Open Center: Public Strategies for the Redevelopment of São Paulo's Central Area.

• Grant number: 24/10332-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: June 01, 2025
• End date: May 31, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Architecture and Town Planning - Fundamentals of Architecture and Urbanism
• Principal Investigator: Manoel Antonio Lopes Rodrigues Alves
• Grantee: Priscila Soares Batista
• Host Institution: Instituto de Arquitetura e Urbanismo de São Carlos (IAU). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research project aims to understand the interactions in the Public Spaces of the Open Center Program, implemented in the central area of São Paulo in 2013, with the objective of verifying whether these spaces promoted Otherness. In the context of urban transformations in the 21st century in São Paulo, there is an observable distancing of the elite from public spaces, favoring private environments and limiting diverse social interaction, especially Otherness. The Open Center Program is notable for its experimental approach prior to its definitive implementation, emphasizing public participation. However, it is crucial to investigate whether this goal has been fully achieved and to what extent such a methodology can generate reflections on public spaces and future public policies. Furthermore, the experimental and participatory method used in this policy emerges as an important tool to resist the privatization of public space, proposing a more inclusive and democratic reconfiguration of these spaces. Initially well received by visitors, the program introduced socio-spatial practices that had not previously existed in these locations. A decade after its inception, some public spaces have deteriorated and are closed, while others have been integrated into the daily lives of the population. The research will primarily use exploratory historical research as its method, a qualitative methodological approach, combined with tools such as bibliographic review, document analysis, observation, and semi-structured interviews, with the post-representational cartographic method serving as the main form of representation and analysis of the results. The research hypothesis is that, for public space to fulfill its role in the exercise of democracy, it is essential that it be planned, conceived, and managed in a participatory manner, allowing different publics to experience it in diverse ways and ensuring urban equity. In this context, the importance of refining the role of public spaces as essential sites for the manifestation of public life is reaffirmed, strengthening social interaction, debate, and, above all, Otherness.Keywords: Public Space. Free Space. Open Center Program. Public Sphere. Otherness.