THE BEST OF CEM 2022
2022 was a year full of new projects, alliances and learning. Here is a summary of our work, our initiatives and our achievements. Let's go for a 2023 full of new goals that allow us to continue building cities collectively!
Launch of the Network of Collaborators and new consultants in Ciudad Emergente
This 2022 we launched our Ciudad Emergente Collaborator Network. A space for everyone who wants to participate in our dynamic of building, measuring and learning. Collaborating with us means being part of the projects where we apply measurement tools, tactical urbanism interventions in public spaces, and community relations. In addition to the possibility of being part of workshops, trainings and workshops that we carry out during the year. Regarding our Network of Consultants, this year new professionals were incorporated who work with us, such as Rocío Venegas, Sociologist; Alexander Scaff, designer; Daniela Aizencang, Graduate in Economics, Malin Larsson, Economist and Political Scientist: Laura Aguirre, lawyer; Julieta Goiri, sociologist, with whom we continue to grow and carry out large projects together.
Your donations became Bikeway!: Donate 1 MT of Emergency Bikeway and Bikeways for the Climate Emergency
This 2022 we built the first cycle path of our project "Donate 1 MT of Emergency Bikeway" in the commune of Renca. The work extends along Caupolicán street from Avenida Santa María to Balmaceda. There are almost 600 linear meters of bicycle infrastructure so that the cyclists of the commune can circulate safely. People who have donated and companies such as Uber Eats, Specialized and Alianzas con la Asociación Chilena de Seguridad, Santiago Adicto and ACA Chile have made this innovative project possible. Now we continue for more cycle paths throughout the country.
Accelerating the Streets for Children with NACTO
We were selected by the Nacto (National Association of City Transportation Officials) "Street for Kids Leadership Accelerator" program to participate in a leadership program in the transformation of streets for children and together with the Municipality of Cerrillos we are developing a project to apply for funds in 2023. Our Project Director Davor Posavac actively participates in this program along with the support of our Tactical Urbanism Coordinator José Manuel Guzmán.
A Neighborhood of Care for Valdivia with ARUP and the Bernard Van Leer Foundation.
In Valdivia we participate in the "Proximity of Care" program of the international consultancy ARUP and the Bernard Van Leer Foundation. We were selected among the three best projects within the first cut of the program.
Led by our Executive Director Javier Vergara and José Manuel Guzmán, Tactical Urbanism Coordinator, we are currently working on final adjustments to the project and carry out a pilot during 2023 to rethink Avenida Argentina in the city of Valdivia focused on promoting projects and policies with an eye in early childhood from 0 to 5 years.
Ciudad Emergente from Scandinavia.
During the first semester of 2022 our Executive Director Javier Vergara Petrescu was active in Denmark and Sweden creating new ties with organizations related to Ciudad Emergente. We had the honor of being hosted in May at the Gehl Studio offices in Copenhagen, and we participated in the ICLD Local Democracy Academy in Visby, Gotland along with dozens of academics and researchers from multiple countries and all continents. This is how we are building new ties to advance initiatives linked to the Sustainable Development Goals.
Jeff Risom joins our Board of Directors!
This 2022 a new director has joined Ciudad Emergente to provide us with his vision and experience. This is Jeff Risom, Director of Innovation at the Gehl offices, a global urban design and research consultancy, prestigious and recognized worldwide for addressing people-centered urban planning. We are very happy to welcome Jeff to our Emerging City board, contributing with a vision of design, city, people and sustainability that are essential for our projects and future.
Collectively Building Cerrillos
Based on an alliance with Inmobiliaria DEISA, we join different actors from civil society, the private world, the municipality and the community under the project "Construyendo Colectivamente Cerrillos", where we carry out training in a first stage for the municipality of Cerrillos through different workshops regarding social cohesion and sustainable neighborhoods, measurements to apply in the commune and then designs of urban tactics. Our Community Manager Andrés Tampe together with the Tactical Urbanism Coordinator José Manuel Guzmán together with the Ciudad Emergente team worked together with the community and the municipal teams began a process of refounding neighborhoods in the Plaza Buzeta sector, inviting the residents of the commune to talk about their neighborhoods, share a meal and get to know each other through the Malón methodology; Subsequently, various activities connected with the Neighborhood Centrality were carried out. The objective of these activities was to pilot a community activation strategy for Plaza Buzeta through the co-design of a programmatic grill and ending with a participatory mural.
