Urban Devices for the City of Évora

Abstract

First-year students of the Integrated Master in Architecture programme developed proposals on the topic of Follies in the academic year 2022-2023 within the framework of a UoU (University of Universities) international workshop in the Design Studio II unit. The challenge was to conceive temporary spatial structures that allow different perceptions 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 characterises it. This was presented to the students as a challenge 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 superimposes itself on the pleasure and prolonged appreciation of its simplest values.