Abstract

In the field of urban furniture design, the parameters of insertion, interference, appropriation, and legibility are associated with the characteristics of urban spaces and the demands of its population. At the same time, the history of urban furniture, design and public spaces reflect the traditions and memory of the society to which they belong. In this work, we address part of a research on the identity and memory relations of two immigrant communities in southern Brazil in the spaces of their squares. For this, we use Environment-Behavior Studies methods, in which we investigate the attributes of the current and preexisting elements, analyzing the old and current function, the pertinence, the degradation, and the relation with cultural and traditional activities of the space. The study was based on on-site surveys, documentary and bibliographic research, observation, and interviews with users. As an immediate result, we have the construction of a database on the urban furniture of historic squares of these cities, which contributes to the documentation of these spaces. Following, we intend that the analyses of the urban furniture serve as a contribution for the future rehabilitation of these public spaces