Polisocial

Through a call for proposals the students identify actions and services to enhance the skills of migrants with university degree through the activation both of the University and the local institutions that deal with welcome services for immigrants.

The teaching proposal works on the Lambrate neighborhood, part of the consolidated city where processes of transformation are underway and where different active citizenship practices enliven the neighborhood and its public spaces. With the support of teachers, local groups and local associations, students observed and investigated this portion of the city paying attention to the issue of public space, conceived as a system of shared spaces that could work as spaces of connection and regeneration, for inhabitants and their social practices, and to improve social and urban quality. in collaboration with laboratorio di Democrazia Partecipata and Made In Lambrate local Network

Mapping San Siro is action-research  project taking place in the public housing neighborhood of San Siro in Milan. It’s a live lab, in which teachers, young researchers, students and practitioners experiment knowledge-sharing between academia and neighborhood, enhancing teaching and research activities through civic engagement. In collaboration with the inhabitants and the associations of San Siro neighbourhood.

The course “building natural” applies the experience developed during the previous editions in low-cost design and recognition of social needs for the construction of a relational space in a particularly difficult environment: the penitentiary world. Strongly oriented towards an atelier activity, the lab involves both students and prisoners in developing architectural design activities. The teaching proposal assumes prison life, and in particular the condition of reclusion, as a field of study to focus the two-way relationship between the configuration of the space and the nature of relationships. For this current academic semester (2014/2015) the teaching activity is focused on the Prison of Opera and students are developing project proposals for the new pavilion of detention.

The proposal is developed in collaboration with the ASP G. Gasparini, a public service company which provides services and manages facilities addressed to vulnerable people (elderly and disabled) and it is currently undergoing a transition to a model of public company more dynamic, attractive and innovative. This step entails a reflection on the need to renew its image towards the territorial community. Starting from this demand, the educational proposal involves students in designing a branding design oriented project that can help to change the perceived of ASP, towards a project of visual communication, moreover oriented to the 3.0 branding.

Ten projects of architecture and urban design for the public housing neighborhoods of San Siro and Giambellino-Lorenteggio. This projects have formed the backbone of an exhibition/competition set up in the cover market of Lorenteggio. An occasion to confront with the associations and the residents of the two neighborhoods around new issues for planning and architecture in contemporary city.

In collaboration with Dynamoscopio Cultural Association

The city of Rho will be strongly affected by the presence of the Expo 2015, that will be located in an area close to the city. In this perspective the students were asked to develop proposals for the implementation of services, events and products that have as main recipients young people living in Rho between 20 and 25 years. The products have to be developed from actions, policies and services which are already ongoing in the territory of Rho, promoted by the Cooperativa LaFucina and the Municipality.

Students were asked to rethink the future of some public and semi-public spaces in the public housing neighborhood San Siro in Milan. Through the tools of urban and interior design, students elaborated a variety of proposals for temporary uses and transformations of community courtyards, squares and public spaces. This work helped to imagine the potential of a new development for those spaces that are currently underused and often characterized by low urban quality. In collaboration with Municipality of Milano – Department of Housing – Office for Neighbourhood Contracts

The teaching proposal promotes a new understanding of fashion design, concerning with its social role. Students have developed different activities: in collaboration with CONAU, reusing of second-hand items for social purpose by focusing the creative process on social issues and sustainability. The second year, in collaboration with ASPEm Italia, they created outfits with high quality design by using a traditional Peruvian spun, sharing skills and knowledge with Peruvian women. In the third year the teaching activity was focused on the relationship between fashion design and the elderly, investigating how fashion design can respond to needs and daily actions of old people.

The proposal deals with the application of an innovative methodology, developed by the IMM staff at the Politecnico di Milano and called Integrated Modification Methodology (IMM), which aims to improve the energy / environmental performance of urban systems interpreted as CAS (Complex Adaptive System). The IMM was applied to the block 39 in New Belgrade district in Belgrade. The project has been developed through a call for thesis and a design workshop developed in collaboration with the University of Belgrade. The activity has allowed to strengthen the relationship between teaching activity and research.

The proposal intends to reinforce the relationship between the Politecnico Bovisa-Campus and the neighborhood in which it is situated. The aim is to increase the opportunities of interaction and exchange between the life inside the campus and the life of the neighborhood, exploring the ways in which this relationship can be fostered. In the field of service design and communication design, students have developed design strategies and tools able to directly involve inhabitants and associations in a process of community building.  In collaboration with the inhabitants and the associations of Bovisa and Dergano neighbourhoods.

Four groups of teachers worked on the redesigning and rethinking of underused spaces in public housing neighborhoods of Milan, dialoguing with the Administration. In collaboration with Municipality of Milano – Department oh Huosing and Department of Social Policies.

