Co-designing the P.A.A.I.: A Pilot Project for Adaptable, Self-managed and Mobile Pavilions

In this chapter, there is a detailed illustration of the PAAI project—the Adaptable, Self-Managed and Mobile Pavilion of campUS—which is designed to respond to the expressed and unexpressed needs of the citizens of the northern area of Milan; this project has been conducted bridging the gap between the requirement for innovative strategies for the re-use of often neglected spaces to restore the area and the necessity of promoting cultural development and social cohesion as means of improving the quality of life of the periphery. People who live in peripheral areas represent those vulnerable sections of society that tend to be ignored rather than included or, simply, listened to. All the many different phases of life of the project are examined here: from the conception and co-planning, in which there has been direct involvement by local students and associations, up to the illustration of the many activities that the pavilion has hosted, provided in the twofold organisational and management component (the “behind the scenes”) and the performance (the enactment open to the city).