This is part of a study of a neighbourhood named ‘Barrio 20’ and located in the suburb of Buenos Aires, and more specifically on the issue of public spaces. We had to understand the challenges of the new spaces that were going to be created as a result of the opening up of streets, or improved as part of a process of upgrading the neighbourhood.

In order to actively involve the inhabitants, we created a mobile device that could be moved and installed in any corner of the neighbourhood. Composed of three « carritos », this device called « Paso a Paso » made it possible to offer refreshments to the inhabitants in exchange for a time of exchange on the current and future uses of their living spaces. The mobilisation of the Carrito was divided into two phases. During the first phase of participatory mapping, the questions asked focused on the diagnosis of the following issues: lighting, insecurity (general and road), vegetation, pools, meeting places, parties, sports or games. Some questions were also oriented towards the mobility of the inhabitants, asking the citizens about their daily life in the neighbourhood. This exchange with the residents allowed us to collect the most subjective and sensitive information, which is a matter of perception, information that we could not observe, either because it is invisible (conflicts) or because we were limited by the timetables in the neighbourhood for security reasons (party places).
In the second phase, once we started to understand the issues in the neighbourhood, we prepared packages of images for different themes: shade, vegetation, colour, benches, etc. We presented these images to our interlocutors, asking them to identify their favourites and to justify their choices. In addition, we asked them to show us where these proposals could be realised in the space. This was the first step to elaborate the first premises of our proposals.