On temporary uses and communities: the T-factor project in Trafaria
Margarida Brito Alves

For the 1st STATION of CIRCUL´ARTS COST ACTION, I propose to present and discuss T-FACTOR – Participatory Futures, an international project I contributed to as a researcher and curator, focusing on Trafaria (Lisbon) as case study. Funded by the European Union´s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme and developed between June 2020 and May 2024, T-FACTOR explored the transformative potential of temporary uses in urban regeneration. The project brought together 26 partners – including municipalities, universities, local stakeholders and grassroots communities – focusing on creative collaborations and public engagement to foster social innovation, sustainability and inclusion. T-FACTOR operated across diverse contexts, with insights from eight “Advanced Cases” – located in London, New York, Dortmund, Lodz, Shanghai, Marseille, Barcelona and Florence – and six emergent cases – the “Local Pilots”, located in Bilbao, Amsterdam, Kaunas, Milan, London and Lisbon. In Lisbon, the pilot site was Trafaria – an old village on the south bank of the Tagus River, historically shaped by fishing and the local community´s deep connection to water. The project focused on revitalizing a 16th-century building – once a quarantine facility, then a defensive fort, and later a prison – into an educational hub of arts and technology. In the scope of T-FACTOR project, local initiatives engaged heritage and communities, activating Trafaria´s layered identities to inspire renewal. Drawing from that experience, this presentation will address some of the initiatives that forged connections between communities and generations and that, although temporary, contributed to strengthen a sense of belonging and to affirm the area´s potential for future regeneration.