INgenia Program: Young agents of change
Through the INgenia program together with the Angloamerican Foundation, we train dozens of young people from the communes of Til Til and Colina to develop their leadership skills, social innovation and change agents. After three fairs based on local sustainability, training and motivation for young people, they participated in the Training Program for Change Agents in Sustainability and Innovation taught by the Pontificia Universidad Católica. The closure was at the Innovation Center of the Catholic University where they shared their ideas, received diplomas and generated networks to continue carrying out their projects and motivations.
We return to Antofagasta! Walkable Bonilla and Cerro Mar Walk with CREO
During this 2022 we returned to Antofagasta, a very important city for Ciudad Emergente since that is where about 10 years ago we began to deploy our first projects together with CREO Antofagasta. This 2022 we were specifically in the Bonilla sector where we activated a space together with the community and transformed a sector of the Los Arenales macro camp. Our Project Leader Daniela Balbontín together with the Ciudad Emergente team held various workshops with the Elmo Funez and Liceo Los Arenales schools, participatory cleaning, street painting and tactical furniture along with activations to retake public space and unite the community. The result is a tactical square where today the residents of Bonilla meet and have managed to overcome the collection of garbage in places where they circulated daily.
Also in Antofagasta on the Paseo de Cerro a Mar in Villas Las Condes we are starting a project to transform the school environment of the Japón and Santiago Amengual Schools. Public Life Studies, a drawing workshop with the children and an Ideas Tree (measuring tool for the Emerging City) have already been carried out to begin planning the new face of this public space together with the community.
We join the Cities Challenge together with WWF and Grupo Patio: We Love Cities and “Muévete al Patio”
With a tactic in Plaza Santa María de Peñalolén, the residents of Lo Hermida participated in a pioneering activity in the commune that consisted of transforming public space to promote nature-based solutions to climate change. The commune was the winner of the global competition "Cities Challenge" of WWF (World Wildlife Fund) and Ciudad Emergente was in charge of the tactic through which the public space around the square was retaken and various activations such as a cooking workshop without food waste, storytelling and the sale of neighborhood businesses.
Also within the same project is another called "Muévete al Patio" which consists of activating Patio Peñalolen, Grupo Patio's Strip Center and attracting the community around sustainable mobility, issues regarding climate change and giving it a sustainable and of community to these spaces where commerce is generally concentrated and the car is a priority.
New public spaces with the “Quiero Mi Barrio San Eugenio” Program
Along with the “I want my neighborhood” program, this year we designed three projects to improve the environment, quality of life, and sense of community for the residents of Barrio San Eugenio in downtown Santiago. Daniela Balbontín Architect and Project Leader has been leading the coordination to transform this neighborhood into a better place for all her neighbors.
Consolidating the Promueve Salamanca and Illapel Programs
Regarding the Promueve Community Initiatives program in Salamanca in 2022, various infrastructure projects could be completed with their respective post-pandemic inaugural milestones. Our Project Director Davor Posavac has been in charge of general coordination in the area. In Illapel the latest infrastructure project is being built.
Recovering school environments in Lo Espejo together with the Automóvil Club de Chile and CONASET
In the commune of Lo Espejo we are working together with the municipality of Lo Espejo, Automóvil Club de Chile and Conaset to improve the school environment of the Hernán Olguín school in that commune. José Manuel Guzmán, Coordinator of Tactical Urbanism leads the Ciudad Emergente team that has already carried out street diagnosis workshops with an entertaining methodology.
We are in the Biobío Region with Impacto Ciudadano and CIDERE
Closing 2022 and entering 2023, we are working together with a great CIDERE team in the Biobío Region, carrying out a study on the involvement and levels of citizen participation in the cities of Concepción, Los Ángeles and Arauco. This research is possible thanks to the support of the Regional Government of Biobío and will allow us to have background information based on a survey of primary data that allows the design of more innovative mechanisms to increase the levels of participation and citizen impact in the Biobío Region.
Learning about Food Landscapes at the Gehl Masterclass in Buenos Aires
This 2022 we begin to delve into new tools and approaches about the food landscapes of cities and how they impact the health of people and the planet. Together with Gehl and Novo Nordisk, we were in Buenos Aires in advance of the C40 Mayors meeting and we took to the streets to test new tools and methodologies that we will be putting into practice this 2023, all together with great partners!
