How educational processes and social entrepreneurship can support an urban regeneration in Milan.

The goal of this contribution is to illustrate the design and educational process of collaboration between the BSc Interior Design Studio at the School of Design - Politecnico di Milano and the social enterprise maremilano that is orientated towards the urban regeneration of Cascina Torrette di Trenno area (Zone7 of Milan). The Cascina Torrette di Trenno is one of several abandoned Milanese farmhouses – which constitute a distinctive legacy from the city’s strong agricultural identity of the past – that in recent years have been granted to teams of organizations and social enterprises, by the Municipality of Milan, to be developed into new, long-term, public spaces with the support of local governments, foundations and companies. Students have been involved in a series of self-constructing workshops organized by maremilano and ConstructLab organizations, to experiment a site-speci c and integrated design approach in the local urban context. This, as many others, is a design process that activates social practices through the enhancement of new public spaces, where the urban regeneration of neglected areas triggers processes of social inclusion and cultural innovation and contributes to a more general shift towards a new culture of living in contemporary cities. The process is expected, on the one hand, to result in the experimentation of open source experiences to enhance sense-making processes in urban territories, and, on the other, to continue developing inclusive educational strategies within the Politecnico School of Design.