The teaching proposal worked upon the construction, through a mapping activity, of a representation of new economic and social realities in the Milan urban context. The aim was to build a critical mapping of new economic realities characterized by an high level of social innovation, showing how these new realities influence also the spatial reorganization in the city. The requirement, that has to do with the need of a more deepen knowledge about these dynamics and phenomenon, came from the Milan Municipality, that was the partner of the work. In collaboration with Municipality of Milano – Department of Labour, Economical Development, University and Reseach

The requirement made by the Municipality of Milan was to open a debate on the re-design of small dwellings and empty spaces located in the housing estate, property of the Municipality of Milan. In agreement with the City Council, it has been identified dwellings and empty spaces situated in different districts of the city which could be the objects of interior design elaborations and proposals. Students have developed interior design solutions at the scale of furniture and they have imagined new features and equipment for these small spaces with the aim of suggesting concrete ideas for the reuse of these spaces.

The proposal intended to work on re-thinking both the meaning and the physical structure of a place dedicated to the elderly, the House-Residence and Daily Care Centre of the City of Vignola. Starting from the need of renovation of the building, ASP “G. Gasparini” (a public company that offers social services), involved students in a process of rethinking of the structure, asking them to compete with an opportunity for the “architectural and urban regeneration” of a place that is normally associated with the end of life. In collaboration with ASP Vignola

The proposal focuses on the public housing neighborhood San Siro, located in the north-west part of Milan. The work helped to analyze some architectural and sustainable aspects of the neighborhood that influence the quality of life of the inhabitants. Students’ have worked looking at the physical elements of public spaces and developing some quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis of the different type of urban spaces. In collaboration with Mapping San Siro action-research project

The activities developed by students in collaboration with teachers were focused on a building of a school located in Via Miramare, destined to become the Community Centre for the 2nd District of Milan. The design work aims to identify all the local resources useful to the development of the project; the second step was to redesign the interior spaces in order to make them suitable to host different uses and initiatives, taking into account the requirements of local associations. In collaboration with Municitpality of Milan – Department of Security and Social Cohesion

Student’s activity was focused on issues of development and cooperation and on the role of scientific and technology research in the energy sector, through a design exercise that approaches contexts, needs and real situations with the aim to provide the cognitive and experiential tools proper of cooperation activity in addressing social challenges and develop a system of tools and values able to generate social innovation and development. In collaboration with COOPI, Ingegneria Senza Frontiere, AVSI, LVIA, VISPE, Caritas Sud Sudan e FMA

Teaching activities have contributed to imagine possible scenarios of transformation for the farmsteads’ heritage. Teachers and students have developed different kinds of design activities: from the analysis and interpretation of urban contexts in which farmsteads are situated, to the design of new services to implement their functionality, to the evaluation of feasibility of reuse and regeneration projects, to the analysis of management processes, to architectural and restoration design. A number of design explorations have been developed, trying to rethink the role that these places could have for the city. In collaboration with Cascine Milano Association

The project focuses on the need to reflect on the impact that the system of Arci youth clubs has in the development of policies and innovative projects for young people. Students and teachers have focused their work on those experiences which generate innovative spaces and services addressed to young people; students handed over a set of explorations and reflections useful to value the role of Arci as social innovator. In collaboration with Arci association

The proposal dealt with the issue of reuse and requalification of public dwellings addressed to specific categories of people, such as people living alone, single men or women with children, young people and the elderly. The goal was to test the ability of the interior design culture to give an innovative response to home issues expressed by new type of users who do not find a suitable offer in the existing context. The choice was to operate through reversible interventions and low cost hypothesis: students imagined innovative solutions for making dwellings more livable and for transforming them in new spaces for services and activities. In collaboration with Municipality of Milan – Housing Department

The teaching proposal has to do with the design of spaces for the temporary welcoming residences for political refugees in the city of Milan. The purpose was to generate ideas, with the proper tools of design, for the design of spaces that can adequately answer to the many vocations in the emergency temporary dwelling. Students proposed six-teen projects for ameliorate the living spaces of political refugees and this ideas and elaborations were presented to the partner of the project and to the municipality of Milan. In collaboratio with Farsi Prossimo Social Cooperative

Accessibility and usability of the living environment (domestic and urban) for people with disabilities and / or the elderly who express the need to freely manage their own private living environment. The aim was to improve the quality of life of vulnerable people, starting from specific requirements: mobility and accessibility of the urban environment; improvement of assistive technologies to allow more freedom in the management of daily life for vulnerable people. In collaboration with Auser Milano e LEDHA Milano