AuroraLAB | Regenerating Cities: University inside the Neighbourhoods
“We are all equal under the stars" is the motto to celebrate diversity and the concept of inclusion simultaneously. Six months of workshop, 75 students involved (primary school and degree in urban planning and design of Politecnico), 20 teachers and researchers, and citizens. The final project: tactical urbanism on the pavement outside the Parini School. Our goals: strengthening collaboration between local actors, fostering inclusion and sense of community, collaborative care of public space.
Local
Italy
City of Turin
Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
Yes
ERDF : European Regional Development Fund
Urban Innovative Actions, Call IV, Urban Security
No
Yes
As a representative of an organization, in partnership with other organisations
Name of the organisation(s): Politecnico di Torino - AuroraLAB Type of organisation: University or another research institution First name of representative: Cristiana Last name of representative: Rossignolo Gender: Female Nationality: Italy Function: Head of the action-research laboratory AuroraLAB Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Viali Mattioli 39 Town: Torino Postal code: 10125 Country: Italy Direct Tel:+39 011 090 7473 E-mail:cristiana.rossignolo@polito.it Website:https://www.auroralab.polito.it/
Name of the organisation(s): Parini Primary School Type of organisation: Other public institution First name of representative: Massimo Last name of representative: Cellerino Gender: Male Nationality: Italy Function: Head of the School Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Corso Giulio Cesare 26 Town: Torino Postal code: 10152 Country: Italy Direct Tel:+39 011 852430 E-mail:dirigente@ictorino2.edu.it
AuroraLAB|Regenerating Cities is an initiative resulting from the collaboration between the AuroraLAB research-action laboratory of the Politecnico di Torino and Parini Primary School within the broader 'Grandangolo-ToNite Project' financed by UIA European Funds.
The Parini School is located in a complex neighbourhood of the city of Turin: Aurora. It is one of the poorest neighbourhoods in the city, with significant issues related to education, white flights phenomenon and school drop-outs. Sustainability, beauty and inclusion, deeply interrelated, were at the basis of the co-construction process and the final project of tactical urbanism implemented by the urban planning and design students of the Politecnico together with the School children. The initiative lasted six months (in 2021): four months of workshops (20 Parini students + 15 Politecnico students) and two months of painting intervention on the school's pavement (more than 60 Parini students involved together with the university students). A service-learning methodology was applied to combine the technical knowledge of the Politecnico students with the experiential knowledge of the children in an innovative project of "learning outside the classrooms". Beyond the concrete outcome of the tactical urbanism project, the initiative has, above all, an intangible value: strengthening collaboration between local actors, overcoming urban prejudice, fostering inclusion and sense of community, and the importance of the collaborative care of public space, in building and/or improving social relations, in the direction of mutual learning between young generations.
The project's positive effects also extend beyond the impact on the target group - the school children - and have evidently increased pavement cleanliness. In order to guarantee these results in the long term, the network of social and institutional actors of the project made it possible to initiate shared management of this space with the City of Turin.
sense of belonging
tactical urbanism
service-learning
children
co-construction
Regarding sustainability, the initiative was geared towards increasing children's awareness of responsible citizenship and the joint protection of the public spaces in front of the school. The pavement outside the Parini School is, in fact, a space with a high passage of people whose conduct is not always respectful of this public space used by many different targets, particularly children.
For these reasons, during the operational phase of the workshop, in addition to the tactical urbanism intervention of painting the pavement, the children carried out several sustainability-related activities. Firstly, the periodic cleaning of the pavement in front of the school was the subject of the tactical urbanism intervention with the support of the Politecnico di Torino students and school teachers. Secondly, a leafleting action to explain the objective of the intervention and invite all passers-by to take care of the public space through small actions such as not throwing rubbish on the ground. The local administration, following our inputs, has also placed additional litter bins along the street to encourage the care of this public space further.
All this contributed to the construction of common values related to the respect for environment in the urban public space. The exemplary nature of the initiative was to work on the concept of sustainability, starting with the youngest generations of tomorrow's citizens, who were not only made aware of these issues but were also the vehicle for teaching adults virtuous behaviour to preserve public space.
One of the project's main objectives was to create - through a co-constructed tactical urbanism intervention - a public space that is aesthetically beautiful, enhancing opportunities for meaningful social interactions and collective experiences, reinforcing a sense of belonging. To do this, the imagination and ideas of the school children were collected and reinterpreted by the Politecnico di Torino students. The sky with planets and stars conceived by the children, therefore, became a stylised street and colourful design project with great visual impact thanks to the expertise of the university students of Design. Beauty was interpreted in the project as a lever to strengthen the sense of belonging to an essential garrison of a complex territory such as the Aurora district: the school. It was also a way to provide further recognisability to this space that was once a pavement like any other but is now 'the pavement of the Parini Primary School’ (about 550 sqm). The workshop initiative that led to the tactical urban planning intervention on the Parini School pavement is exemplary, being a trigger to continue to bring 'beauty' to this neighbourhood and its values of significance and care for commons.
