Design Studio III
The journey in Design Studio has become a process of grounding, shifting from speculative explorations to real-life connections, from abstract reflection to tangible, collective actions. As I revisit the alternative presents shaped across the last terms, I see a gradual but meaningful transition: from questioning digital systems and social biases to embedding myself in a specific context where design can act more intimately and socially.
In the first term, my exploration was broad and digital. I looked at how technology shapes urban inclusion, and I investigated algorithmic biases, social media echo chambers, and how recommendation systems can reinforce exclusion rather than connection. At that stage, I was working intuitively and conceptually, sensing problems without a precise space of intervention.
By the second term, my path began to shift. Through walking interviews, participatory observations, and grassroots encounters in the neighborhood of La Florida, I realized that the most meaningful forms of inclusion happen not in digital spaces, but through physical acts of care, making, and proximity.
The community garden managed by Contorno Urbano became a living site of research: a place where integration wasn’t a policy, but a practice, one embedded in building, planting, fixing, and sharing.
My interventions evolved from theory to touch. Through this embodied engagement, my understanding of ethnocognition deepened, recognizing how people carry cultural knowledge through doing, through hands, tools, and small rituals. This wasn’t design as problem-solving, but design as listening and staying present.
Now, entering the third term, I move forward with clarity. My final intervention embraces a logic of grassroots co-making: creating artifacts that emerge from collective need and context. The focus is no longer on presenting “solutions” but on building long-term trust, shared agency, and participatory capacity.
This moment is not only about designing a thing, but It’s about shifting how people feel about their place, their skills, and their right to shape the spaces they inhabit. The path I walk now is guided by respect, not expertise, because design, for me, is no longer a discipline of invention, but one of connection, recognition, and shared futures.
In neighborhoods like La Florida, many people carry valuable knowledge, skills, and cultural practices. Yet their potential to contribute to shared spaces often remains unseen. Local collective efforts take place quietly, without institutional support or public recognition. These grassroots actions lack visibility and are rarely acknowledged as part of urban transformation. Our role as designers is not to lead, but to help surface, support, and communicate these existing capacities.
Imagine a present where community-led making is not only visible, but celebrated as a form of urban knowledge. In places like La Florida, non-profit organizations and residents already engage in collective activities, and these initiatives generate inclusion, agency, and practical value. Designers can play a key role by participating in these daily life ongoing processes, not by imposing visions, but by enhancing social impact, contributing directly to more equitable and regenerative urban futures.
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