PURPOSE

Involve the communities surrounding the lagoon and the local environmental authorities. There were three main objectives:

1. We wanted to discover the meaning that the lagoon had in its present state (closed-up space, polluted, and with signs of environmental decay).

2. The second objective was to ask the community, after mapping the present state of their perception, what their priorities were for transforming the lagoon through a perimeter park.

3. Ask them to map their vision of how these priorities could be embedded in the proposal, and ask them to present their vision to all the participants.

STRATEGY

We invited the boards of the different neighborhoods around the lagoon, with each board delegation forming a group. We conducted the design workshop with a series of activities and an icebreaker, which placed them in the shoes of the designers, pushing them to understand, prioritize, and decide. Ultimately, we closed the participation by sharing their vision. In the end, many ideas were shared, and the proposals were synthesized into individual schemes, tables, and plans. This activity greatly informed the design. Our end product was later socialized after being handed in to the environmental authorities and the city. In the end, the community was very satisfied to have played a role in the final result.

The activities consisted of:

1. The Mystery Box: An icebreaker that mimicked the present situation of the lagoon — something that you couldn't see, that doesn't feel good, but if correctly opened and handled, could transform into something good.

2. Map of the Lagoon: Mapping what the people perceive.

3. Array of Activities and Places: A limited amount of votes were given to an existing "menu" of possibilities. They could also include options that were not available on the menu.

4. End Result: Stickers, markers, post-its were placed on a map of the lagoon to form a spatial vision