Uploaded on 2016-07-06 by Alejandro Juan Pineda Sánchez

"Based on this, your task for this week is to describe your own idea for a Citizen Design Science project!" In a course of the subject of Projects at my university, we focus on to value the Plaza Seneca in Alicante. This square was the old bus station, but since this service moved to another part of the city, the square was fenced and unused, so that shops began to close around and increased social unrest. Course students decided to meet with residents and businesses to hear their opinions and ideas to improve the situation. We reached an agreement with the goberment council to open the square certain days, and that the neighbors could exhibit there samples of their shops (food shops, accessories, etc.) that would be known to the rest of the city, to attract back users to the area. This first phase of data collection would be similar to a citizen science project in the planning of a concrete plaza. The next phase would be closer to the citizen action orchestrated by architects from data collection and citizen science project. Later, we reached another agreement by which, with ideas and support from neighbors, the council allowed us to use the available furniture in their storage, and with benches, chairs and similar furnishings, conditioning the square. In this way it was possible to attract even more people to the square, which revived shops around and made the council aware of the need to re-put in value. (Picture: the fenced square and the balloons placed there to raise awareness of the need to open the square to revitalize the neighborhood. Picture taken by the partners of the course of Projects III/IV of 2012/2013 in Alicante University)