System-Events Toolbox. Designing a System of Events that Relies on Local Resources to Create Urban Places for Social Cohesion

This chapter is a reflection on the use of public spaces in towns and the development of a system-events toolbox to make them places of social cohesion. It is the result of a 3-year action research developed together with POLIMI DESIS Lab of the Department of Design to develop design solutions to open up the public spaces of the campus to its surrounding neighborhood. The results have been tested in an event format called “il Sabato della Bovisa” held at the “Durando Campus” of the Politecnico di Milano. It presents a series of initiatives to understand, observe, and benefit designed by members of a public university to trigger a process of knowledge exchange between local residents and students in a climate of conviviality.