Category: Tracing Public Spaces

Trazando Espacios > Tracing Public Spaces

Casa del Deporte

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San Antonio neighborhood, Naiguatá, Vargas, Venezuela. April - October 2017.

Team: Ana Vargas, Raquel Portillo, Gabriela Puppio, Leysbel Osorio, Héctor Chang, Daniela Hernández, Diana Ruiz Hueck, Nayari Medina, Jennifer Pacheco, Eliana Ramírez, Orlys Pacheco, and Ana Rodríguez.

Trazando Espacios in Naiguatá was a Macro workshop organized in partnership with Beatriz Padrón and her family where the TEP Team worked during the months of April to October of 2017 with 15 children between the ages of 9 and 13 and Azhair Navarro, community leader, as an local aly in the community of the San Antonio neighborhood in Naiguatá, Vargas State.

In this program the children learned, in three stages, to observe their community from a new perspective which allowed them to imagine how to transform the public spaces in their community and finally intervene a social center for all the neighbors: La Casa del Deporte (a community sports center).

In the first stage, OBSERVE, the TEP students learned about the importance of having spaces for community gatherings. Together we walked around Naiguatá to discover and identify the public spaces that exist in the area. We founds parks, bolas criollas fields, soccer fields, basketball courts, plazas, boulevards, public swimming pools, and the most precious of all: the beautiful beaches that surround the entire area. The students also learned photography techniques, which they used to take photos of the places that highlight their local identity. Those places were marked on a big map, which we painted and then exposed to the entire community to choose a space for us to transform: la Casa del Deporte.

After the second stage, IMAGINE, where the children carried out surveys to listen to their neighbors’ opinions and ideas of transformation, they learned basic design concepts such as surface area and the elements that compose a space, the sue of patterns, and the measuring tape as a tool to measure and scale dimensions. All of this so they could make their models taking into account the real proportions of the chosen place. We had an exciting trip with Referentes de Diseño, where the students, along with their representatives, travelled from Vargas to Caracas to visit Villa Planchart, known as Quinta El Cerrito, part of the Venezuelan architectural patrimony where each space and element is a work of art. And we visited the Jardines Ecológicos Topotepuy where the children learned about the types of gardens and sowing techniques using recycled material. This, without a doubt, was a day full of design ideas to inspire the students to work on their transformation proposals for the Casa del Deporte. Finally, we had a second exposition to the community where they chose the projects they were going to build.

La Casa del Deporte was founded in 1983 and was recovered by the neighbors after the Vargas landslide in 1999. For many years the community had been claiming to the authorities for the rehabilitation of this House where a Centro de Diagnóstico Integral functions. There are also bolas criollas and baseball teams, aerobics competitions, dance therapy, casino salsa and dance classes. In the last stage of the workshop, TRANSFORM,  more than 90 volunteers and neighbors from the community, starting from the youngest, became empowered to be the protagonists of the chang they wanted to see and intervened 110 m2  of the wall when restoring the facade of the Casa del Deporte with more than 9,000 caps and re-used mosaics. We also added a 8 m2 ceiling by building a pergola with 288 cans to provide shade for the platform by the bolas criollas field, which is located behind the Casa. We also built some furniture: 3 shelves that function as a library, 4 tables and 10 benches.

This intervention allows for the restoration of the Casa and; therefore, allows the community to recover its use as a place to teach classes for the entire San Antonio community and to reactivate the Club de los Abuelos (Grandparents Club), which used to meet in this space. This space also served as a nice waiting space for the Centro de Diagnóstico Integral’s patients in the Casa.

We want to thank our partners who made this workshop possible: Beatriz Padrón and family, the Fundación Club Playa Azul, Pizza Caracas, Impresiones Flexonet 2000, Pinturas Corimon, Grupo Ferfuen and Piscinas Latinoamericanas. We also thank the volunteers and professors invited to our complementary classes: the visual artist el Abraham Rosales, the architect and CEO of NoutaEC Gaudy Martínez, the landscapist María Mercedes Hernández and the nutritionist Andrea Castellanos.

If you are near Naiguatá, don’t hesitate to visit the Casa del Deporte, which is located here.  

Juan Moreno IV

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El Consejo, State of Aragua, Venezuela. July-December 2016.

Team: Ana Vargas, Raquel Portillo, Diana Ruiz, Ana Rodriguez, Eliana Ramírez and Gabriela Puppio.

On this occasion, Tracing Spaces, in partnership with the Santa Teresa Foundation developed a Macro workshop in the community of Juan Moreno  with the participation of 18 young people from the area between the ages of 9 and 15, taking place during the months of July through  December 2016. 

In the first phase of the workshop, "Observe",  the students learned how to read and use a map of their community, making journeys and photographing the existing public spaces and looking attentively for any space that had potential to be transformed. Based on the photographs, the students, together with the community, chose to intervene  " The Corner", a space that the community's children use to play in the street.

