Designing Spaces and Services: an Experimental Project for Students’ Dorms. Collective Experiences, Connected Lives and Linked Places.

This paper describes an experimental teaching project for a student dormitory building in Milan, Italy; and through this applied project the paper presents possible relationships between spatial (environment and experience design) and service design. A human-centered design process was used, exploring the potential of creativity and design thinking while co- creating with the actual people involved in the project – the dormitory students, staff, and the local community members. The process and the methodology used were very important, especially the co-design activities: the dorm, in fact, was designed by the PSSD students in the studio for the students and with the students of the dorm. The dormitory, as a part, like most university campuses and schools, as a whole, can be considered an urban hub through which synergistic relations take place between the structure of the dorm and the neighbourhood and vice versa. Six interesting scenarios designed by students that explore the sense of community hub and a place of social cohesion are included.