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The Ateliê Volante is a program of free drawing courses for children and teenagers in urban plazas, and professional training for young apprentices in graphic arts, recycling and sustainable design.
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PROBLEM
Waste has been a major problem for all the big cities around the world, like Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. The enormous amount of materials discarded every day in these metropolises cause several problems for the population, the public administration, urban equipment and the environment.
Specifically in low-income local communities, as in slums (favelas), where there are no proper – if any – public services of waste collecting, the consequences are terrible, ranging from insalubrity (with the proliferation of flies, worms and rats) to the obstruction of sewage systems and pollution of rivers and seawaters.
Recycling and sustainability, although their unquestionable value as concepts and practices, came to be vague terms, something distant from everyday life of the majority of the population. Even educated and conscious persons who separate recyclable materials from their garbage, mostly have no idea of what happens to them, where do they go, how they are recycled, or even if they are really recycled and not just dumped somewhere else.
Cardboard and paper, although representing the largest volume of recyclable urban waste (considering each piece as well as the sum of them), are usually considered not so problematic as other waste materials as plastic, for example.
That is only partially true. There is no doubt that paper is biodegradable and does not take as much time to disintegrate in nature as plastic or metal. However, thicker cardboard (as used in TVs and furniture boxes) dumped in nature can take years to decompose, according to weather conditions. Until then, they interrupt water and sewage systems, and pollute lagoons, rivers and seawaters. Even decomposed, the high concentration of its pulp in waters turns into a jelly matter that holds the flow through pipes.
It is true that nowadays a considerable part of paper and cardboard waste is collected and sent to be recycled, but the whole chain of its recycling is complex, expensive and produces a significant amount of carbon waste. Since the collection and transportation to the recycling plants, usually made by diesel-powered trucks; through the decomposing process, that consumes great volumes of energy and water, uses toxic chemicals and, consequently, risks the management of the waste; until the transportation to the companies where they will be transformed in to the same boxes they came from.
OPPORTUNITY
The majority of delivery packages running uninterruptedly throughout the world (considerably increased with the Covid-19) are made of single-use cardboard. In a short walk around the city, we can see an uncountable number of discarded boxes piled in the streets. The bigger ones (TV, furniture, machines) are made of thick cardboard and discarded almost intact.
We can also find bunches of hard cardboard tubes (from rolls of fabric, plastic, paper, carpet, wallpaper, leather) discarded around the many specialized shops in the central region of Rio de Janeiro (SAARA).
Another material we see thrown out everywhere are brooms and squeegees with wooden handles still in good condition; as well as plastic bottles, different types of rubber, from sandals, bike tires and air cameras.
SOLUTION
Using the discarded materials briefly described above, the Ateliê Volante created a series of products of sustainable design, ranging from toys, objects and accessories, to furniture, boards and wall cover.
In the recycling process, the materials are not decomposed, consequently reducing to a minimum the need of water and energy. They are prepared and treated with non-toxic products, avoiding any air or water contamination.
Furthermore, the Ateliê Volante, besides its own collection, engages waste pickers and their cooperatives to obtain the materials still in good conditions to reuse in its production.
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PROBLEM (2)
The lack of opportunities for young people from low-income communities, mostly with an incomplete education and no professional training, practically condemn them to the less qualified jobs and positions, temporary and informal activities, or worse (joining the local criminal gangs).
Rarely finding any chance of exploring their own creativity, they have no reason to aim anything else than entering the vicious circle of consumerism, acquiring more goods – generally promoted as measure of personal success – and producing more waste, without any proper notion of the consequences of it.
Unaware of what is involved in the pre-consumption and post-discard of consumer goods (their original raw material, the production procedures and delivery systems, the recycling methods or final destination), consumption and discard become automatic and irresponsible.
OPPORTUNITY
A great number of today’s youngsters are committed with the design of a sustainable future. Young people living in low-income communities are used to improvise solutions with minimum resources, and to work collaboratively. Most of them, with no regular occupation, have free time, the will, and need just an opportunity.
SOLUTION
The purpose of Ateliê Volante is to involve the young people of these communities in the whole process of recycling, promoting the importance of conscious consuming and the values – social, environmental, economical, ethical and aesthetical – of sustainable design and practices.
Taking part in all the stages of production: as collecting, selecting, cleaning and treating the materials; drawing, cutting, printing and finishing the products; creating ads and campaigns; as well as promoting, selling and participating in the profits, these young people will be able to identify and improve their own abilities. Feeling integrated in the production process, they will be motivated to make the program self-sustainable. Moreover, acquiring a new sense of citizenship, each one of them will be an agent for the spread of environmental consciousness.
DESIGN
The sustainable products designed by the Ateliê Volante can be divided in two lines. The first is made of 2D-3D paper items (toys, caps, wallets, pencil boxes, portfolios, pop-up cards, frames), that are cut in kraft paperboard sheets and printed, to be mounted by folding and snapping without glue or adhesive. Besides, reversible, being made of strong kraft paper (200-300g/m²) printed and protected with non-toxic products, they are also recyclable and biodegradable.
The second consists in furniture and other design products (stools, hangers, lamps, boards, racks, tables, cushions, toys) made with cardboard boxes, tubes and other discarded materials (wooden handles, plastic bottles, rubber tires and air cameras). These materials are recycled to make modules (tripods, zigzags, planks and discs), that can be easily connected, disconnected and reconnected in a variety of forms for different functions. So mountable and transformable, the cardboard reinforced with wood structure makes the furniture pieces at the same time lightweight and very resistant (+100Kg). Treated and painted with non-toxic products they are also recyclable and biodegradable.
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COMPLEMENT
The Ateliê Volante also involves a complement – which was actually its original aim: to offer free drawing lessons for children and teenagers, in squares, plazas, gardens, and other public spaces where the young residents of communities and of the formal city pass by every day.
