The Municipality of Valongo has an ongoing investment, the House of Local Democracy, an urban intervention in a vacant place, which will complete the integrated reading of the disjointed space, resulting from the overlapping of several interventions in different eras, having remained unordered this fringe of territory.
The House of Local Democracy, in addition to the urban requalification it provides, emerges as a new space for the community, a space for visiting, meeting and debating, in which the intention is to favour the interaction of the citizens and, basically, to consecrate the values that Democracy defends by creating an important urban function for the quality of life of the populations.
Recognising that participation is a vital principle of any democratic society means rethinking how to involve citizens in building a society to which they feel they belong. Democracy is going through challenging times, with citizens distancing themselves from politics and traditional forms of participation. The experience of public services by citizens is very much marked by a distance materialised in the architecture of the public buildings that host them. This project arises in this context. The House of Local Democracy is a disruptive, innovative architectural proposal designed to break with this paradigm and the resulting dynamics.Â
The innovative building is a strategy and vehicle for communicating a transforming vision in which citizens are an active part in the co-creation of solutions. To this end, it places politicians, public services and citizens in permanent cohabitation, a starting point to bring the community and decision centres closer together, to create dynamics with citizens as an active and central part of the processes that influence their daily lives. A multifunctional space prepared to experiment with mechanisms of participative democracy, co-creation and civic participation combined for the benefit of a stronger Democracy.
 The aim is to increase the levels of interest and participation of citizens, strengthen the democratic spirit and achieve a more cohesive community, sustained by practices that are more attractive, regular, consistent and promote greater equity, through initiatives inspired by concepts such as "Collective Imagination", "Utopian City" and "Training for participation", which are intended to alert, promote, train and empower citizens for greater civic participation and thus consolidate the values of democracy.
We seek transfer partners, who are willing to experiment new ways of promoting participation, as a response to a critical challenge, the need to revitalise and consolidate the values of democracy.
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