Closely linked to the concepts of sustainability and beauty, the initiative also focused on the theme of inclusion in the process, leading up to the project's conception and its operational implementation. Inclusion is indeed a crucial issue for the Aurora neighbourhood and the Parini School, where over 90% of students are foreigners and come from countries around the world (more than 50), that are very different in terms of language and culture. The drawing of the sky and planets coloured with a multitude of different colours and the motto devised by the children - "We are all equal under the stars" - is meant to be a symbol to celebrate diversity and the concept of inclusion at the same time. But the theme of inclusion was not only the subject of the final realisation of the project. Still, it permeated all the workshop phases between university students and children, leading to the proposal's co-construction. In fact, the workshop was designed according to an open and participatory logic so that all the children involved were encouraged to express their needs and desires, thanks to the teachers’ work. The workshop also made it possible to build networks and synergies both between the children who worked in groups to achieve a common goal and between cross-generation of students. It is not to be forgotten that it is on this pavement that mothers, fathers, and grandparents wait for children and have opportunities to socialize. This is an important space that goes far beyond the square meters dedicated to the children's exit.
The main target group of the initiative were children who, following the logic of co-construction, were active participants in the entire process of realising the tactical urbanism project, both in the decision-making and operational phases. Children's engagement not only as helpers but as genuine protagonists of the initiative increased their sense of belonging and attention to the school's premises. We should not forget that the north neighbourhoods of Turin's historic city centre present a younger population than other areas of the city. Despite some language barriers, all the children's families were somehow involved in the project through targeted communications (leaflets put in the children's notebooks and written in different languages, but also banners posted outside the school), as well as through the work of the teachers in class meetings. During the implementation phase of the intervention, residents of Aurora or people simply passing by were also involved in the project by leafleting and talking with the children about the project, leading to an intensification of the perceived sense of community. Interesting, as well, is the contribution of a citizens' committee, which is active in the school for years, maintaining the cleanliness of the walls’ School when vandalism and inappropriate writing occurs. On their side there is a strong request for cross-generational interaction: there is a clear desire for community life, a desire to be together, to be part of something, to do together.
The nature of the initiative was purely bottom-up, following a place-based approach, and aimed at involving the socially innovative capacities of the Aurora neighbourhood and, more specifically, the children of the Parini School. Specifically, the workshop conducted by the students of the Politecnico di Torino, coordinated by AuroraLAB researchers and professors, involved the children of a fourth-grade class of the Parini school (about 20), while in the operational phase, several classes were involved in painting the pavement (about 60 students of the last year). In addition to children, teachers, university students, researchers and professors of the Politecnico di Torino, the project also involved an architect and a local artist from the neighbourhood who supervised the operational phases of the project.
The City of Turin and the local district administration (Circoscrizione) were two other significant project stakeholders, especially for their support concerning bureaucratic issues of intervention in the public space and the safe implementation of the activities. Finally, the winning by AuroraLAB and the other partners of the 'Grandangolo' project in the ToNite-UIA call for tenders made the project possible from the point of view of economic feasibility even if the project is essentially low-cost.
Transdisciplinarity is the added value that characterised the initiative. In fact, the project has seen actors collaborating and bringing together different skills. Project skills - design, urban planning, art, architecture, geography - but also process skills, such as knowledge and management of participatory processes. In addition to the expert knowledge of university students and researchers, there was also the experiential and everyday knowledge of the children who experience their school and the neighbourhood every day. In this sense, this approach goes beyond-disciplinary boundaries and puts together formal and non-formal knowledge to archive the common goal, regaining a sense of belonging to a public space. All these skills were brought together thanks to the direct interaction between the participants in the various phases of the co-construction of the initiative.
The innovative character of the initiative can be seen in several aspects. Firstly, in the content: the initiative has a purely transgenerational character. In particular, with a focus on children, who are rarely involved as active subjects in the transformation of the public space of our cities. The target group of the project were children from the Parini School who were supported in the co-construction of the tactical urbanism intervention on the school pavement by the students of the Politecnico. This led, at different stages, to mutual learning between children and young students.
The project is based on a promising “service-learning methodology”. Research and teaching are often seen as two separate parts of the academic dimension, whereas service-learning allows these two dimensions to be united. Furthermore, it connects teaching with research and action by crossing university-community boundaries and improving academia's teaching and social action.
A further innovative aspect is that the project brings together 'technical knowledge' and 'experiential knowledge' of places, considering both equally important. On the one hand, this allows the construction of effective solutions that are both tailor-made and scalable in the territories; on the other hand, it also establishes relationships of mutual trust between actors. These go beyond the project itself and help to make the social networks of the area cohesive and promote the model of active local communities that take care of their neighbourhoods.
Finally, the implementation is also innovative because of the legacy set by, one year later, the “Patto di collaborazione” (Public Collaboration Agreement for the shared management of urban commons), that is signed between the municipality of Turin, the Parini School, the Politecnico and social stakeholders/actors for the long-term care of this public space.
The initiative lends itself to be scalable easily in other contexts and or with different target groups, concerning both the service-learning process methodology and the concrete tactical urbanism intervention. Both aspects are based on the idea of flexibility and limited economic costs that make the initiative particularly interesting even in contexts of scarce resources. To sum up, the AuroraLAB | Regenerating Cities initiative was essentially bottom-up, low-cost (less than 2000 euros) and tailor-made, and this makes it particularly suitable from the point of view of replicability and transferability.
