The Background of the P.A.A.I.: A Research Between Spatial Marginality and Social Activation

The PAAI project, the Mobile Self-Administered Adaptable Pavilion designed within the campUS research programme, offers the opportunity of regenerating anonymous fragmented urban areas, which are barely recognised and often excluded from the daily trajectories of the inhabitants; despite its finite time horizon and the uncertainty of the physical means, the attempt at “occupation” which took place was aimed at strengthening new social ties, to recover often neglected parts of the city and to offer opportunities for social interaction in order to reconstruct identities which had been lost or never existed. In this chapter, we explore some of the concepts underlying the theoretical bases for the PAAI project, which has beenchosentoaddressconditionsofmarginality(bothspatialandsocial)inorderto build,eveninthemoreperipheralareas,broadlysharedandwelcomingplaceswhich are recognisable and recognised. The projects promote social regeneration and the re-energisation of the region, connecting the physical living space and the symbolic experiential space; the activities promote the ephemeral and the immaterial as tools ofurbanregeneration;theyareactionswhichdepletethetransitoryimageofthecity but build a lasting fantasy in the memory of the community.