Within the contemporary urban renaissance, culture and visual arts act as catalysts for change. Art and culture-led approaches, working across disciplines, provide wide social and economic benefits that affect people, places and communities. The proposed design develops a synthesis between the arts, culture, economy and urban vitality by creating a platform for artists. The goal of the project is to connect Pretoria's multicultural richness and strengthen the network of creativity and cultural regeneration. The project is shaped and informed by the living urban surface in which it is set. It is specific to its site and program, rather than the product of a formal and aesthetically driven vision. The building is allowed to transform into a living connective skin that transforms between the fragments of unforeseen future programs, becoming part of the city skin. / Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Architecture / unrestricted

Esta pesquisa visa contribuir para o desenvolvimento do conceito de rede cultural, instância fundamental na promoção de trocas simbólicas e interações indispensáveis aos processos culturais de construção de sentidos. O paradigma norteador deste estudo exploratório é a rede intergeracional, como modalidade da rede cultural, tomada sob perspectiva teórica e metodológica a partir de enfoque histórico-cultural e quanto às possibilidades como dispositivo de reterritorialização das relações entre idosos e jovens. Foi utilizada metodologia colaborativa, modalidade que envolve a atuação direta da pesquisadora nas oficinas com os grupos de idosos que compõem a Estação Memória e com as crianças e jovens que participam do Núcleo Educação Cidadã, do Programa Einstein na Comunidade de Paraisópolis. A fundamentação teórico-metodológica está centrada nas abordagens do conceito das redes, porém ressalta-se o vazio relacionado à conceituação das redes culturais e das redes intergeracionais sob a perspectiva cultural. Nesse sentido, são apresentadas as potencialidades da estrutura das redes em sua dimensão estratégica para colocar em prática ações culturais marcadas pela aproximação entre as diferentes gerações. Propõe-se a apropriação dos recursos tecnológicos e de comunicação, como as ferramentas de redes sociais on-line e os blogs, para estabelecer as conexões rompidas. O estudo conclui que a rede intergeracional, como modalidade da rede cultural, revela-se de fato possível e relevante para estabelecer e sustentar os laços sociais e simbólicos entre as diferentes gerações, além de reforçar a identidade tanto dos sujeitos como dos grupos geracionais. / This research aims to contribute to the development of the cultural network concept, basic instance in the promotion of symbolic exchanges and indispensable interactions to the cultural processes of meaning construction. The paradigm that directed this exploratory study is the network between generations, as a cultural network`s way, taken on theoretical and methodological perspective, from the historical and cultural aspect and the possibilities as a device to repossession of relations between older people and youth. A collaborative research methodology was used that envolves the direct intervention of the researcher in the workshops with groups of elderly who compose the Estação Memória (Station Memory) and groups of children and youth who participates in the Citizen Education Area, from Programa Einstein na Comunicadade de Paraisópolis (Einstein in the Paraisópolis Community Program). The theoretical references is focused on the concept of networks, however, there are gaps related to the cultural networks concept and intergenerational networks in the cultural perspective. Therefore, we present the potential of the networks structure in its strategic dimension to put in practice cultural activities marked by the rapprochement between different generations. Besides concluding the appropriation of the technological and communication resources, like online social networks and blogs, can contribute for the reestablishment of breached social bows. To conclude, the intergenerational networks, as a modality from the cultural network, revels in fact, possible and relevant to establish and support the social and symbolic bows between the different generations, moreover, to reinforcing the identity of both groups of subjects as the generational group.

