New European Bauhaus Prizes 2023

Concept category

Identify the award category for which this concept is being submitted
Prioritising the places and people that need it the most

Email user
annalisa.n.foresti@gmail.com

Basic information
Concept title
PURIFICANTEUM

Full Concept Title
PURIFICANTEUM - DIGESTING THE CITY

Please provide a short, catchy description of your concept to be used in communication towards the public
Located in the sewers system of Milan, Purificanteum is a purification system based on bio-digestors and bacteria. The experience is both physical and metaphorical. It is a journey of recovery, a redemption for the city through its waste. The water has a central role, it is at the same time the media and the actor of purification.

What was the geographical scope of your concept?
Local

Where was your concept implemented?
Member State(s) and Western Balkans
Italy

If relevant, insert names of region(s)/municipality(ies) involved
Milan

Does your concept address mainly urban or rural issues?
Mainly urban

Does your concept refer to a physical transformation of the built environment or other types of transformations (hard or soft investments)?
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)

Has your concept benefited from EU programmes and/or funds?
No

Has your concept won an EU prize with a monetary value awarded?
No

On whose behalf are you submitting the application?
As an individual in partnership with other persons
Please provide the contact details for the author(s) of the concept:
- First name: Annalisa
  Last name: Foresti
  Gender: Female
  Age: 26
  Please attach a copy of your national ID/residence card:
  Merged_document.jpg
  
  By ticking this box, I certify that the information regarding my age is factually correct. : Yes
  Nationality: Italy
  Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: via dei Tessitori, 4
  Town: Legnano
  Postal code: 20025
  Country: Italy
  Direct Tel: +39 340 094 9356
  E-mail: annalisa.n.foresti@gmail.com
Social Media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.)
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In case my concept is selected as a finalist of the NEB Prizes 2023, I agree to share the name (individual and/or organisation’s), email address, website and social media accounts indicated above with other NEB Prizes finalists. I also agree to publish the name (individual and/or organisation’s), website and social media accounts indicated above next to the public description of my concept in the channels of the European Commission
Yes

How did you hear about the New European Bauhaus Prizes?
New European Bauhaus or European Commission websites

Description of the concept
Please provide a summary of your concept.
Purificanteum is a time related process of purification.
It is an organ for the city that digests the waste of its inhabitants.
It is an out-of-time experience.
Entering the hidden underworld of sewers, that represent a parallel city underneath the surface, the person gets sucked in an alien looking space, where time is suspended, it is impossible to understand if a hundred thousand years in the future or a hundred thousand years in the past. Subsequently they dive in the underground, the person’s first approach with the space is by the vision of the vast system of sewers and by the feeling that wasting this amount of water is basically a crime against the planet. The huge dimensions of this system is perceivable, it gets in your bones.
Getting inside, the general impression is that darkness seems everywhere, the only hearing sound is the flowing water under the feet and the smell of air trapped underground for centuries. Darkness is defeated by weirdly looking fluorescent waters, a buzzing sound is added to the water flow, it comes from weirdly looking elements that seems grown in the space, not built, connect the water bed with the ceiling of the tunnel. The light guides the person further and further inside the canal. Time seems flowing slower, or even backwards.
You can feel the tension of the sins of the city pushing on the walls that get closer and closer as a defence.
It starts to rain in this impossible space. everything is forgiven. the person sees that following some given paths they will not get excessively wet. The next space is filled with fog and light, it’s a bubble inside the water world. the element in the center deflect the light creating a shimmering vision. this is the contemplation room. the purified water invests everything and is everywhere, also inside the the person’s lungs.
The organs cleaned the water and the city is digested. Everything is forgiven.

Please indicate the main themes of your concept with 5 key words.
Time

Please indicate the main themes of your concept with key words
Purification

Please indicate the main themes of your concept with key words
Contemplation

Please indicate the main themes of your concept with key words
Journey

Please indicate the main themes of your concept with key words
Wastewater

Please give information about the key objectives of your concept in terms of sustainability and how these have been met. Please highlight how the concept can be exemplary in this context.
The water shortage and the waste of this primary resource is a major issue in modern cities and societies.
With out concept, we aim to provide a sustainable way to regain this resource and provide it to the city.
The purification system is based on technologies that have already been used as bio digestors are already a reality. By pushing this technology to its true potential, we conceptualized a space that could effect people's effort in preserving this primary resource and at the same time provide clean water to the city by cleaning what has been wasted and polluted.

Please give information about the key objectives of your concept in terms of aesthetics and quality of experience for people (through design, positive emotions and cultural benefits) and how these have been met. Please highlight how the concept can be exemplary in this context.
In a city where being an over achiever is taken for granted and mental health is not always a priority, out concept prioritize people by giving them a space to contemplate and to meditate. The space has been thought from the very beginning to be an experience for people to finally being able to take a moment for themselves and be captured by the surrounding. The overall aesthetic is willingly magical and sci-fi to give the impression of an impossible space out of time and space.

Please give information about the key objectives of your concept in terms of inclusion (ranging from accessibility and affordability for all to inclusive governing systems, design for all principles or new societal models) and how these have been met. Please highlight how the concept can be exemplary in this context.
Inclusion and accessibility is a major point in Purificanteum.
The whole concept is based on the idea of giving people an experience by using technologies.
Purificanteum borns with the aim of giving people a moment with themselves, whomever they might be. It is a place of peace and acceptance.

