Description

This thesis explores how Participatory Design (PD), when approached through aesthetics, can move beyond Western universalist frameworks and contribute to pluriversal forms of design. Rather than treating aesthetics as a superficial layer, the research understands it as a mode of inquiry operating through symbolic, material, and relational dimensions that deepen participation, challenge extractive dynamics, and strengthen community autonomy.

Grounded in a six-week immersion in the artisan community of Ilha do Ferro, Brazil, known for woodwork and embroidery, the study employed collaborative workshops on mapping, and collective model-making to investigate how symbols, materials, and relations generate situated knowledge and reveal intrinsic design practices.

The findings suggest that aesthetic experience is central to participatory processes, transforming and revealing relations between people, materials, and place, and opening pathways toward more meaningful and decolonial futures.