H. Knott
F
Berlin, Germany
| Location: | Douala, Cameroon |
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| Category: | Infrastructure & Economic Development |
| Published: | 27 August 2007 |
| Progress: | |
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We want to help young idlers supporting them to become citizens managing public spaces and equipment in the neighbourhood Bali of Douala. Setting up a water supply fountain and rehabilitating green space will generate money for some young persons and also bring to them a new approach of a functioning city.
The project is consisting of a sequence/serial of urban interventions which will be undertaken by young people who live in the quarter Bali:
1. To construct a public fountain in order to have permanent access to drinking water in the quarter for 200 people
2. to refurbish a small garden in order to invite plant breeders to present and sell their flowers
3. to upgrade/improve a small public square as venue for young people to meet outdoors
4. to restore a mural fresco which doual’art presented as a gift to the city of Douala but has been demolished by recuperators of metal. This piece of public art will be protected by the sellers of flowers.
The supervision of all interventions will start by the young people of the quarter Bali themselves. This will be followed up by doual’art and the municipality which remains proprietor of public spaces but will delegate the management of this urban ensemble.
This will be a project of shared management of public spaces where doual’art is taking the place of intermediation.
The idea is to open up a dialogue in particular with youth in order to support them along a path of active, responsible and aware citizenship. Promote a rooted and localised sense of citizenship that would enhance a conscious and proactive attachment to their country and the city. We want to propagate civic responsiveness from the bottom working from people’s desires and aspirations towards their own locality and consequently their broader condition. In this sense, fundamental interlocutors are those who are generally excluded by local social debates.
The project is consisting of a sequence/serial of urban interventions which will be undertaken by young people who live in the quarter Bali:
1. To construct a public fountain in order to have permanent access to drinking water in the quarter for 200 people
2. to refurbish a small garden in order to invite plant breeders to present and sell their flowers
3. to upgrade/improve a small public square as venue for young people to meet outdoors
4. to restore a mural fresco which doual’art presented as a gift to the city of Douala but has been demolished by recuperators of metal. This piece of public art will be protected by the sellers of flowers.
The supervision of all interventions will start by the young people of the quarter Bali themselves. This will be followed up by doual’art and the municipality which remains proprietor of public spaces but will delegate the management of this urban ensemble.
This will be a project of shared management of public spaces where doual’art is taking the place of intermediation.
The idea is to open up a dialogue in particular with youth in order to support them along a path of active, responsible and aware citizenship. Promote a rooted and localised sense of citizenship that would enhance a conscious and proactive attachment to their country and the city. We want to propagate civic responsiveness from the bottom working from people’s desires and aspirations towards their own locality and consequently their broader condition. In this sense, fundamental interlocutors are those who are generally excluded by local social debates.
