The post-industrial legacy in Brazil: where circular economy principles meet collective urban practices by design

ABSTRACT

The design of restorative and regenerative processes in post-industrial territories presents complex and ambiguous challenges that require organisations to account for the intertwined interactions between social, ecological, and technical components shaping experiences of daily life. Devalorized cultural traditions, high levels of soil and air pollution, large numbers of abandoned buildings, and outdated zoning policies are a few examples of complex conditions posing significant barriers to improving the well-being of low-wealth residents of these territories, the organisations that serve them, and the ecosystem within which they exist. In this article, we share the case of an ongoing urban redevelopment process in the 4^th District, Porto Alegre, Brazil. As the core entity carrying out collective urban practices, Vila Flores mobilises and is mobilised by a constellation of local agents through principles of circular economy and social justice. These local agents combined their assets in response to emerging opportunities to strengthen the local circular economy and form flexible networks capable of progressively improving well-being within and outside their geographic boundary. We apply design frameworks to describe how the resulting interventions relied on the mutual circulation of eight different types of resources (human, social, political, cultural, natural, financial, manufactured, and digital) to enable more just, sustainable, and equitable outcomes. Drawing Vila Flores’s activities, we generalised lessons about its organisational structure and core competencies that help restore and regenerate local circular economies in post-industrial territories.

KEYWORDS:

• Circular economy
• post-industrial territories
• design
• collective urban practice
• social justice

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank all Vila Flores staff for generously investing their time and knowledge, and all Vileiros and co-operators for their initiatives, partnerships, and institutional support. The authors also wish to thank all the institutions listed in this piece for their persistency in overcoming high barriers and daily struggles in prom oting culture, local circular economy, and social justice. Finally, the authors would like to thank faculty and students of the Urbani sm Programme of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul for their contributions to Vila Flores and Catherine Wieczorek, Sonia Lala, and Mo Sook Park for their generous support in reviewing this piece.

Disclosure statement

João Felipe Wallig is a cofounder of Vila Flores and co-owner of the building complex.