Seventeenth International Conference on Design Principles & Practices

Abstract

This ongoing research study highlights that inclusivity, value, and city life quality is essential to create links between minorities and majorities in order to design towards the new functions of liquid modernity. The authors underline how design practices can help to create a pilot project embracing social changes. This means that administrative inefficiency presents itself as a new problem that designers, builders and entrepreneurs must face, requiring to constantly diagnose the situation. The study proposes to redesign and to develop a self-sustainable habitat for minorities, such as, elderly women victims of domestic violence, something that is integrated in the city and not out-of-the-way or isolated. On the one side, the problem of construction in historic centers is fundamental to understand the life cycle of the city, in order to present solutions for a changing world. That is, it is the competence to design systems of parts and not compact and definitive bodies. On the other side, this paper constitutes a creative approach relating design and business world, bridging the gap between minorities and majorities. Methodologically, this research is supported by productive reasoning, pattern-language and sustainability, connecting conventional methods with new techniques. The paper presents some cases where the installation of creative activities changed the entire urban community. This project can serve as a stimulus to attract companies, creating new stakeholders that stimulate development and innovation. It is hoped to found judgments, incentives and, above all, conditions so that all persons can continue to live on their own land.

Presenters

Liliana Soares
Professor / Researcher, Design, Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo & Research Centre for Architecture, Urbanism and Design (CIAUD), Portugal

Ermanno Aparo
Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo

Manuel Gulías
Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo

Rui Cavaleiro
Student, Architecture (FAUP - Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universidade do Porto), IPVC Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo, Viana do Castelo, Portugal

Jorge Manuel Teixeira
Professor, Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo, Viana do Castelo, Portugal