Please explain the way citizens benefiting from or affected by the concept and civil society have been / will be involved in the concept and what has been / will be the impact of this involvement on the concept.
Citizens of Milan would benefit from our concept on many levels.
There is not a hierarchy between the two mayor layers on our concept, which are: providing the city clean water by cleaning polluted water and giving citizens a space for meditation.

Please explain how different stakeholders at various levels (local, regional, national, European) were engaged in the design and development of the concept. Please highlight what the added value of their engagement was
Citizens and Milan's municipality play the two main roles on out concept as the firsts are the true objectives of our project and Milan's municipality owns the spaces that we used in our concept. By getting the two in contact, we were able to conceptualized our project and do something significant for the people.

Please explain which disciplines and / or knowledge fields were reflected in the design and development of your concept. Please explain how representatives of these different fields interacted with each other, and what the added value of this process was
Our concept is highly technological and the study of the ingeneering of purification systems for sewers and of the biology behind bio-luminescence were at the basis of our concept. We studied how different micro-organisms live and interact with each other and how one cold benefit the other, in order to create an ecosystem that could work in our environment. The research that anticipate our design process, made the outcome possible. The papers that we studied based on the works of professionals in the field, though us how to overcome the issues and explore the possibilities.

Please explain the innovative character of your concept when compared to mainstream actions in the field of the concept.
Purificanteum is an innovative concept down to its core as there have never been anything like it. The will to combine a bio purification system with bio luminescent bacteria to provide a space with the double purpose of providing clean water and an experience of personal purification, have never been explored before.

Please which elements of your concept could be replicated or transferred to other places, groups of beneficiaries and contexts. This may involve, for example, aspects of the methodology, technology, processes, products, learnings, etc.
The technologies, processes and methodology of approach could be replicated in any other place in the world where there are water shortage and water waste. This means any place where there is intense human presence. Virtually, the whole world.

Please explain what kind of global challenges the concept addresses by providing local solutions
Water pollution, water waste, mental health issues, stressful environment, water shortage. Those are all very global and very real issues in our modern society. If every city would have a system like Purificanteum, those issues could be challenged and, eventually we hope, defeated.

Please attach the development plan of your concept. This plan should detail the plans you have for the further development and implementation of your concept, with a particular attention to the steps envisaged in the year following the application. The plan should also include envisaged results and benefits from the concept for direct and indirect beneficiaries. The results and benefits should be specified in relation to the objectives of the concept, and to what is expected in the context of the respective category

PURIFICANTEUM.pdf
Please attach at least one high resolution image or visual representation of your concept to your application.
If you would like to upload additional documentation, please upload or write below
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By submitting your application you confirm that you are the copyright owner of the images provided and that they can be used by the European Commission for the purposes of promoting the New European Bauhaus on all platforms (websites, print, social media and other).
Yes

By ticking this box, you declare that you are not in in one or more of the exclusion situations foreseen under Article 136 of the Financial Regulation.
Yes

By submitting this application, I declare that I am not related to the entities subject to EU restricted measures under Article 29 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU) and subject to Article 215 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU)1, and entities covered by Commission Guidelines No 2013/C 205/05), which are not eligible to participate in any capacity.
Yes

By ticking this box, you declare that all the information provided in this form is factually correct, that you assume sole liability in the event of a claim relating to the activities carried out in the framework of the contest, that the proposed concept has not been proposed for the New European Bauhaus Prizes in any other category or strand and that it has not been subject to any type of investigation, which could lead to a financial correction because of irregularities or fraud.
Yes

By submitting your application, you guarantee that you are the author or have the rights to proceed with the application and to authorise the use of the concept, initiative, and that you have obtained any necessary consents, licenses or assignments from third parties and included copyright notices when necessary.
Yes

By submitting your application, you understand that all the applications that meet the eligibility requirements will be shared for the purposes of the selection processes, and notably published on the secured platform prizes.new-european-bauhaus.eu and for the purposes of the promotion of these on the New European Bauhaus website and/or other European Commission communication channels. In this sense, the applications would be widely available. Applicants should ensure that they present their concepts, concepts, in such a way that they could be shared without giving rise to intellectual property related concerns. If your submission is selected as one of the finalists, it will additionally be shared for the purpose of the public vote that will take place. The European Union is granted a licence to use and share your application with the general public and the official external experts for the purposes of the selection process, including the voting. The European Union has the right to use the images and visual materials and the description provided in the application for communication purposes related to the contest and beyond. Rights granted comprise the right to store, reproduce, display, publish and communicate or distribute copies in electronic or digital format, including, but not only, through the internet. Unless you have disclosed your name, the European Commission has no obligation to share your name when using or disseminating your contribution to the public. The European Union cannot be held responsible in case any submitted concept, concept is found to infringe third party’s rights. The European Union shall be neither responsible for the use that third parties may do of the applications or related content.
Yes

By submitting your application, you acknowledge that you read and understand that the ‘Guide to Applicants’ of the NEB Prizes 2023, available online in the website of the NEB Prizes 2023, is an integral part of this application form and that it must therefore be observed when completing and submitting your application.
Yes