GIVING BACK SPACES TO LOCAL COMMUNITIES. AN ENGAGING DESIGN PROCESS IN A CIRCULAR PERSPECTIVE

How can we participate in building the city of the future - sustainable, circular - starting from the design of its interiors and spaces? The aim of the text is to investigate the role, practices, and tools that design plays in activating regeneration processes of abandoned sites through the engagement of local communities and youth participation. The debate on the contemporary urban condition focuses on the so-called metabolism of the city (Wolman, 1965). Starting from the famous United Nations program, some Italian agencies monitor and evaluate urban data: the report "Urban Agenda for Sustainable Development" (ASVIS and Urb@nit, 2019) aims at a National Strategy for urban regeneration; the recent Domus ISPI index "Urban energy - five dimensions to grasp the future of cities" measures, in particular, the energy resulting from the various forces involved (economic, kinetic, social, attractiveness, and environmental) and observes, among the 10 world cities analyzed, greater differences on attractive and social energy: economic inequalities and social tensions slow the growth of less developed cities. The design of the environment and places acts in this context and promotes recirculating spaces, reinventing their use in a circular economy perspective, and returning them to collective social relations (Camocini, 2016, Pimlott, 2016). The last ISPRA Report “Land consumption, territorial dynamics and ecosystem services", for example, says that the consumption of Italian soil continues to increase incessantly. Many theories and practices of "urban regeneration" and "reuse" have been developed, also through new forms of re-appropriation, open, collaborative and incremental practices and methods (Manzini, 2015, Sanders, E., 2008). The design of the spaces has become the promoter of peculiar approaches, where the engagement of the stakeholders, intended as promoters of their own interest, becomes an engagement of community-holders, or endorses of shared contributions towards common goals. Beyond the theoretical reflections, a research-action on the design of a high school disused space in the periphery of the metropolitan city of Milan is illustrated. The design process involves the active engagement of several significant actors (students, teachers, and managers of the schools, youth associations, sports associations, local companies) in a responsible and competent design process of a space hub for community cohesion. In multidisciplinary research, team design faces the challenge of transmitting skills aimed at transforming potentially interesting visions into well-founded projects capable of lasting over time.