Urban Devices for the City of Évora

Abstract

First-year students of the Integrated Master’s in Architecture developed proposals on the topic of Follies in the academic year 2022-2023 within the framework of the international workshop UoU (University of Universities) in the Curricular Unit Design Studio II. The challenge was to conceive temporary spatial structures that allow for a different perception of the identifying elements of a specific place, aiming to encourage the creation of new meanings for a transitional urban space—one where individuals do not stay but move, indifferent to what defines and characterizes it. This was how the challenge was presented to the students: to design a temporary urban device for two public spaces in the historic city of Évora where the temporality of the place is captured. The final proposals demonstrate that it is possible to create moments of pause in a device that relates time to the enjoyment of space in a city where the constant movement of its residents and visitors often overlooks the pleasure and prolonged appreciation of its simplest values.