Praça jerimum: cultura infantil no espaço público

Abstract

This work aims at bringing architecture and education together when it analyzes urban spaces appropriation by Brazilian poor children a stratum well defined both age-wise and social- wise. The geographic unit of analysis is also very particular: The Jerimum Square in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. The square was conceived under participatory premises, having the architect-researcher as the mediator in the involved processes. Foci of this study are the ways n which the built environment can interfere in the transmission of knowledge, and how the built environment and the leisure time may be appropriated by children and their families. Another focus is on how children in this particular stratum relate to each other and to adults in public spaces. The literature review relies on urban planning, social sciences and human development works particularly children studies in order to understand how subjects attribute meaning to urban public spaces. A review of public policies related to leisure in Belo Horizonte and of the squares construction history, together with participant observations, were used to apprehend the relations among subjects and their environment, in the formers earch for playfulness. Possibilities and limits encountered and enacted by children in their appropriation of the square were finally analyzed: ludic practices mostly playing, gaming, and drawing occupies most of their time and whereabouts. Furthermore, this particular geographic unit defines social behaviors and specific groups, other than those formed at chool or within families: The Jerimum squares children groups.