PROBLEMS
Rio de Janeiro is a city were the immense social contrast between the top and the bottom of the economic pyramid is most evident, and a non-declared social apartheid is generally compulsory to children since early ages.
The practice of drawing, instinctive and frequent for infants, tend to be abandoned as the child grow old and the volume of subjects in the student’s curricular grade increases.
The lack of information about the visual language restricts the perception to an unconscious reception mode, susceptible to all sort of messages and propaganda connected with convincing and appealing images, colors and shapes. Especially for children, it functions as a stimulus to consumerism.
OPPORTUNITIES
It is frequent in Rio de Janeiro to find an urban plaza settled near the accesses to communities and slums where these children and teenagers pass by every day.
Along many years taking students of architecture and design courses to draw in some of these public places, I witnessed the interest that drawing arises especially in children and teenagers, no matter the social condition. Since I started offering material and inviting them to join the classes, I felt I should do something more effective with this social potency of drawing.
SOLUTION
The Ateliê Volante was created to engage children and teenagers of different economic conditions in the creative and non-competitive practice of drawing, preventing any form of social segregation.
As a pre-verbal and universal language, drawing is inclusive, a means of self-expression, and helps the youngsters to understand and appropriate the surrounding world, as they grow older.
Improving perception, the practice of drawing is a valuable means to comprehend visual signs and messages; evolving imagination, it helps to elaborate ideas and abstract thinking; and developing graphic techniques, it becomes a resourceful skill for a wide variety of professional areas in the visual oriented world we live in.
Besides the benefits described above, the involvement of the youth in activities on public places also helps to grow their sense of citizenship and responsibility for the environment (urban and natural).
CHALLENGE
Licensed by the municipal administration, when the Ateliê Volante was approved for caption of funding through the Lei Rouanet (a federal law that allows tax deduction of the amount invested in cultural events), it was precisely its main purpose that faced resistance from possible sponsors. One of them – CEO of a big construction company – expressed clearly, that the attempt to integrate rich and poor children in the same activity would not work.
REDESIGN
Following a series of less direct excuses, and assuming that the chase for funding could be an endless effort, the reduction of expenses became mandatory and motivated the creation of alternative equipment for the classes (drawing boards, portfolios, head caps and cushions) made with recycled cardboard and Kraft paper. This process originated a variety of objects made with cardboard and other discarded materials, as well as the Inverse Paper brand, and, later, the Ateliê Volante program.
Redesigned as a complementary cycle for children, teenagers and young apprentices, the program stimulates them to explore the multiple possibilities of drawing, to practice with different aspects of designing a sustainable product, and to experience the co-responsibility of working in a collective and sustainable social business.
Easy to install and to operate, the Ateliê Volante is naturally scalable. It can be expanded and adapted to a wide range of communities in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and other cities with similar problems – always aiming the local autonomy and self-sustainability of the program.
OPERATION
The production process was designed in a sequence of procedures in separate stations, as to optimize the flow through the steps and avoid interference or pollution.
The production can be more or less mechanized with software, printers, stencils or stamps; plotters, cutters, knives or scissors; either with electric as with manual tools, being adaptable to small spaces.
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CHRONOLOGY
The brands and logos were designed and registered in the INPI (National Institute for Industrial Property). The models were designed, developed and tested – along with a research for the treatment of the materials avoiding the use of toxic products. Machines and equipment were acquired. A patent deposit for the construction system of a mounting stool made with cardboard and other discarded materials was published in the INPI magazine.
In 2013, although facing (once again) reservations from the jury concerning the free drawing courses, the Ateliê Volante program, was selected as a finalist of the Social Business Marathon of Sebrae.
The next year (2014), a trial series of three hundred models were made in a production line, with the help of one apprentice, in a period of two weeks. Furthermore, the cargo tricycle was adapted as a stand, and the products were shown and commercialized in art and design events held in Rio de Janeiro, as well in an on-line store, receiving great attention and interest from the public.
Beside its attractive design, one of the advantages of the yellow Ateliê Volante cargo tricycle is that it may be easily adapted to attend multiple purposes. As a portable studio, it supports the drawing classes; as a moveable street stand, serves for the exposition and commerce of the products in different points of the city; and as a stationary stand installed in a shopping center, it can also operate as an express 2D-3D design and printing station.
By the end of year, 2014, as the Ateliê Volante has been a personal initiative, the terminal diseases of my wife and my mother imposed a long pause on the program.
When reenacted, it was selected for the LABIC-2019 (Citizenship Innovation Laboratory), of the School of Communication of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (ECO-UFRJ). Along the year, the Ateliê Volante cooperated with local community initiatives, as the Sagaz project, and the Casa da Dona Amélia, in the Cidade de Deus (City of God).
Furthermore, in 2020, the Ateliê Volante became a credited extension activity of the University, thus counting with the engagement of a group of graduate students of Journalism, Publicity, Radio and TV, Administration, and Design, under my coordination.
With the dissemination of Covid-19, in the beginning of the year, the University suspended any student activity, if not virtual. This, along with the restrictions imposed by the overall situation, affected their ways of collaboration. Throughout the year, we had several virtual meetings, when we discussed new ideas for the program (as workshops in public schools exploring the diverse processes involved in the design of the 2D-3D models); while working remotely, they contributed developing media strategies, marketing plans and business models.
However, and most of all, the will of engagement and the confidence in the program continuously manifest by these graduate students, not only endorse the relevance of the Ateliê Volante program, but also show the compromise of the new generations. Which is an admirable reason to believe that the future choices and actions to be made by them will be more responsible and effective in the fight against social inequality, consumerism, and environmental damage than the ones we have made so far.