How can citizens lead the generation of evidence to address air pollution in cities?

We collaborate on the initiative Catalonia - AirAriaAire driven by the Instituto Ramón Llull which was presented as a complementary initiative during the Biennale Architettura 2021 held in Venice at the end of September.

The project, in which a community of experts and entities dedicated to social innovation have collaborated such as  Fab Lab, IAAC, Open Systems - UB, 4Sfera, Ideas for Change and the Università Iuav di Venezia, proposes a revision of the smart cities concept where the use of technologies is not the solution, but a tool to constantly renew society. Highlighting the role of architecture and urban planning, the exhibition aimed to address air pollution and the importance of citizen participation in evidence gathering.

We organized a series of workshops with the public called “VenicAir” alongside FabLab, in which, through a participatory citizen sensing strategy, we identified and designed environmental kits to measure air quality and thus contribute to building more sustainable and healthy cities.