Animário

Until then our activities with the participants of the project Sob-o-mesmo-céu, run by Inpulsar in Bairro da Quinta do Alçada in Leiria, involved spatial interventions in the public space essentially dedicated to the several human communities of the neighbourhood. In this last phase of the project we focused on thinking and creating spaces for the non-human communities of the neighbourhood.

Like previous activities, this one started with a "discovery" of the neighbourhood through mapping and recognition walks. This time we tried to identify the various species and communities of animals present in some of the neighbourhood's most frequented public spaces, with the help of binoculars, cameras (mobile phones) and a map.

Once various non-human inhabitants had been identified, prototypes were created to accommodate various activities. The creation of prototypes started from the re-use of end-of-life materials and their transformation into new functions and forms. At the end of the experimentation process we arrived at three pieces: an insect village, a cat shelter (abrigato) and a swimming pool for birds.

Dividing the participants into different working groups, we transformed the prototypes into new pieces of street furniture to be installed in three public spaces in the neighbourhood, in which the presence of the animals for which each piece was intended had been identified.

The activity ended with the decoration of each piece and, finally, with a guided tour of the new spaces for these other inhabitants of the neighbourhood.