This work exemplifies a search for participation for the promotion of urban-architectural projects both in the center and in the periphery of a Mexican city such as Puebla, where twenty years ago few activities were developed in which the main actors were the inhabitants. Fortunately, in recent years it has been possible to carry out specific actions where participation is a key part of having a less technical vision on the part of architects, urban planners and heritage conservators.
The first project is the Integral Urban Social Program in which, through a municipal action, an attempt was made to implement a participatory process in sectors considered to be of extreme poverty where municipal government programs tried to impact the areas called PIUS. An important part was the Participatory Design process that mobilized the main universities of the city through young architecture students to carry out a series of projects where the condition was to have contact with the communities.
In the case of the Casa Analco project, a university initiative in the historic centre of the city in a very traditional neighbourhood (16th century) with problems of deterioration, abandonment and insecurity, with which the university-neighbourhood link is currently promoted and in where space has been the pretext to promote university participation in the rehabilitation of a building, but at the same time in a rapprochement with the neighbourhood.
Through these two cases it is confirmed that it is possible to make participation possible through a process that must be adapted to each place, these experiences leave a series of reflections in different areas, from which a basic process can be broken down to encourage it through organization, promotion, awareness of the work team, knowledge of the place, time, evaluation, management and adaptability.
“Operation Mercedes”: Monument to solidary citizenship
Jordi Henrich, Antoni Remesar
Abstract
The COVID19 pandemic, which is wreaking havoc on global public health, has also meant the adequacy – temporary so far – of the work procedures in university education, both in what affects the teaching and in relation to to the activities to be developed by the students. The program of the Project Workshop subject of the Master in Urban Design at the University of Barcelona, planned to focus the project activities on what we can call “Operation Mercedes”, a private urban regeneration project in the Barcelona’s neighborhood of Bon Pastor, consisting of converting 90,000 m2 of the former Mercedes-Benz factory site into a residential and office complex. According to the General Metropolitan Plan (1976) in force in Barcelona, this site is classified as 22a, that is, “Industrial Zone” and since 2007, when Mercedes-Benz stops operating in this factory, it has been one of the few reindustrialization areas in Barcelona . Its sale to the investment group Conren-Tramway, at the end of 2018, once again resuscitates neighborhood fears about the use of these 9 Ha. Within the framework of the research project HAR2017-88672-R. and the collaboration agreements with the Bon Pastor’s neighborhood association, for a few years we have been introducing themes of public space in the territory, in the subject “Project Workshop” of the Master in Urban Design. Two goals. The first one to explore ideas for solving problems regarding public space with students -mainly foreigners-, operating the Workshop as a “Laboratory of Ideas” while this activities serve as non-curricular practices. Second objective: to contribute project ideas to the residents of Bon Pastor for the management and negotiation of the various actions to be carried out in the neighborhood. For this reason, the Workshop work for the 2019-2020 academic year was planned to explore the possibilities of public space in this new Urban Regenration operation. The works of the workshop are developed in multidisciplinary teams responding to the previous training of the students. When the confinement in Spain is decreed in March, we saw almost impossible the development of the planned activities in an online mode. That is why it was decided to vary the topic, focusing it on a Monument to Solidarity Citizenship -which will allow a more individualized approach to work-, but maintaining the territorial reference of the Mercedes-Benz site.
The COVID 19 pandemic, detected and officially notified on December 31, 2019 in the Chinese city of Wuhan, has left to date: 408,481 deaths and 7,174,925 infected distributed in 188 countries of the world, of which the most affected are : United States, United Kingdom, China, Spain, Italy and Brazil, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University (June 2020). In the short term, this pandemic has become the leading cause of death, surpassing malnutrition, homicides, cancer and other serious diseases. In this context, the majority of countries declared a state of health alert, being mandatory. During the months that the state of absolute isolation lasted, the old cinematographic technique called split screen (split screen), starred in an unexpected resurrection, becoming the vehicle that allowed us to communicate but also to create and consume culture. The split screen or “split screen” is undoubtedly one of the most prominent protagonists of the corona virus pandemic that humanity faced as of December 31, 2019, when the news of this was officially notified serious illness from the Chinese city of Wuhan. Almost as old as the cinema itself, the split screen became the tool that allowed us to feel the closeness of our families, work colleagues, fellow students and teachers. It allowed us to express our solidarity, support and company in moments as complicated as those we lived through during the long period of quarantine in hmost countries in the world.
