The image of the Latin metropolis: The role of design in tackling contemporary social needs

Abstract

The development of a culture of design, perceived as a process of interactions applied to the contemporary city, finds in the socio- technical interactions with the territory a plankton fertile in opportunities. From this point of view, the practice and ‘traditional scope’ of the project understood as an independent, more or less autonomous variable, finds in the metaphorical image of the Latin territory certain conflicts and limitations. The conditions of spontaneous social interaction with the artificial result in a naturally participatory and interactive process, which, in this reflection, points to the need for a new disciplinary approach to the project through design; an approach that, faced with the particular DNA of Latin territories, should be based on common denominators prevalent in those regions, largely characterised by the need for a soft interaction. In this context, breaking away from the traditional project’s practice model in regard to the refunctioning of the city becomes paramount; this is a conflict that requires new disciplinary approaches and possible new relations applied to the sustainable functioning of the contemporary city. The subject here presented intends to build a conscious and mature picture of the challenges facing design as a discipline that operates at the level of the demands arising from the “present” functioning of the 21st century city. In a transversal analysis, supported with emblematic examples collected through micro experiences in the territory, it is possible to envision the frameworks encompassing the modus vivendi and their forms of social expression as central and essential variables to the practice of the city’s use; this is a socio-technical context that highlights the need for a new interactive and proactive balance between society, territory and project. Through the interpretation of different territorial contexts, a new territory of design intervention becomes visible; an intervention that implies the integration of soft tools and which are naturally differentiated by the continuous integration of socio-technical values that resiliently operate in the ongoing regeneration of the city.

Key words: social design, resilient city, soft interaction, social innovation.