T.A.D. – Terreiro Activation Device

Arte pública / Design / Projeto cultural / Urbanismo

Terreiro * Activation Device (T.A.D) is a mobile device designed to trigger, through food and music celebrations, the multicultural integration of people in public spaces. As the result of an academic exchange established between the University of Antwerp (Belgium) and the Catholic University of Pernambuco (Unicap), the project was conceived, coordinated and built by professors Diego Inglez de Souza and Lula Marcondes during the design-build workshop at the International Design Workshop (IDW), in February 2019.
From an expanded notion of Terreiro, the workshop proposed to students the invention and construction of a device to activate public spaces. TAD was designed, built and tested through design-build methodologies from AtelierVivo, a design-build collective from Pernambuco.
The device was built in four days, and in the last day of the workshop it went to the streets to test the reaction of the inhabitants. From these reactions, students were able to read tensions and conflicts present in the public space, due to the dynamic interaction proposed by this activator, symbolically connecting different places through music and food as vehicles of a multicultural exchange.
* Flat and wide strip, space or portion of land; small yard located outside a house; terrace or roof; place for the celebration of Afro-Brazilian cults: terreiro de macumba; type of square or square located within a city, town or village.

Coordination of the workshop:
Diego Inglez de Souza and Lula Marcondes (Unicap)
Coordination of the IDW 2019:
Johan de Walsche and Marleen Goethals (University of Antwerp)
Participants:
Emmeline Van Obergen
Milo Van Snick
Yuri Paes
Ivison Guedes
Camila Souza
Pauline Vandewiele
Britt Pellens
Laura Vanhoutte
Marieke De Baere
Rob Uyttersprot
Samuel Grau
Babette Bauwens
Shi Jie Chou
Lucas Antonissen
Esther Noëth