Project-based communities: lessons learned from collaborative city-making experiences

This article argues that if we want to discuss the contemporary community, we may look at them as being formed by a set of projects that continue to contribute to its ongoing existence in order to remain active. To offer a concrete example of this argument, the article is based on the work done by the authors over several years in the field of Design for Social Innovation, on a research line entitled ‘Design for Collaborative Cities’, forming part of the international network Desis Network and the Polimi Desis Lab. In order to observe the relationship between communities and projects more closely, a particular context is referenced, which can be generalised in terms of similar urban contexts. This is a case of urban regeneration, which also leads to the regeneration of the community that lives there and has realised the power of change not only through associations rooted in the territory but also through informal ‘social street’ groups, a typical Italian phenomenon for getting to know one’s neighbours. The case study refers to a transformation that has occurred in the last few years in Nolo, a semi-peripheral neighbourhood of Milan, Italy.