WE PROTECT SCHOOLS: TACTICAL URBANISM ACTIONS IN THE SCHOOL SURROUNDINGS OF BARCELONA, SPAIN

Publication: Journal of Environmental Management & Sustainability

Author: Adriana Sansão Fontes

Objective: To address the systemic contribution of Protegemos las escuelas program to the increase

of public spaces, road safety and environmental quality; the enhancement of public facilities and their

immediate surroundings; and the reduction of socio-environmental imbalances between

neighborhoods.

Methodology: Case study based on the analysis of the 25 school environments transformed in the

first phase of the action, aiming to elaborate a taxonomy of the interventions.

Relevance: The work discusses the paradigm shift that characterizes Barcelona in the last decade,

based on the transition from the culture of “official grandiloquence” to the attention on acting in the

small and the ordinary, a phenomenon inserted in the context of economic and health crisis, but also

political and representative.

Results: Verification of the existence of five types of squares, in isolated or combined occurrences,

with better or worse performances. After eleven months of operation, the program has already been

able to generate approximately 3,500 m2 of new public spaces for pedestrians in the school

surroundings.

Contributions: The work contributes to the enhancement of small-scale everyday public spaces,

presenting a tactical urbanism experience focused on the creation of public spaces of permanence

associated with the school network.

Conclusion: Although the program is still in the testing phase, and the scope as well as the limitations

for the field of urban design are yet to be fully revealed, it is possible to highlight different contributions

that emphasize the various aspects present in tactical urbanism methodology.

Link: https://periodicos.uninove.br/geas/article/view/19164/8774

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