / Design for Sustainability
Inaugurações Simultâneas, Miguel Bombarda Neighborhood - Porto

- design thinking and social design for public spaces
- creative and collaborative community
- education, cultural diversity, local economy, and civic engagement
- developed based on the circular economy thinking

The activities and entertainment of the urban public space were developed for the theme; a multidisciplinary project based on artistic practices to stimulate collective creative thinking. We engaged the local community in the design project giving priority to projects based in Miguel Bombarda neighborhood; we have encouraged informal and independent business entities by giving them bureaucratic support and guidance in the activities to be developed.

Individuals and groups who were actively involved in the project: 42 new suppliers.
The video promotion shows one event, during the year we developed six events.

We recognize the importance and value of the community-engaged building.
Art and design for a social change and community building through the arts.

https://www.anacmyk.com/bombarda2019
Video: Paulo Cunha Martins

Ágora - Cultura e Desporto do Porto / CMP
Communication Director: Jorge Rodrigues
Production Manager: Tiago Andrade

Miguel Bombarda Neighborhood, a place to be

- the street understood as social and creative space, space of action and collective thought; the street as a canvas result of a design project open to the intervention of the public; the space as a "living organism" that gains a new form and artistic dimension by the action of the one who observes, reflects and interacts; the street as territory, memory, and identity that has been entrusted; from design to reality, from space imagining to real space, from theory to practice.

All the elements in this design project - communication, identity, graphics, video, signage, posters, promotional elements, programming, contents, etc. - were crafted for the purpose to give the space an identity. An anonymous and uninteresting space transformed into a creative pole focusing on the community and the people who inhabit it.

Identity and graphic design for inclusion
- in 2019 we established a partnership with ColorADD - http://www.coloradd.net/
We included the alphabet for colorblind people in the graphic design.
The alphabet was used for the first time for graphic purposes.

Inclusive entrepreneurship
- in 2019 we established a partnership with the ColorADD Social Association
In this project we hosted a workshop focused on awareness-raising and encouraging dialogue between the parties, people who are color-blind and non-color-blind, emphasizing the importance of color and creativity in cognitive development. Free workshop open to all.

- in 2019 we established a partnership with the Eu Sou Eu, Social Association for Inclusion - https://eusoueu.eu/ (Joana Valente). In this project, we hosted exhibitions and workshops with direct bureaucratic and economic support. We aim to encourage social and professional inclusion. Free activities open to all.

This creative stimulus for sustainable community development has resulted in the improvement of an optimistic feeling to existing challenges that the city presented: gentrification, lack of feeling of belonging, loss of local identity, aestheticization and "touristification" of the historical and popular environment (national and international social phenomena between 2014-2019).

Collective memory and identity were activated. The local community supports the project and developed a sense of belonging, wanting to get involved, to "be part" of this identity and narrative that we have been developing. Economically the project presents positive and growth results for small businesses and local independent projects. The surrounding area has become more attractive compared to other historical parts of the city. The qualitative and quantitative value of the physical space, and consequently of the commercial and patrimonial projects of the surrounding area, increased.

The community began to support itself, other independent projects began to replicate the model and establish partnerships that reflect growth and evolution. The feeling was of overcoming a problem, of reacting to the difficulties. 2019 ended with optimism and hope in the new decade.