58|CUADERNOS carrying out, since the advent of demo- cracy, in order to improve the quality of life of its residents. In a privileged way we could get to know first hand the social, historical and cultural network of the neighborhood, and incorporate that knowledge into our design process. The designer’s intervention in a public space is somehow a long-term commitment based on a temporal relationship with the environment, and the consequences of their work affect the quality of life of the people to the extent that they reconfigure the characteristics of their everyday habitat. That is why we want to involve the citizen in the design, so we understand that it makes sense the collaborative work. This “pedagogy for action” for inter- vention, reinforces the affections bet- ween the user / inhabitant and lands- cape, it helps to build community and identity, and we, as designers, we can incorporate a deeper understanding of the context and especially, of the people who inhabit it. Because we understand that lighting should accompany people, we like to do this work with people, and wonder with them what their true needs are; those that we can help to meet with our work. April 2013. Jordi Ballesta, co-director, along with Xavier Ferrés and Marià Va- llés, from the Graduate Lighting Design of the Elisava School, contacted us to carry out an IluminAcción, a lighting intervention workshop of a public space which format had been defined the previous year with Paolo and Irene and which is offered as a practical workshop for students of the graduate, a way to perform a actual case study of urban lighting with a guerrilla approach. An iluminAcción is, in this case, a practical experience of lighting design applied to energizing or revitalizing public spaces through the light. A proper treatment of lighting, non-standardized, non- mechanistic / generalist, attentive to the uniqueness of the area and the needs of its inhabitants, is a powerful tool for enhancement of a public space, and this is precisely what our work is about, offe- ring benefits both from the point of view of managers and users as the one of the property, institutional or private. Temporary interventions allow creating spaces of exchange and relationship, which, though fleeting can provide valuable information about the result of the practical implementation of cer- tain concepts of experimental design. Creative freedom is a condition sine qua non for the development of bottom-up design processes, and an action of this type allows us to have that degree of freedom. Looking for the proper space and context for this project we went to Javier Planas, Eme3 festival director, with a comprehensive project: the wor- kshop IluminAcción@Eme3 will consist of the lighting design of the architecture of the Eme3_Plaza, an ephemeral public space which will be the center of civic and cultural activities festival in the courtyard of the industrial area of Fabra i Coats. June 2013. The 8th edition of the In- ternational Architecture Festival Eme3, entitled Topias, utopias becoming real. Facing the dystopia that offers the only possibility for development (or end) of the story the “old regime” of capitalism as we know it (and practice), we will discuss about achievable utopias and utopian realities that today, right now , operate, are happening around us on a daily basis. New models and paradigm shift. This way of working, this approach to lighting design of public space, of the urban environment, from the context, from the people, where the designer is incorporated into the transformation processes as a mediator between the community and its environment, now seems more achievable and closer. It is a methodology that, for us, is in the process of development and research, and we have barely begun to enunciate it, to give it a concrete form. ■ © Alvaro Valdecantos