For the implementation of the intervention, the volunteers/people involved do not need to have any specific qualifications, but the will to do it together, to build solidarity and cooperation. Therefore it is well suited for contexts in which it is intended to involve wide-ranging inhabitants/people.
Other universities engaged in action-research pathways can launch initiatives of this kind by supporting specific groups of people who often have little or no voice in the city's transformation. It is not only children who are a crucial category for the neighbourhoods of tomorrow, but also the elderly, foreign communities, and people with disabilities. Co-constructed tactical urbanism initiatives that intercept the needs and capacities of these or other target groups according to an approach of sharing technical and experiential resources (service-learning) is thus easily reproducible.
Horizontal and informal networks (students, schools, local authorities, citizens) could be replicated to influence the local living environment with a place-based approach.
In terms of methodological aspects, the initiative is based on service-learning, an innovative methodology now much discussed in the academic literature from a transdisciplinary perspective. Service-learning is a mutual sharing of skills by all involved and is useful in bringing together the technical knowledge of universities and local administrative apparatuses with the experiential knowledge of those living in the neighbourhoods. In addition to the mutual pooling of knowledge, service learning has a crucial learning component. Again, this is an innovative approach focusing on education outside the classroom. In the initiative promoted by AuroraLAB | Regenerating Cities, this teaching method was necessary for the children of the Parini School and the university students. The formers were inspired by university students and the latter were instead engaged in a real-life case study.
As for the approach, the entire process was permeated by the concept of co-production, defined as a way of doing things that considers all the actors involved as equal contributors towards the same goal. Co-production recognises people as assets and the importance of initiating processes that start from the needs and capacities of citizens or specific groups, as in the case of the project, those of children. Like service-learning, co-production is also based on a mutual and reciprocal partnership.
The intangible outcomes of the tactical urbanism intervention promoted in the AuroraLAB | Regenerating Cities project help address some global issues. The sense of the project goes far beyond the aesthetic improvement of the pavement in front of the Parini School. The significant and lengthy process of co-construction behind this operation is crucial. In fact, through this initiative, the issue of quality education, which is not only linked to what is learnt from books but also to what is acquired from the local neighbourhoods being active citizens, has been addressed. Similarly, the children of the Parini School were confronted with the importance of expressing their opinions in decision-making. And finally, the project addressed the issue of inclusion inside and outside school.
The transformation of places – the public spaces in front of the Parini School – become a way to work on the shift of citizens' mindset, of the way of thinking that is behind their actions: awareness-raising activities at the local level, training new generations on issues related to proximity and circular economy, new educational tools for a sustainable future, social justice and just transition. Children and young people are the drivers of European cities' current and future growth.
The co-construction workshop and the tactical urbanism intervention along the pavement in front of the Parini School are completed. The project is currently in its management and implementation phase. Some results and benefits of the initiative are detectable and the emergence of some innovative strategies for maintaining the project is emerging.
As far as results and benefits are concerned, these have impacted the project's direct beneficiaries, namely the children, who are more aware of the importance of public space care and beauty, and about concepts such as sustainability and inclusion. Moreover, the ex-post monitoring of the pavement revealed greater cleanliness and maintenance of this space. The beauty of the colourful pavement thus acts as a deterrent to littering this space.
Lastly, as already mentioned, the initiative was essential in its intangible dimension of building relations between the social actors in the area and between them and local institutions. In this sense, a significant result achieved by the signing of a "Patto di Collaborazione" ("Public Collaboration Agreement”) between the municipality of Turin, the Parini School, the Politecnico di Torino and social players of the area for the long-term care of this public space. Collaboration pacts are a tool foreseen by the Turin municipality for the care and management of the commons that are increasingly used. That the Parini School and the pavement that is the subject of the tactical urban planning initiative has become the object of a “Patto di Collaborazione” is significant of the sense of community that has been generated around this space.
Today, the university has assumed new roles and awareness as an urban actor engaged in dealing with increasingly severe and complex social and sustainable transition demands'. The 'engaged university' has become crucial in neighbourhoods, promoting low-cost and tailor-made actions to address local issues. In line with the NEB, the Politecnico and the Parini Primary School promote an approach where sustainability is embedded in all activities. The Politecnico has been most effective with tailor-made and low-cost actions working in synergy with the Parini primary school. Children, teachers, university students, researchers, and citizens - through intergenerational experiences of knowledge co-construction, cultural promotion and educational practices implemented according to mutual-learning methods - have given an essential impetus to the development of local ecosystems of social innovation. Educating and empowering children and young people in a participatory way to understand, experience and embrace sustainability and inclusion are creating strong connections to nature for future generations, with specific and dedicated actions on the pavements with the common objective of ‘re-naturing’ the city. The themes chosen by the students during the workshop for the tactical urbanism intervention also focus on nature (nature with the trees and leaves of the different seasons and the universe with its planets). This shows the fundamental need to reconnect and rebuild a relationship with nature through an eco-centric approach.
