On the other side of the classical discourses of the city based on civitas, society; polis, power; and urbis, the built environment, comes urbanization, characterized by the valorization of the process without designating a place, taking shape anywhere. Global capitalism also produces an unplannable and unplanned fabric which, in itself, constitutes a mode of urbanization, requiring actors to understand the people's way of life in order to find better and more fruitful practices. Therefore, understanding the way rather than applying models that are external to the places, hegemonic, imported from other geographies and designed in advance.
In Cape Verde, in the city of Mindelo, the Outros Bairros Initiative (IOB) has set up an experimental process of urban rehabilitation, through listening and co-habitation in the places, of three unplanned areas: Alto de Bomba, Covada de Bruxa and Fernando Pó. Once the physical and social characterization of Alto de Bomba had been carried out, the only area where works were carried out due to the unexpected political interruption of the Initiative, the process was divided into two types of work: one-off, small-scale works, but which rehabilitated places that ensured connections to the surrounding consolidated areas; and structuring works, which reorganized the urban fabric and introduced infrastructures.
Finally, it is important to note that, as a result of the need to create, between residents and the technical team, a complicity that builds a sense of common ground, throughout the process, a public space activation plan was carried out, resulting in various actions: "Praça Nho Jon", a cycle of conversations with residents about local sensitivities; "Amdjer na Obra", training in the context of women pavers; "Kubaka", an artistic residency on Hip-hop, based on a local music studio; "Dsinrascá", an artistic residency on audiovisual, based on local knowledge; and "Somá na Ponta", a meeting held by residents and IOB to discuss the future of the urbanization with the municipalities.
The Outros Bairros Initiative was a collective action research process aimed at reflecting on urbanization in Cape Verde. It worked in the areas of Alto de Bomba, Fernando de Pó and Covada Bruxa, Mindelo, São Vicente, carrying out the urban rehabilitation of their public spaces, based on the way of life of the local population.
It has fostered the construction of a common space-time between government entities and these areas. This space-time is mediated and lived by a small team of architects, who have given themselves autonomy and a close relationship with the locals. In contrast to the traditional urbanism of large, cold, aseptic interventions and urban sanitization, Outros Bairros has provided an area of relationship between technicians and residents, thus building community, in a way in which the team translates various principles of joint action that guide their way of designing into the process.
The institutionalized way of doing a project determines a period of work that closes off a whole dossier that will convey the respective actions for its implementation. Opening up this process to the community receiving the intervention involves a radical change from the authorial project - which pre-defines a program and a set of solutions - to a suspension of the architect's conception, in the sense of opening up to the worldview of the people living in the neighbourhood, as well as to the solutions that their own daily lives have drawn up over time in the common space. In addition, the participation of the residents was crucial, both in the dynamics of social awareness that make it possible to activate the right to the city, and in the dynamics and returns of the physical work itself, especially in terms of employment and counteracting local precariousness.
Title. Outros Bairros Initiative - Urban Rehabilitation of Alto de Bomba
Location. Alto de Bomba, Monte Sossego, Mindelo, Cape Verde
Date. 2019 | 2021
Architecture. Outros Bairros
Project Team. Ângelo Lopes, Nuno Flores, Jakob Kling, Erickson Fortes, Elaine de Pina, Ema Barros
Photography. Ângelo Lopes, Marcelo Londoño
Client. Ministry of Infrastructure, Spatial Planning and Housing
Engineering. Anyzabel Gonçalves
Landscaping. Nuno Folores, Ângelo Lopes, Jakob Kling, Erickson Fortes, Elaine de Pina
Consultants. Manoel Ribeiro, Guilherme Gonçalves, Rita Rainho, Maria Estrela
Awards. Archdaily Work of the Year 2022 | 20 Finalists Aga Khan Award for Architecture | PNA 2022 - National Architecture Award 2022