On September 21st, the School of Architecture, Art and Design will host the opening of the exhibition “REBALANCING STREETs”, as part of the European Mobility Week.

This exhibition marks the conclusion of the STREET research project, which sought to explore methods of street transformation with the aim of understanding their contribution to sustainable, resilient and ecological urban environments. The research consisted of an in-depth study of the processes and projects of streets intervened in 5 Portuguese municipalities, after the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (UN, 2015).

Led by researchers Ivo Oliveira, Daniel Casas-Valle, and Marcela Percú, the project also aimed to identify indicators and develop an evaluation tool to support a systematic approach to street transformation and its commitment to a sustainable future.

Within the context of the main challenges of contemporary society and its negative environmental impact, street transformation can play a strategic role in rebalancing the social, environmental and mobility components and, consequently, the vocation of public space. Simultaneously, a structured vision of adapting streets to a new climatic context and the principles of circularity will allow us to understand how issues related to functionality, durability, and adaptability are integrated.

This exhibition will therefore present an urban diagnostic tool (developed at Lab2PT/UMinho and funded by FCT, and in accordance with the UN’s 2030 Agenda goals for practical solutions for public space), and will reveal the practical results of the sustainable restructuring of 9 national streets, in a comparative analysis (before/after) that demonstrates improvements in quality of life, biodiversity, and pedestrian circulation.

In addition to disseminating this data, the initiative aims to stimulate public and technical debate on the climate resilience of cities and the replicability of these urban design solutions in other territories.

Free admission.