Con[temporary]. Design for social innovation

The theme of the paper fits within the framework of the dismissed urban heritage, seen as an interesting reservoir of social innovation, where we can observe the actions of auto organizations within resilient society using spontaneous and shared approaches. The paper describes the encounter of abandoned areas in cities, creative communities and co-design as an interesting mix to rethink the logic of urban strategies strictly connected with the citizens. In these terms the temporary use of urban voids are seen as the affirmation of ephemeral and open source over authorial and permanent logic for an immediate re-appropriation and new identity of voids. The inquiry of processes within the Italian context draws the attention to the complexity of processes and activists involved in the reuse of urban voids in order to recognize the weaknesses and potentialities of an in-progress phenomenon and to find workspace for design

REAGENTE. A label for social innovation.

The paper presents Reagente, an initiative aimed to investigate the possibility of involving people in co-design processes to create a blueprint for a quality label. It is conceived as a system that recognizes values to bottom-up actions giving new meanings to vacant spaces. Reagente is a strategy to simplify policies, to embed reactivation in our cities and to enhance social innovation. Reagente aims to propose a tool conceived as a brand to test an inclusive and participatory process to define guidelines and labeling requirements for activists in order to communicate their actions and to spread shared values. The city is perceived as an experimental laboratory, where people cooperate to produce social, economic and environmental benefits taking care of urban voids. In this direction, the label certifies the initiatives of active citizens, regulates the activities carried out and becomes a tool risen from below rather than imposed from the top

HARDESIGN VS SOFTDESIGN

Our thought on innovation starts from the dichotomy between the strong and the light design\u2019s components: on the one hand opposed, on the other complementary. Hard is the process based on the consumerist model, Soft is more sustainable. Hard is the dimension of possession, Soft is that of access and sharing. Hard is the top-down process and Soft is the bottom-up process that values social innovation. The project tools are not records to be applied. They must adapt, be customized to the needs expressed by the people who are activating themselves in the structuring of answers. The role of designers today is to face our time challenges, to which the models used in the last century are unable to respond. It is to answer to the world\u2019s change by performing the change in the project

Con Temporaneo.Design per il riuso di spazi abbandonati. Premio per una ricerca sui temi della rigenerazione urbana

Il volume intende inquadrare il riuso temporaneo del patrimonio dismesso, visto come interessante serbatoio d\u2019innovazione sociale, dove osservare pratiche di autorganizzazione della societ\ue0 resiliente che si riappropria dei vuoti urbani, secondo logiche di un design spontaneo e condiviso. Il design legge il fenomeno attraverso la reinterpretazione di performances, eventi, mostre, co-working e momenti aggregativi, come esperienze capaci di sovvertire la percezione dei luoghi ed esplorare un tipo di progettazione bottom-up e di uso flessibile degli spazi. Sono oggetto di analisi le dinamiche relazionali che s\u2019innestano tra i soggetti coinvolti e l\u2019influenza dei diversi rapporti con le istituzioni nello sviluppo dei processi. La lettura degli artefatti materiali e immateriali impiegati diviene codice progettuale che s\u2019implementa in nuovi lessici e significati in continua evoluzione. Nell\u2019elaborazione di questa nuova cultura di progetto viene messo a fuoco il ruolo del design come interprete del cambiamento, capace di riconoscere debolezze e potenzialit\ue0 di un fenomeno in continua evoluzione e di veicolare azioni e strategie, per divenire soggetto catalizzatore di un processo in grado di produrre innovazione e cambiamento sociale, economico ed ambientale