The public space is becoming a place of social innovation in which creative communities act to create new solutions to everyday problems that the economic system and the society are no longer able to give. This course focused on temporary design actions to be done in the outdoor area of the Milan theatre “Atir Ringhiera” known as “La Piana” located close to metro stop M2 Abbiategrasso.
Since “Atir” began to manage the theatre in 2007, a strong dialogue started with the neighborhood, the local associations and the administration in order to activate and to open up the public space of the theatre to the city.
How to make La Piana the point of connection between these two typical Milan peculiarities? How to activate this place through services and actions? How to “put on stage”the citizens stories related to La Piana?
The course explored also the opportunities to enhance the sense of belonging to this place, attracting people and actions within new activities. The surface of La Piana needs technical services (DIY infrastructures), a process of formal identification (installations), in order to host social activities (service design) to be put on stage (storytelling) through a performative act (theatre).
The tools of strategic planning and service design, combined with event management, can create a bridge between La Piana area and the neighborhood by defining a system of events that becomes an incubator for new synergies experiments.
Students were required to work in team to design temporary solutions (service, spaces, toolkits) to be tested (prototyped) in order to support and carry out the existing actions and to develop new “design activist” solutions.
Professor: Davide Fassi
Tutors: Annalinda De Rosa, Martina Mazzarello
Partners:
– POLISOCIAL // The programme of social responsability of the Politecnico di Milano http://www.polimi.it/polisocial
– “HUMAN CITIES – CHALLENGING THE CITY SCALE“, EU funded research programme, www.humancities.eu
