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BIOTIC CITY | Civic Europe
Environment and sustainability, Social inclusion

BIOTIC CITY

Ecofeminist urban codesign project for renaturalization and social inclusion

Creators

Who is behind this?

Maé Durant

BIOTIC CITY

http://www.pezestudio.org

Spain

Who is joining forces?

AIPC PANDORA

https://aipc-pandora.org/

Spain


AFANDICE

https://afandice.org/

Spain


Fundación Iniciativas Sur

https://iniciativassur.com/

Spain


El Bancal (elbancalagro.org), Equipos Actuación Distrital (plenainclusionmadrid.org/proyectos/equipos-actuacion-distrital/), Red Huertos Comunitarios Madrid (redhuertosurbanosmadrid.wordpress.com)

Idea

Idea pitch

Urban environment is experiencing big changes and should be rethought. The city of the future should -among other musts- reformulate their impact on the planet.
Biotic City is a long-term positive impact project that reformulates the relationship among people and with its natural environment through different means and actions. The main goal of the project is the biotic regeneration of urban space guided through three concepts: ecofeminism, commons and open source.

Where will your project idea take place?

The project take place in empty areas of the city, in peripheral districts of Madrid

What is the specific societal challenge faced by this region?

Spanish old problems persist (coexistence, gender gap), with new socioeconomic & environmental threats (inequality, climate emergency); & a political class crisis, who promoted austerity after real estate bubble crash, & brought about experiences of urban direct citizen participation, demanding space in public decision making.
Madrid has great territorial inequality; low income districts have demographic migrant pressure & poor public infrastructure. When industrial dismantling took place, unemployment rised & working class areas converted themselves into active local changers.
Promoting there urban co-design with multi-level stakeholders & ecofeminist approach is a powerful tool to face together urban challenges, create sustainable solutions & empower citizens to embrace urban commons

Who are you doing it for?

The project is oriented to active communities that want to regenerate biotically (social and ecological) their neighbourhood through an open codesigning process funded by public or private entities and promoting social diversity.
ACTIVE COMMUNITIES and GRASSROOT MOVEMENTS: There are many organized groups in the city that believe in a more organic urban space model, they have clear needs to be achieved, lower their environmental impact and increase their social interaction.
EDUCATIONAL AGENTS: Design academic programs (all ages) are distant of real city design, professionals, youngsters and children need civic programs to engage to every day life issues.
SPECIFIC SOCIAL COLLECTIVES: Codesigning the city must attend minorities to end up with livable urban models

How do you plan to get there?

1.Sounding out social sector (realized): including previous projects which tested real needs & citizenship reply, & evaluating investors involvement
2.Organization design (in process): involving concepts & subjects, strategic plan, communication & fundraising plan, promoting creation of team with vulnerable women, & establishing the NGO
3.Allied network generation (in process): looking for partnerships with Arts & Design Schools, Distrital Actions Teams, Children & Youth Programs, Vulnerable Women Programs, Environmental Foundations, etc
4.Equipment & services: acquiring work materials, contracting technical & financial advisors
5.Media & fundraising campaign: creating a web, developing communication pieces, designing public spaces call & programming, looking for members & investors

What are the expected results?

The aim of the proposal is to develop a complete program from previous Agronautas experiences, to be offered to public & private entities. It is expected to achieve a sufficient number of members, allies & specially investors, having showed them accomplished projects & their impacts in local communities, to be able to carry on the program with them.
The generation of an allied network of organizations, having already worked or which are interested in doing so; is awaited to generate ideas, synergies & proposals which promote the reformulation of city production reducing its environmental impact.
The vulnerable women integrated in the team are supposed, not only to improve their opportunities, but also to spread the voice & tell others to be active in co-producing their city.

How does your idea strengthen active citizenship at a local and community level?

Agronautas reformulates city production to reduce its impact on the planet. This challenge is addressed through innovative practices where citizens are responsible, owners & actors. This project approach contains from its beginning the purpose of enhancing democracy & active citizenship in its implementation places. In fact, the origin of each realized project are community needs & wishes, & resources existing in its context.
An NGO will be created to settle planning & organisation of open, diverse & participatory laboratories to promote establishment of common, resilient & sustainable practices within local communities; and to encourage self-sufficient & active citizens through creation & experimentation spaces, where auto-production of replicable protocols or infrastructures will occur.

Why is this idea important to you?

In 2050 world's population will be eight billion people, more than half will live in cities. Most of them will not have access to basic resources. Creative, open and sustainable development projects for the city proposed as learning spaces linked to topics such as ecology, feminism or circular economy become essential for our human activity.
Public space and its critical transformation are the main focus within the creative processes in the cities, and seen as a relational and resilient activities cluster from different disciplines, to generate a new vision and social relations modes, always more inclusive. For this reason, it is essential that the impact goes as a direct return to the space from which they arose, with a measurable positive impact in various directions.

€ 144000,-

Total budget

€ 48000,-

Funding requested from Civic Europe

Major expenses

1. Sounding out social sector (realized) > 96,000€
2: Organization design (in process) > 16,000€
3: Allied network generation (in process) > 6,000€
4: Equipment & services > 7,500€
5: Media & fundraising campaign > 18,500€

What do you need from the Civic Europe community?

We would like to exchange information and experiences with groups developing inclusive and ecological projects with non-visible collectives led by women

Team

Pezestudio.org

Idea created on May 27, 2020
Last edit on May 27, 2020

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