MAG, Marques de Aguiar Arquitectura e Urbanismo

Marques de Aguiar Arquitectura e Urbanismo (MAG) expertise links environment improvement, art creation and cultural mediation through a communitybased involvement in recent years projects and within a long-term inheritance in territorial methodologies into successful projects of territorial transformation. In fact, Mag’s office practice and methodology was launched in the 1960’s by M. Marques de Aguiar, architect and urbanist whose practice of placemaking, participatory processes, and territory transformation through multiple instruments was analysed in international scale events as the Serralves Museum Exhibition in 2018 and the Paris Conference at Gulbenkian in 2019. Within this practice it is important to emphasise the expertise developing concrete solutions with a community involvement in urgent situations (such as in Angra do Heroísmo after the 1980 earthquake) and solutions with a long-term impact such as Espinho 30 years planning. The projects of “Cortiçada” and “Experimenta Paisagem” synthetise Mag’s role in managing knowledge and political strategies through participatory processes in the pilot territory and transforming multiple approaches and contributions into a systematic action – from artworks to curatorship and programming. Following the evidence of this experience, Mag assumes the role of coordinating the curatorship and programming of this project and, moreover, in bringing together knowledge from multiple experts. Mag’s role is to integrate research-based knowledge, project and design expertise, and mediation programs’ know-how into applied actions and giving back this reflection for a broader dissemination. The curatorship of artistic creation has greater expression in WP3, LAB Actions, where MAG, based on its experience of artistic creation in the landscape, will be able to guide the artistic creation of partners and participants. The testing of all strategies in the pilot territory requires the commitment and involvement of municipalities, communities and stakeholders which can be achieved by MAG’s 4-year experience of artistic and community mediation with municipal and institutional partners. An essential step to ensure deeply meaningful community empowerment activities in the pilot territories involved.