Les études réalisées sur la politique culturelle extérieure de la France, le soft power, appréhendent, pour l'essentiel, le sujet dans une perspective "d'en haut", en se concentrant sur la politique de l'Etat. L'analyse de la gouvernance de la politique culturelle extérieure de la France par le prisme du terrain, objet de cette recherche, montre que son centre de gravité est constitué par ses acteurs (le "réseau" à l'étranger ainsi que les hommes qui y exercent) plus que par l'administration centrale du ministère des Affaires étrangères. La politique culturelle extérieure est une politique publique dont il convient d'apprécier la substance à partir des initiatives locales au moins autant qu'au travers des discours et normes : elle peut être ainsi considérée comme la mise en scène de l'action culturelle conçue et menée par les agents du réseau culturel à l'étranger. Cette recherche s'est appuyée sur une analyse documentaire maniant à la fois la littérature grise (rapports internes, parlementaires, etc.), la presse écrite, la réalisation d'une enquête originale auprès des postes diplomatiques, ainsi que sur le bilan d'une expérience personnelle. / Studies on French foreign cultural policy, the so-called "soft power", almost always treat the issue from a "top-down" viewpoint focusing on the State policy. The analysis of the governance of French foreign cultural policy through the prism of the field ("bottom-up analysis"), which is the purpose of this research, shows that its center is based on its actors (the "network" abroad and the men who work within it) rather than being formulated by the central Department of the Foreign Office. Foreign cultural policy is a public policy which substance should therefore be valued from local initiatives as well as from speeches and rules: it may then be seen as the setting of cultural activities designed and conducted by the agents of the cultural network abroad. This research is based on a documentary analysis which includes the “grey literature” (internal and parliamentary reports, etc), the press, a specific survey within diplomatic posts and the results of a personal experience.

Esta pesquisa visa contribuir para o desenvolvimento do conceito de rede cultural, instância fundamental na promoção de trocas simbólicas e interações indispensáveis aos processos culturais de construção de sentidos. O paradigma norteador deste estudo exploratório é a rede intergeracional, como modalidade da rede cultural, tomada sob perspectiva teórica e metodológica a partir de enfoque histórico-cultural e quanto às possibilidades como dispositivo de reterritorialização das relações entre idosos e jovens. Foi utilizada metodologia colaborativa, modalidade que envolve a atuação direta da pesquisadora nas oficinas com os grupos de idosos que compõem a Estação Memória e com as crianças e jovens que participam do Núcleo Educação Cidadã, do Programa Einstein na Comunidade de Paraisópolis. A fundamentação teórico-metodológica está centrada nas abordagens do conceito das redes, porém ressalta-se o vazio relacionado à conceituação das redes culturais e das redes intergeracionais sob a perspectiva cultural. Nesse sentido, são apresentadas as potencialidades da estrutura das redes em sua dimensão estratégica para colocar em prática ações culturais marcadas pela aproximação entre as diferentes gerações. Propõe-se a apropriação dos recursos tecnológicos e de comunicação, como as ferramentas de redes sociais on-line e os blogs, para estabelecer as conexões rompidas. O estudo conclui que a rede intergeracional, como modalidade da rede cultural, revela-se de fato possível e relevante para estabelecer e sustentar os laços sociais e simbólicos entre as diferentes gerações, além de reforçar a identidade tanto dos sujeitos como dos grupos geracionais. / This research aims to contribute to the development of the cultural network concept, basic instance in the promotion of symbolic exchanges and indispensable interactions to the cultural processes of meaning construction. The paradigm that directed this exploratory study is the network between generations, as a cultural network`s way, taken on theoretical and methodological perspective, from the historical and cultural aspect and the possibilities as a device to repossession of relations between older people and youth. A collaborative research methodology was used that envolves the direct intervention of the researcher in the workshops with groups of elderly who compose the Estação Memória (Station Memory) and groups of children and youth who participates in the Citizen Education Area, from Programa Einstein na Comunicadade de Paraisópolis (Einstein in the Paraisópolis Community Program). The theoretical references is focused on the concept of networks, however, there are gaps related to the cultural networks concept and intergenerational networks in the cultural perspective. Therefore, we present the potential of the networks structure in its strategic dimension to put in practice cultural activities marked by the rapprochement between different generations. Besides concluding the appropriation of the technological and communication resources, like online social networks and blogs, can contribute for the reestablishment of breached social bows. To conclude, the intergenerational networks, as a modality from the cultural network, revels in fact, possible and relevant to establish and support the social and symbolic bows between the different generations, moreover, to reinforcing the identity of both groups of subjects as the generational group.