Plaza las Pioneras

In mid-2018, a public call was made for the submission of proposals within the framework of the competition - tender for the execution of the "Las Pioneras" plaza project. It sought to consolidate a new space of coexistence for Montevideo that would promote, through some type of material or symbolic intervention, the recognition and tribute to the contribution that so many pioneers made since the end of the 19th century, so that women could fully exercise their civil and political rights. The selected project proposed to deconstruct the existing building, reconfigure the old structure and generate a platform on which new diagrams, new forms of uses and coexistence were drawn. It was proposed to empty the space to rethink it from a new beginning, where the programmatic vacuum appears as an opportunity to create a new social territory, a new urban landscape and a point of reference to think about the debate around space policies. It is a space that aims to leave room for users to shape it, which moves away from the prefigurations that are held on a public square to open up to other ways of inhabiting the common space.

Inaugurated in March 2020 in Montevideo (Uruguay), the Plaza las Pioneras is a new minimalist public space in tribute to Uruguay’s feminists or “pioneers”.  It is both a city-managed public square and an adjacent building given by the city to an assembly of six feminist collectives to administrate and use for the common good. It is a rare example of an urban feminist space and commons.