THE DESIGN FUTURES PROTOTYPE OF
Barcelona, june the 22th, 2021, by Nuria Cariad
Project Description
We are living in 2030, in any city or town in Catalonia. The citizens get together to start up electrical companies of communal property for each neighbourhood. Those companies are non-for-profit, organised as assemblies and work-groups. The objective is the electric sustainability of all homes and businesses on the neighbourhood, the energetic sovereignty of each area, the fight against the energetic poverty or abuse of the energy corporations, and the councils are guarantors for these objectives to be accomplished. The councils enable some open areas in the neighbourhoods, where there used to be old factories, empty buildings or open fields, also building boundary walls, terraces and roofs, where photovoltaic panels are installed. A guard-manager is assigned to guard them against storms, breakage by hail, …also, in the neighbourhood local social club, they run voluntary education courses for all members about the installation and maintenance of the panels, as a cultural investment. Also, some scientific workshops for the neighbouring schools are offered by the neighbourhood business.
A new web and mobile app gets developed as tools for self-managing the local electricity companies. Firstly, this app measures the decrease of energy use contracted with the traditional energetic distributors, while increases the sustainable use of the neighbourhood’s one, up until reaching the full 100% of the contracted use. Then, the freeing from the national grid is possible and becomes replaced by the neighbourhood’s grid, which does not belong to Endesa, but to the neighbours. As a big surprise, the panels generate an electric surplus and allows for electricity stations for powering electric cars and motorbikes.The stations offer service to everybody, however, the residents have different tariffs and methods of payment, managed through the mobile app. The main focus is to support the local community, above all, nonetheless allowing to help whoever is passing by. Therefore, the mobile app can require a logging to access the best price and payment conditions.
Barcelona, june the 22th, 2021, by Nuria Cariad
Project Naming
Target
The main targets are:
-The users of the web app and mobile app are the neighbours of each neighbourhood, over eighteen and owners of their home or commercial property. They are, at the same time and by default, co-owners of the electrical installation in their neighbourhood. They can decide to meet in assembly or not, to vote or not, to participate more o to participate less. Therefore, the target does not correspond to a way of being or doing, but to the legal capacity of doing and being a property owner at a specific place. People who live in rentals, receive with the rental contract, the right of use in the same conditions as the owners, but not the right of management, participation or co-ownership of the electrical installations of the neighbourhood.
-The Council is not the owner of the electrical installations of the neighbourhoods in its city or town, but it concedes by public mandate, the use of land and spaces to the neighbours. It also takes diligent care of the state of the land, so that is safe for its use and well maintained. Furthermore, the Council certifies every year, that the electrical installations meet a minimum set of safety requirements equally in all the neighbourhoods, and publishes the results in order to guaranty the citizen safety. The Council acts as a guarantor, despite not being a target for this app, therefore the app includes a Council section.
-The private electric stations in the neighbourhood are not connected, as their business is the sale of energetic resources (petrol, gas and electricity), and they can be useful alternative and necessary resources in case of an outage of the local grid. However, a neighbourhood might have a surplus and decide to set a station for cars and motorbikes, that would belong to the cooperative company, in which a mobile app would be very useful.
Concept and Values of the Trademark
The structure of the neighbourhood electric company is a not-for-profit one with the aim of self-sufficiency provision for the people who live and work in the neighbourhood. It does not seek to provide for the people who come and go.
Charities and NGOs have to file a lot of paper work by law, and they also require a lot of people who donate their work for free. Because of these, many initiatives do not progress or are too dependent on very specific people.
In light of this, the Council of Barcelona, started by mandate in 2021 the pilot test named ¨Sovereignty¨ next to other initiatives that they were already developing in relation of the rehabilitation of empty spaces in different neighbourhoods. This program ceded the land and empty buildings to inhabitants of each neighbourhood and registered the property owners in each neighbourhood into a social company. The IBI taxes of one year were collected and invested in the social company as capital introduced in order to instal photovoltaic panels. There was no option for the property owners to be or not to be part of it, because of environmental co-responsibility, however, no further payment was asked by the Council.
The first neighbourhood where the program was tested was Sant Genís dels Agudells, starting with ten solar panels of 10KW each installed in the Mas Soler land, and 5.325 registered owners and beneficiaries. In two years, it was providing the 100% of homes, and they were able to disconnect themselves from the national grid belonging to Endesa. The next step was to apply the same system of action in the neighbourhood of Poble Sec, using the Montjuic land for the electric installation. As it was a much denser area, it took 4 years for 74.648 owners to be able to disconnect from the national grid with a 100% guaranty of the electric supply. This project of Sovereignty has been applied in many neighbourhoods, towns and cities with the philosophy of self-sufficiency, energetic sovereignty, citizens empowerment, ecology, co-responsibility, but above all, to avoid energetic poverty, as many people did suffer in the pandemic times and the abuses of electrical companies, that more and more put pressure on governments and users.
