Fourteenth International Conference on The Constructed Environment

Abstract

As a stimulus to achieve the 2050 Targets, regarding the promotion of sustainable urban mobility (SUM), it is intended to develop an action-research methodology. The main goal is to accelerate the change of mindset, attitudes and behaviors of the population to effect a paradigm shift of SUM and the redistribution of public space in favor of soft modes. To this end, the research is based on the articulation of 3 key concepts: Walkable Neighborhoods, Urban Acupuncture (UA), and Transition Management (TM). In the present action-research, the methodologies of TM are articulated in an innovative way with the UA project techniques, in a continuous interaction of experimentation, reflection and evaluation, consummating a logic of “learning-by-doing”. Thus a cyclic interaction between research techniques and action techniques (evaluated by research techniques) was applied to a Living Lab in a neighborhood in Braga, as an exploratory case study. The use of Co-design, Experimentation and Simulation in an incubator allowed the analysis of social phenomena in a real context, the testing of research hypotheses and the identification of causal effects of variables on outcome measurements. It also allowed the engagement of Transition Agents, promoting capacity building and mutual learning (between Researchers, Administration and Society) to change the current system to a more sustainable one. The Future Thinking methodology (setting the challenge in 2050 and then returning to the present) allowed to define more ambitious long and short term goals. The social component of the research was essential for the realization of the physical action.