Design as enabler of anticipatory systems: the MakeinProgress case study.

In this paper we investigate the relationship between anticipation and design. Through a case study, we will analyse the role design plays among the anticipation processes in regards of the development of a territory. The functional structure of anticipation is based on a three parts scheme (a normal part; a model of the normal part; a steering device able to steer the normal part according to the outcomes of the model) and the case study will represent the model whereby the possible evolution of the “normal” part is experienced. The aim is to test whether design can enable anticipatory systems by operating as steering device and by supporting its action through processes of prefiguration (pre-see), vision (seeing) and realization (to-do). The case study MakeinProgress (MiP) was born from a opportunity in the territory: the architectural recovery of a former “Filanda”, funded by local authorities with public financing. MiP started as an incubator and then converted by the intervention of design. To convert MIP we applied a action-research approach. In the case of MiP, the local community could be seen as an autopoietic system whereas the tools, belonging to the Service Design and to the Design of Social Innovation, act as steering devices. The paper present the process whereby people were enabled to define new job opportunities out of their passions, to exploit the available space at the best of its potential, making the territory linked to the national and international circuit working on these operations (e.g. Ruhr or Manchestern). MiP is a concrete demonstration of the possible role of design among anticipation mechanisms, thanks to the application of tools belonging to Service Design. MiP also acts as support for the creation of models to be used to support the public system and governments and to support the community.