The trademark cannot be tight to one territory in specific, but it should allow personalisation to many neighbourhoods names, each one with their own administration and management. There is no need for a unifying or confederation, further than as a city, as the Council is the unifying base but not the owner. The project Sovereignty is applied by each Council, providing a base for their citizens social enterprise. However, the neighbourhoods electric social company does not need to carry the same name of Sovereignty, as this program may entail the start-up of other future enterprises necessary for the future of the city, which have no relation with the self-provision of electricity. Nonetheless, the concept of the name should have a root that can be brought forward to all the neighbourhoods and councils that follow this initiative, in order to identify the format of this initiative. For example: Tennis Vall d’Heron, Tennis Girona, …
Phases
1. Random words list:
Capicua, electricitat, sostenibilitat, sostenibilitat, sobirania, independència, llibertat, cercle, circulo, gris, cimento, ciment, groc, cadenes, por, cul-de-sac, fred, menjar, autonomia, confiança, respecte, mutu, essencial, vital, company, equitatiu, mesurat, coexistent, cooperatiu, consum, resposta, responsabilitat, cura, cuidado, companyonia, anticorrupció, antilobbies, valent, moviment, cicatriz, cicatriu, estèreo, cultura, búho, dominó, auto–suficiència, apoderament, ecologia, corresponsabilitat, vigilància, moderació, , futur
2. Idea Brainstorm: look for concepts, values, synonyms:
Capicua: cuaicap, capcapcap, cercle, recicla, roda, cura, confiança, coordinació
Electricity: electrífic, electra, enrampar, llamp, llum, rayo, yuyu, vital
Sustainability: eco, recicla, aguantar, eficient, future-proof, ecologia, auto-suficient, moderat, frugal, vigilancia, confiança, equitatiu, mesurat, búho
Sovereignty: nacional, eléctrica, energètica, mandat, responsabilitat, llibertat, apoderament, estéreo, dominó, moviment, essencial, cadena
3. Internet searches: done
4. Name proposal by kind:
- Descriptive: Capicua elèctrica de Montbau, Elèctrica de Vila de Gràcia, Sostenibilitat elèctrica del Carmel, Sobirania elèctrica de Sant Gervasi, Energia de barri de Sant Andreu, Cooperativa Energètica del Gòtic, Llum Eixample est.
- Neologism: Electrífic el Carmel, Electra Sant Gervasi, Rodéctrica de Sants, Cercléctica de Vila de Gràcia, Buolèctrica de les Corts, Liberèctrica de Poble Nou, Frugolític de Pedralbes, Frugolèctrica de Canyelles, Sostetricitat de Sant Andreu, Energibarri de Sant Antoni
- Acronym: CE Montbau (Capicua elecètrica), CE Gòtic (Cooperativa Energètica o eléctrica), SE Carmel (Sostenibilitat elèctrica), SE Sant Gervasi (Soberania elèctrica), EB Sant Andreu (Energia de barri)
- Abstract-onomatopoeic: Llm Sant Andreu, Fuà Gòtic, Ping Vallcarca, Txin Penitents, Tzass Les Corts
- Suggesting: Frugal Energètica Penintents, Moderata Téctica el Carmel
- Evocative: Electricata Canyelles, Energilític Sant Gervasi, Autonolèctrica Vallcarca, Energilítium Carmel, Electricaria les Corts
- Etymological: Taiyo Les Corts (Sun in Japanese), Sunon Montbau (Sun in Esperanto), Elecktro Sant Gervasi (Electricity in Esperanto), Energio el Carmel (Energy in Esperanto), Strigo Sant Andreu (Owl in Esperanto), Efika Canyelles (efficient in Esperanto)
- Personal: 845 Sant genís
- Conceptual: Sol Sant Antoni
- Associative: Cooperativa elèctrica Gòtic
5. Scores table:
Name 1: Elèctrica …
Name 2: Llum …
Name 3: Energibarri …
Name 4: EB … (Energia de barri)
Name 5: Llm …
Name 6: Frugal energètica …
Name 7: Sunon …
Name 8: Sol …
Name 9: Cooperativa elèctrica … (CE)
|
|
Concept |
Euphonic |
Pronunciation |
Simplicity/originality |
Association/evocation |
Domain/OEPM |
Total |
Comments |
|
Name 1 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
Electrica.org |
50 |
taken |
|
Name 2 |
9 |
10 |
10 |
8 |
8 |
Llum.org |
45 |
taken |
|
Name 3 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
3 |
8 |
Energibarri.org |
26 |
available |
|
Name 4 |
10 |
5 |
7 |
5 |
10 |
eb.org |
37 |
taken |
|
Name 5 |
7 |
8 |
6 |
10 |
8 |
Llm.org |
41 |
taken |
|
Name 6 |
8 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
Frugalenergetica.org |
28 |
available |
|
Name 7 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
8 |
10 |
Sunon.org |
48 |
taken |
|
Name 8 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
10 |
8 |
Sol.org |
48 |
taken |
|
Name 9 |
5 |
5 |
7 |
5 |
10 |
Cooperativaelectrica.org |
32 |
available |
I like the etymological concept of Sun, the original source of this energy self-production project in a local environment. In Esperanto, the Sun is called Sunon. This language was meant to be an international language of cohesion. This name also scores very high in everything. The only remaining issue is to find a domain that has sense.
6. Look for an available domain:
https://www.arsys.es/dominios/buscar?dom=
Available domains to consider:
sunon.cat
sunon.barcelona
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