The COVID19 crisis has redefined the way of life, production and work methodologies: however, during this period, the positive attitude of citizens has contributed significantly to overcoming the first part of the crisis, supporting the arduous work of farmers. , cleaners, transporters, bus and subway drivers, replenishers, supermarket cashiers, policemen, health workers, and health personnel, who have formed a first line of struggle to contain the virus and to this is added the discipline of the confined citizenry who have attacked their routines to show support for the courageous dedication of those who have allowed us to maintain everyday life in our lives. The development of activities in the period of the COVID19 crisis, has redefined the way of inhabiting spaces; Obviously, the adaptation to new circumstances is a challenge, since the idea of public and private is reconceptualized.
Monumento en positivo. No es ni a las víctimas, ni a los héroes. Es la conmemoración de un momento/acción específico, que reúne todo lo demás. El aplauso de las 20hrs es la instancia en que la ciudadanía se agradece y anima a sí misma • Las 20:00 serán el elemento central en la significación del monumento. Desde su concepción temporal o geométrica, la idea es conmemorar este acto ciudadano • Lo que hoy es evidente u obvio, en 20 años puede no serlo tanto Por otro lado, la abstracción conceptual exacerbada puede llevarnos a la perdida de legibilidad del monumento, característica fundamental del mismo (la conmemoración debe ser comprendida). El objetivo es lograr que el monumento pueda evocar, no solo un momento cronológico, sino un momento humano
Adequacy of religious heritage buildings. A strategy for improving accessibility in the Historic Center of Puebla Mexico
Adriana Hernández Sánchez, Christian Enrique De la Torre Sánchez
Abstract
In Mexico, there are few successful examples of improving accessibility conditions in historic centers. The relationship between daily activities, the recognition of human diversity and the conservation of heritage has not been conceptualized. It has not been understood that accessibility is a human right, above the aesthetics and prioritization of the monument, since there are old buildings that retain their original uses and daily affluence such as Catholic temples, which are also considered cultural sites and containers of heritage, art (movable property) and social practices with tourist attraction. In Puebla, there is the experience of a participatory and inclusive accessibility project where five heritage buildings were involved. They are historical temples that form an itinerary due to their proximity and importance in the original area of the ancient city. In the first section, there is Santa Monica, considered a sanctuary that receives thousands of faithful every week, the former convent of Santo Domingo, where the Rosario chapel is located, and the city’s Cathedral Basilica, connected by the pedestrian street more important of the city, “La 5 de mayo”. Towards the south, completing the route, San Juan de Letrán, “El Hospitalito” and La Soledad are located, with the Amparo Museum near of them. All temples are ancient, dating from the 16th to 19th centuries. During 2015 and 2016, through joint work between local authorities, universities and civil associations, in addition to the financial support of a local municipal entity and another international entity from the Chilean government, various elements were put in place to improve accessibility, like metalic ramps reversibles, and there were intervened pavements in atriums and accesses. Even in 2020, it is a project of territorial scope for the benefit of all, not only for people with reduced mobility, which allows autonomous and easy-to-use travel, even for those people who need to be assisted by another person, since the percentages of slopes on the ramps range between six and ten percent. The methodology developed to the work was through the incorporation of an interdisciplinary team, Re Genera Espacio, which promoted the importance of reconverting these heritage buildings into accessible spaces, an action promoted before the custodians of the five temples, as well as establishing a diagnostic analysis of each case and develop the project, in addition to supervising the work in order to realize with local and international regulations and recommendations. The project was well received by the custodians, after a long process of work, as well as by the rest of the population, which is reflected in a considerable increase in people with disabilities who come to the temples, whether they are parishioners or tourists, and other people with reduced mobility who make use of open spaces, such as atriums and streets. We emphasize that more interventions are required in other spaces considered less important. This is a first step towards more accessible cities, in this case a historic area, which requires urgent interventions to create accessibility networks. This work gave guidelines to other projects that have been developed by the team, not only with motor disabilities, but also with people with blindness and visual weakness.
To access to manage the symbolic dimension. A citizen right
Antoni Remesar, Javier Vergel Faro
Abstract
To give meaning to urban space is one of the most relevant activities to allow its conversion into public space, in turning sites into places. For this, it is essential to expand the concept of “accessibility” to the level of “symbolic accessibility” and understand it as one of the new urban rights.
The article develops the concepts of “symbolism a priori” and “symbolism a posteriori” as intervention strategies of meaning of the public space. The first responds to the usual operations from the administration, the second to the popular processes of appropriation of space.
Analysing the experience of creative participation – today in progress – in the Barcelona neighbourhood of Bon Pastor, the article raises the possibility of creating a meeting place between the two types of symbolism, through processes of co-production of public space, specifically its co-design.
Keywords
Public Space; Public art; Co-design; Citizen participation; Bon Pastor; Barcelona
Polis Research Centre. Universitat de Barcelona 
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