Ciudad Emergente at the World Urban Forum in Poland
As part of the UN Habitat Scroll of Honor Award winners, we were invited to participate in the World Urban Forum in Poland. From the online presentation made by our Executive Director, Javier Vergara Petrescu, we participated in an interesting discussion on Shared Streets for Low Carbon Cities.
Our house is your house: Promoting CoWork CEM
Our Emerging City home-office located in Providencia this 2022 received many new organizations who were looking for a comfortable and pleasant space to work. Our great friends from Fundación Basura and El Plan Producciones joined, with whom we have collaborated on various initiatives, adding professionals and artists from various areas. Thus, we continue to grow as a suitable space to be able to work in peace and comfort, adapting to a hybrid way of working where we combine the remote with the face-to-face.
Ciudad Emergente with Coldplay and Global Citizen
Thanks to our network of alliances, the popular band Coldplay invited us to be part of the 4 days of their concert in Chile at the National Stadium of Chile. Our Communications Coordinator Fernanda Anabalón was leading the coordination to convene collaborators and organize our presence in the place with a Ciudad Emergente stand to tell about our organization, the projects we do and make ourselves known. It was a very enriching experience where we also shared with other organizations.
El Gran Malón makes available a new constitution for Chile: The Great Eleven
Through La Gran Once de Chile, we promoted the informed vote in the plebiscite to exit the proposed Constitution that Chile experienced on September 4, 2022. Fernanda Anabalón, our Communications Coordinator, led the process from Ciudad Emergente working together with a team from UNDP Chile and various civil society organizations to promote information and for this we designed a physical kit with various guides, practical and didactic material so that people could host an eleven in neighborhoods, buildings, passages, to Invite your neighbors to read the proposal, resolve doubts, seek information and vote informed.
Launches were carried out in the north and south to broaden the reach of information and a total of 260 kits were distributed in 23 locations in the country and abroad.
Seeking to influence the new Constitution through the Popular Initiatives of Norma
We started the year by handing out leaflets and flyers so that the popular initiative for a norm so that bicycles, pedestrians and public transport would have priority in the proposal for a New Constitution for Chile. Together with Bicicultura and various organizations for sustainable mobility in Chile, we campaigned to obtain votes through the internet.
CEM on National Car Free Day
This September 29 we participated in the Mobility Expo organized by the Municipality of Santiago, DTPM, Conaset, Ministry of Transport and the Regional Government. With an information stand on our campaign "Donate 1 mt of Emergency Ciclovía" and our Tree of Ideas, we encourage conversation and reflection on sustainable mobility in a parking day-type event.
New Alliances in 2022
This year we joined the Alliance for Climate Action ACA Chile. Our project "Donate 1 MT of Emergency Ciclovía" was selected for its impact and feasibility to combat climate change. The idea is to work together to achieve multisectoral support for our project. We were also part of the Metropolitan Park Civil Society Council, actively participating in the meetings, activities and dissemination of the various instances.
Seminars and collaborations
This year we also participated in various seminars, workshops and conversations such as: "Let's do it world Clean Conference", Barca Guatemala, Fundación Basura Workshop, Local Democracy Academy. Poland Woof , Latitudes, MTT Tactical Urbanism Conversation
Shortcuts and Recipes to revitalize cities
We close the year with our meeting “Shortcuts and Recipes to revitalize cities”. A meeting around ideas, food, conversation and experiences. Dozens of people attended the Ciudad Emergente home-office to share a variety of activities, a tactic around food, conversations and the premiere of our documentary La Mesa Latina. The organization of the meeting was led by our Communications Coordinator Fernanda Anabalón and the whole day ended with a party with DJ Veloz and lots of good vibes.
Ciudad Emergente in the press
This year we have been invited to various radio and television programs to talk about our vision of cities. At U Chile TV we participated in the Tangram program hosted by Paula Molina, focused on conversation and analysis. See the program here.
2022 in figures
More than 3 thousand people trained with our methods of tactics and tools
70 thousand people participated in the transformation of their neighborhoods and cities
13 thousand 300 followers on Instagram
35 thousand people in our digital community.
72 projects developed
30 people actively working in our team
3 countries
2 awards and recognitions
1 vision: Collectively build cities to make them more livable!
Happy New Year to all those who come up with new ideas for the city and welcome to 2023!