Urban Interventions
In Cabracega Experience Design Studio we did a lot of fun projects, we had an idea and we would dot it, just for the fun of it. So here are a few of them:
SENIORITAS
YEAR: 2010
This intervention was developed within the framework of the EVA project - artistic residences - promoted by the CPAI and the Escolhas Program, a program for young kids in tough neighbourhoods.
As most of those who live or visit Lisbon and most southern European cities will know from experience, there is a population of wide-eyed women who spend their days watching the street outside their windows, actually functioning as an alternative version of CCTV in those neighbourhoods. Thus, within the intervention of the CC Collective - in addition to the intelligent recontextualization of the role that these women play - there is another great visual joke. The signs were secretly placed under the windows of these women is a perfect copy of the ubiquitous visual identity of the Securitas security / CCTV company.
This intervention was published in the book Art of Rebellion III
ATM HOTEL
YEAR: 2009
in 2009 there were about 900 homeless people in the city of Lisbon. In the coldest winters, spending the night in the street means risking hypothermia. Several entities try to reinforce the distribution of warm clothing and hot food and drinks, in an effort that is deemed insufficient. But there are in the city some enclosed spaces that can be used and give some comfort to the homeless in the coldest nights. One of them is the enclosed ATM spaces in the bank agencies. These money-filled spaces are seldom used during the night, they are dormant but continuously heated up, and can constitute almost “luxurious” shelters to these people. That is how the idea came up, of creating the ATM Hotel Gold Card, in order to allow access to the homeless in these ATM spaces inside the agencies.
The main goal of this project is to raise a multiplicity of questions, ranging from the conditions in which the homeless live and their needs, the definition of public-private space and the multifunction of spaces; because the infrastructures exist in permanence and people live in shifts. Project conceived in collaboration with Rita Gonzalez
EMO PONTO
YEAR: 2009
What if it was possible to recycle emotions? This was the premise of our urban intervention where we decided to place the words Anger, Love and Fear in the paper, glass and plastic recycling points in Lisbon, and see what would people do.