The project research team in “Arquitectura Aqui” has been hard at work, performing the tasks foreseen in the initial work plan, addressing occasional obstacles and exploring all the possibilities offered by the premises of the initiative. We have set up a collective work environment, with shared tools, documents and repositories; researched, benchmarked, tendered and commissioned a new online platform, its supporting database and visual, public identity; designed strategies and mechanisms of eliciting community participation in built environment information collection, and engaged in transdisciplinary workshops, hosted by the project, to hone its proposed approaches; devised information- and experience-recording tools; researched the context where the production and use of collective-use facilities in the Iberian peninsula took place, within the proposed time frame 1939-1985 (national and regional development plans; regions’ and municipalities’ geography, demography and culture; local, regional and central administrations; public works funding and execution modes, within broader government policies; social assistance policies and institutions; building regulations, building types, publication discourse); defined criteria for community sample selection (geography, peripherality, income, demography, economy, diversity of collective-use facilities, availability of sources, grassroots movements, participation potential); surveyed available primary and secondary sources; pursued exploratory fieldwork; selected the first batch of 16 sample communities in central and northern Portugal and in Andalusia, Extremadura and Castilla-la-Mancha, Spain (Alijó, Arganil, Bragança, Cáceres, Castelo Branco, Ciudad Real, Covilhã, Écija, Figueiró dos Vinhos, Jerez de la Frontera, Miranda do Douro, Montalegre, Montoro, Olivenza, Penamacor and Pinhel); pursued fieldwork missions disseminating the project premises, connecting with communities, researching local and regional archives and collections, dialoguing and collecting testimonies on building use history; organised local events with community stakeholders; incorporated grassroots contributions; wrote up around 1420 database records (on works, actions, individuals and organisations, bibliography and legislation, files, oral testimonies and photographic surveys), preparing website publication (due January 2024); participated in international conferences and domestic events, prepared paper submissions and published work in multiple forms.
