Spatial and Service Design meet up at Coltivando Convivial Garden at the Politecnico di Milano

‘Coltivando’ is the convivial garden of Politecnico di Milano, a collaborative project that tackles both Spatial and Product Service Design competences, developed by a team of three postgraduate students, supervised by researchers and teachers of the same fields. This paper will share the process and the tools to design this garden: from the first “design studio based” concept (November 2011), to the final solution deployment (October 2012). Both soft and hard components of the project has been included in the process, considering design for social innovation as a starting point and including Participatory Actions Research as a way to test and prototype the ongoing outputs. We merge the different competences to address questions such as: how the spatial layout was shaped; how the temporary urban solutions could create a scenario to be developed as a long-term project; how we designed the service model; how we approached Community Centered Design to engage the neighborhood and academic staff in co-design activities, in order to open the campus space to the city. It is an example of a multi-disciplinary team who collaborates with civil society representatives to engage various stakeholders and to shape a democratic design process.