A Quem Vai is the title of an investigation focused on the ways we treat what grows beyond our control. Within the city, wild green spaces are appropriated through the observation and manipulation of those who live there. They can be understood as a reflection of our behaviours towards the beyond-us: of our care, attention, empathy, but also our unawareness. Beyond the tidy, ornamental urban gardens considered useful in allowing the city to “breathe”, the urban environment contains other points of contact with plants, still dismissed or forgotten: sidewalks where spontaneous vegetation emerges, or vacant lots where rich ecosystems form.

The Plant Finders were created to interrupt the gaze of passersby by visually isolating and magnifying plants from their surroundings, allowing textures, structures and the beings living on them to be perceived more closely and revealing what often passes unnoticed in the everyday urban space. They were produced using acrylic cylinders with Fresnel lenses mounted on top. A Fresnel lens, like a lighthouse lens, uses concentric rings to simulate the curve of a conventional lens while remaining thin and lightweight.

Gustavo Calé is a designer from and based in Lisbon, Portugal. Interested in the free spaces of the city, what grows there, and the kinds of relationships we have with them, he recently graduated with a Master’s degree in Product Design from ESAD.CR, where he developed the project presented here.