In the second phase, the students began to "Imagine" what could happen on that corner. At this stage the participants learned to use tools like the measuring tape, so as to draw in scale and maintain proportions. Then the youth carried out surveys with the neighbors to see what the needs were of the area, and subsequently made models of the chosen space to express their ideas  and show their proposals for transforming the community.

For phase three of the workshop, "Transform", the Tracing Spaces team  used proposals selected by the students with the help of the community,  and designed a project  transforming the ideas of the participants into plans and construction details. 

The completed  project has 3 components: a vegetable garden, built in what was once an abandoned space accompanied by a rail, built by students with recycled wooden pallets,  a "train" built with solid bricks, wooden pallets and recycled tires, accompanied by a wall  to write on with chalk,  and finally, a floor with letters of the alphabet  made with recycled plastic bottle caps, this proposal being made by one of our students, with the intention of teaching the neighborhood youngsters to read and write. 

This workshop had the support of more than 25 volunteer facilitators: architects, photographers, engineers, educators, and lawyers, as well as the participation of the local masons for the construction of the project.

Valparaíso

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Valparaíso, Chile. October 2015
Team: Ana Vargas.

Between October 27th and November 1st we were in Valparaiso, Chile, dictating a short version of Tracing Public Spaces workshop, with iLAB from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and Universidad Federico Santa María. The workshop was a part of iLab’s project “ Innovación Glocal”, a series of courses focused on sharing technologies with communities and stimulate local creativity. The workshop was done in el Patio Volantín located in the Cerro Pateón with participation from neighbors and students of Universidad Federico Santa María.

Day 1: Observation

During the first day of the workshop we learned about public space and we went out to find spaces with potential to be transformed. Then we laid out a collective map where we marked the possible spaces we could intervene, and finally we chose a corner of abandoned land photographed by Cristobal, an 8 year old neighbor.

Day 2: Design
During the second day of the workshop we began to learn how to measure, so could understand what type of activities could occupy the space selected. We also visited some neighbors of the San Juan de Dios Street where the space we picked to intervene was. We also asked what type of activities they would like to do in the selected space. Nena, a 94 year old neighbor, told us that she planted the only flowers that were in the space and that she would like to encourage other neighbors to continue recovering the space. We proposed a square with flowers and seats.

Day 3: Design
On our third day of workshop, we worked with popsicles pallets to make several models of the possible objects for the space that we could build with recycled pallets. After many tries we defined a prototype that was easy to build and replicate.

Day 4: Construction
On the forth and last day of the workshop, we dedicated our whole day to build full-scale prototype palets so we could make a small square with garden space. We had to level the land so we could sit in the slopes. We also disassembled and reassembled each wooden prototype, we sanded and sealed so it could resist outdoor weather and finally we placed it on the square. We planted some flowers, but the best thing that we planted was a Quillay tree that was donated by our youngest student (3 years old), Eloisa. Also we left some garden space open so neighbors can come and plant some flowers.

We want to thank iLAB for inviting us to be a part of “Innovación Glocal”, Patio Volantín for receiving us in their marvelous spaces and teachers and students of Federico Santa Maria University for all their support specially in the construction of the square. We hope that this workshop serves as an inspiration for the neighbors of Cerro Panteón to get organized and create many more

Juan Moreno III

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El Consejo, Estate of Aragua, Venezuela. September-December 2015.
Team: Ana Vargas, Valeria Ramos, Diana Rangel, Gabriela Puppio y Emilia Monteverde.

Between September and December 2015 we did a workshop for 12 local children. In this opportunity, Tracing Public Space supported the Urban Development Project: “Casas Blancas” led by Santa Teresa Foundation in Juan Moreno.

We began by OBSERVING. We learnt about public space and went out to find them in Juan Moreno. The kids found different places they have never noticed even though they walked in front of them everyday. Some of them with lots of potential but abandoned. We organized a photograph and mapping exhibit for the community, and together we chose the place to transform: an abandoned corner behind the Church.

The second step was DESIGN. Proportions, measure and understanding types of activities in public space were the topics. Also, we travelled to Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, to visit more public spaces as references. Once everyone was inspired they developed their ideas and, as before, we organized an exhibition of our models. The community chose the design that they liked most and suited their needs and our architecture team adapted those ideas to reality to begin the CONSTRUCTION phase.

Finally, our ideas were turned into reality. The need for a place to play marbles was the the start for “La Plaza de Las Metras” (Marbles Square), a public space built by children and neighbors of Juan Moreno. Nowadays that abandoned place has a name, children play there, neighbors organize Domino’s championships and an occasional mass. Our best achievement is how the community has committed to maintain the space by watering the flowers in the mural.