Play/Act: A Place to Be - The Play/Act Placemaking Handbook
In March 2024, I had the privilege of being invited to speak at the Play/Act Placemaking Conference held in Évora, Portugal.
Given the educational and developmental focus of the Play/Act initiative, I chose to present the Living in the City programme, part of Urban Life & Placemaking. This presentation resonated strongly with the conference attendees and generated meaningful discussion.
As one of the project’s tangible outcomes, a Placemaking Handbook was published, to which I had the opportunity to contribute. You can access the handbook here—my contribution appears on pages 79–82:
Download the PLAY/ACT Placemaking Handbook (2024)
Copyright Miguel Machado 2024
About the PLAY/ACT Project
PLAY/ACT is a European initiative co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme. The project is coordinated by the University of Évora (Portugal), and includes partners such as the University of Extremadura and the Ministry of Economy, Science, and Digital Agenda of the Extremadura Regional Government in Spain. Other collaborators include Community Impact (Lisbon), the Creative Industries Consortium of Matera Hub (Italy), and KÉK – Contemporary Architecture Centre (Hungary).
The project’s core ambition is to design and implement an interdisciplinary educational framework in higher education, inspired by the New European Bauhaus movement. It emphasizes co-design, collaborative creation, and the reactivation of public spaces, encouraging students to engage in meaningful urban transformation within their own communities.
Highlights from the Évora Conference
The conference was a platform for exchanging knowledge and practices related to place-based transformation through civic engagement and co-creation. Scholars, urban practitioners, and representatives from NGOs presented diverse approaches to city-making, sharing case studies and methodologies.
Presentations were grouped under four central themes:
Culture
Youth
Societal Challenges
Public Policies
A keynote lecture was delivered by Professor Ali Madanipour (Newcastle University, UK), a leading voice in urban design and planning. His talk examined the opportunities and constraints of temporary urban spaces, structured around three core areas:
The conditions that give rise to temporary spatial practices;
The roles and aspirations of stakeholders involved;
The creative potential of temporary urbanism through inquiry, experimentation, and innovation.
In addition, Leonel Alegre (University of Évora) introduced the PLAY/ACT project, highlighting its vision, methodology, key challenges, and results achieved over the course of the initiative.
Copyright Miguel Machado 2024
Field Visit: Estação Cooperativa, Casa Branca
On March 15, participants visited the rural village of Casa Branca, located in the Alentejo region, to witness community-driven regeneration in action. The visit was hosted by Estação Cooperativa, a grassroots cooperative working to revive the village through collective stewardship of public assets.
With approximately 55 individual members and 10 affiliated collectives, Estação Cooperativa is focused on revitalizing abandoned schools, industrial facilities, and housing stock. In a village confronting rural depopulation and dereliction, these efforts signal a hopeful path forward.
Despite having just 80 residents, Casa Branca presents a compelling case for rural innovation and territorial resilience. Its still-operational railway station, once central to local life, now stands as a symbol of potential renewal.
Prototyping in Évora: Feira da Cadeira
On March 16, the final day of the program, attendees took part in Feira da Cadeira, a celebratory event organized by students from the University of Évora. This one-day festival marked the conclusion of a local urban revitalization project centered around Largo do Chão das Covas, a historic square in the city.
The event had two main aims:
To present and celebrate the outcomes of student-led urban interventions;
To reinvigorate the square as a social and commercial hub.
Feira da Cadeira featured:
A vibrant community market with over 80 vendors;
Workshops, children’s activities, talks, live music, and a DJ set.
The event successfully activated the space, drawing diverse audiences and turning the square into a dynamic gathering place for the day.
