San Salvario D.I.T.
Basic information
Project Title
Full project title
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Project Description
The citizens of San Salvario district (Turin) will be engaged in a co-creation process to realize a plan for their neighborhood, making it more sustainable, inclusive, and usable for all (with particular reference to the weakest groups such as minors, elderly, people with cognitive disabilities, people with language gaps).
“Handmade” urban planning is the way to deal with this urban change, shifting the logic of D.I.Y. in a collective key, so giving life to the D.I.T. (do-it-together) approach.
Geographical Scope
Project Region
Urban or rural issues
Physical or other transformations
Which funds
Year
Description of the project
Summary
The citizens and local communities of the San Salvario district, city of Turin, will be engaged -through a co-creation process- in the realization of a plan for their neighborhood, with the goal to make the area more sustainable, inclusive, and usable for all (with particular reference to the weakest groups such as minors, elderly, people with cognitive disabilities, people with language gaps) and developing mitigation action to reduce the environmental impact. The project fits positively into the wider pedestrianization plan of the city, which has already begun a path towards the green transition and will specifically focus on the area between Corso Marconi and the famous Parco del Valentino.
The need/challenge that we identify is to shift the San Salvario district development into a more shared project (thanks to a D.I.T. approach) towards eco-sustainability. Thanks to the expertise of the proposing team (composed of the youngest members of two organizations: ESSERCI social cooperative and SHIFT benefit corporation) the project intend to develop a Shared Map of the neighborhood, as it is and for the future, including these main objects of work:
- the experimentation of an accompanying service with TAXI BIKES (pedal assistance) and MICRO-MOBILITY for people with reduced mobility (using voice-controlled wheelchairs);
- the diffusion in the territory of AAC-WAYFINDING i.e. urban signs integrated with Augmentative Alternative Communication to favor the use of space and opportunities even for people with communication lacs or complex needs;
- the activation of a neighborhood SHARING POINT, a space that offers time-saving services, sharing-object facility, and support collaborative exchange between citizens;
- the co-design and co-production of a PIT STOP point, a prototype of street furniture -even scalable- conceived both as an electric and a social recharging space.
Key objectives for sustainability
The 15-minute city model proposes sustainable planning of urban space based on the concept of proximity, in order to reduce car travel in the city and favor those by bicycle or by foot. Today the challenge is to bring these city-points closer together, re-shaping the need to move, to satisfy individual primary needs. The themes of health protection and that of greenery intersect in new families of “co-design solutions for proximity” i.e. hybrid services (both in an analog and digital environment) capable of promoting social cohesion and responding to the needs of the inhabitants in a concrete and easily accessible way (also from the point of economics).
From the international “Changing the Change” design conference proceedings (Turin, 2008), we read: design-based research must nourish the transition process of society towards sustainability; d. must use visions, ideas, tools, and reflections to enable different actors to collaborate and identify concrete steps towards a more aware and sustainable society. San Salvario district can become a sustainable ecosystem where the reduction of the environmental impact (sharing VS consumption, alternative mobility, collaborative spaces, and services) facilitates and supports the sociality, inclusion, health, and general well-being of the inhabitants.
Reducing consumption, promoting light mobility, supporting sharing and circular economies are actions that have a direct impact on the physical, psychological and relational health of citizens and are decisive drivers in directing a territory to feel more like a Community. Last but not least, in the San Salvario D.I.T. project the green transition concern also means working on imaginaries and mindsets of what is circular, inclusive and sustainable; triggering a process of behavioral change (and challenge) from possible to desirable, on which to graft new solutions in terms of product and services.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
We need new visions of Beauty: beyond mere familiarity, a horizon of novelty, ambiguous and intriguing; capable of triggering a sense of healthy curiosity. We need to practice a Beauty that knows how to adapt to the changes that the future holds for us, without de-empowering it (Fuad-Luke).
The main role of design has always been and continues to be, to give shape: every human artifact, tangible or intangible, refers to an aesthetic that represents visions of Beauty that are collectively approved, verified, and economically viable. Design, especially when practiced with a participatory approach (co-design) or that actively involves all stakeholders (including final users), becomes a political act of democracy. At the root of the concept of design, activism is the philosophical and ethical position that design is at the service of society and, indeed, of democratic participation.
In the San Salvario D.I.T. project, Beauty: is expressed in inclusive and accessible spaces where dialogue between different cultures, disciplines, genders, and ages becomes an opportunity to imagine a better place for everyone; it also means a more inclusive economy, in which wealth is distributed and spaces are more accessible: sustainable solutions that create a dialogue between our built environment and the planet's ecosystems; it means implementing regenerative approaches inspired by natural cycles that reconstitute resources and protect biodiversity, appreciate diversity as an opportunity to learn from each other.
Key objectives for inclusion
In the San Salvario D.I.T. project, we chose a disciplinary approach based on participatory design, which provides for the active involvement of all stakeholders in the design process, to ensure that the result satisfies the need. It is a process in which participants are able to express and share their experiences, to discuss and negotiate their roles and interests, and to bring about positive change together. The specific goals of the design actions are: to improve the well-being of the inhabitants, develop tailor-made community services based on the knowledge of the locals and their needs, and solving with green and circular economy solutions; to support the inhabitants with co-creation sessions and tools so that they can appropriate the places in which they live and stimulate social processes from the bottom up; to enhance existing supply chains and networks, including informal ones; to design new local well-being services, accessible both remotely and in person, combining community work and digital media (e.g. setting up a San Salvario social district, including collaborative services that can be offered on the platform).
On the specific theme of linguistic affordance, we intend to explore how to integrate the AAC signs in all the communication artifacts that will be created for the use of urban systems, in public (roads, rest areas, green spaces) and private (sharing point) places. AAC or Augmentative and Alternative Communication is the term used to describe the set of knowledge, techniques, strategies and technologies that facilitate and increase communication in people who have difficulty using the most common communication channels, especially oral language and writing; today AAC represents an area of clinical practice that seeks to reduce, contain, compensate for the temporary and permanent disability of people who have a serious communication disorder both on the expressive side and on the receptive ones.
Physical or other transformations
Innovative character
In Massive Codesign, Meroni et al. (2018) argued that a crucial question is how to lead groups to practice “joint investigation and imagination” through co-design. It is described as a process in which different people together explore and define a problem and collectively develop and evaluate its solutions.
How could Design discipline, with its experience in facilitating and activating communities, support such participation in the development of future imaginaries?
The role of the designers cannot and must therefore not be solved in a cosmetic and aesthetic intervention, conceived "in the laboratory" and lowered from above, but takes the form of a path of accompanying the community, in which needs and expectations can be deepened; in which perspectives and ideas, fantasies and suggestions are shared in the direction of identifying a common language that will eventually be synthesized and made accessible through recognizable and shared signs really grassrooted in the neighborhood (TOGETHER).
Two crucial aspects make the project decisive, first of all the ability to decode the demands of the community into concrete, relevant and convincing signs and solutions. The other important element is the creativity necessary to synthesize an idea into a solution that combines perceived beauty (BEAUTIFUL) with effectiveness, ergonomics and environmental impact (SUSTAINABLE). According with some of ESRI's recommendations, through the project’s actions we intend - even in the small neighborhood scale - to react to the pandemic crisis to accompany the inhabitants of San Salvario to "re-write their future".
