The final event of the Communicity project took place in Porto on 2 July and was attended by Rita Mendonça from BUILT CoLAB.
This event, organised by Porto Digital at the Porto Innovation Hub, aimed to highlight the project’s main results, lessons learnt and innovative solutions to the urban challenges facing cities. It was attended by project partners, city representatives, policymakers, researchers and innovators.
Rita Mendonça took part in the panel discussion ‘CommuniCity Building More Inclusive Cities’, which discussed the four pilots that BUILT CoLAB has developed as part of the project, and, together with João Moutinho and Vanessa Tavares, also from BUILT CoLAB, also gave demonstrations of the final work achieved.
CommuniCity is a transformative project funded by the European Union and centred on citizens. It sought to develop innovative technological solutions to respond to urban, digital and social challenges, involving vulnerable communities. A significant part of its budget was allocated to cascade funding and, at three different points in time, different cities identified challenges that were transformed into competitions for different pilots.
BUILT CoLAB took part in four pilots, responding to different challenges set by the cities of Porto and Matosinhos:
- The Minus-E Pilot responded to the challenge launched by the Porto Energy Agency ‘How to empower users of Social Neighbourhoods to monitor their energy consumption?’. A platform was developed following a co-creation model, designed to help residents of the Agra do Amial Social Housing Estate monitor and manage their energy consumption, maximising the use of renewable energy produced in the existing Energy Community, reducing costs and promoting energy efficiency. See full information here.
- The Green Lessons Pilot responded to the challenge ‘How to promote environmental education in marginalised communities?’ launched by the Matosinhos City Council, with the aim of educating the school community in that municipality about sustainable practices within the scope of the Circular Household Economy. See full information here.
- The CoolScape Pilot responded to the challenge ‘How to monitor and improve thermal behaviour and resilience?’ launched by Porto City Council with the aim of integrating sensor technology and citizen participation to support the co-design of the future Quinta de Salgueiros urban park, with a focus on improving thermal comfort and including the surrounding communities. See full information here.
- The D-Power Pilot responded to the challenge ‘How to increase digital literacy?’ launched by Porto Digital, to improve digital literacy in vulnerable communities by creating immersive and accessible content to support the learning process of essential digital tasks. See full information here.
With this participation, BUILT CoLAB continues its mission to promote a more sustainable and digital built environment.
