Seventeenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

Co-design is said to improve collaboration in the operation of a project. However, many studies focus on the design phase, and fail to capture how it facilitates the use and operation of the process. In the context of Latin America, co-design process can be crucial to achieve suitable and legitimate use, operation, and maintenance of public spaces. A question remains about how co-design conditions influence the operation of the public space. And, how it influences the use of the project in the long-term. This research presents a case study of Chilean public space design processes based on data obtained in 2019 and 2020, and thirty-three semi-structured interviews of key participants. We developed an analytical framework to assess collaboration in the long-term and its influence in the operation phase. We observed that the co-design of public spaces manifested different levels of participation depending on the actors and the arenas. It was assessed by the level of involvement as users, partial participators, or long-lasting partners. The study suggests that the higher the levels of collaboration during design, higher levels of collaboration during the operation phase. Nevertheless, diverse communicative, administrative, and financial issues were reported as barriers by the interviewees. The long-term analysis allowed us to envision the changing roles of the actors and arenas throughout the phases. We highlight a prominent role of the cultural arena in operation as a desirable outcome of co-design. Our framework is useful to assess and plan further co-design processes for co-operation in Chile and elsewhere.