“Transcribe: Participatory Actions in Braga´s Social Housing Neighbourhoods” is a practice-led research about three social housing and their Roma community located in Braga, Portugal. This one year project is developed by Space Transcribers, and promoted by Braga´s City Council, as an integral part of the project "(Re)Escrever o Nosso Bairro".
Over the last year we have been developing several participatory, multidisciplinary, and pedagogic workshops (such as photography; sound; gender mapping...), which intend: to transcribe realities and ways of living with the community, making it visible to the wider public of the city of Braga; to develop mechanisms of mediation between the community and the local agents; to potentiate the children and teenagers of the social housing neighbourhoods with new artistic skills, such as the photography, the construction of spatial/urban models, the recording of sounds and the use of the social networks as a video archive of their everyday life.
“Monuments of My Neighbourhood: Photography Workshop” - was an activity dedicated to children and teenagers, that intended to support the pedagogical and sensitive possibilities of photography with the interaction and discovery of spaces within Braga´s social housing neighbourhoods. The camera was a mediating tool in the process of social inclusion, revitalizing identity relationships and ownership through the demand for appreciation of the most common aspects of the children's daily lives.
“Building My Neighbourhood: Collective Models Workshop” - aimed to open the dialogue between residents and public entities through the construction of collective models of three social housing. Towards several meetings coordinated with the various stakeholders, it was debated the processes of design, maintenance and management of social housing; enabling participants to understand the architectural features of the social housing and their integration into the urban fabric of Braga.
“Transcribe Summer Lab: Socio-Spatial Practices in Braga´s Social Housing Neighbourhoods” - was a Summer Lab that occurred between 4th and 9th September 2017 in Braga, Portugal. This Summer Lab was a theoretical-practical laboratory open to 33 international and multidisciplinary participants, and intended to discuss the context and to create socially engaged strategies for the existing problems in three social housing neighbourhoods in Braga.
“Sounds of My Neighbourhood: Soundscapes Workshop” - was a workshop, where sound recorders were provided to the children of Braga´s Social Housing Neighborhoods. It was asked to the young participants to elaborate sound recordings on several geographical points of their neighborhood. This workshop aimed to incite the participants to explore their neighborhood spaces through sound, in order to create among them an awareness about the importance of the sound dimension on the built environment.
“You Tell Me: Women´s Socio-Spatial Stories in Braga's Social Housing Neighbourhoods” - was an activity developed with 9 multigenerational Roma women from the social housing. It started as an informal dialogue with each women, that catalysed not only an understanding of their gender and ethnic position inside/outside the community, but also a mapping of their socio-spatial fluxes/routines through several everyday life scales: the domestic scale; the neighbourhood scale; and the city scale.
