New European Bauhaus Prizes 2023

Initiative category

Identify the award category for which this initiative is being submitted
Reconnecting with nature

Email user
abril.marcozzi@hryo.org

Basic information
Initiative title
Terra Franca - Digital Museum

Full initiative Title
{Empty}

Please provide a short, catchy description of your initiative to be used in communication towards the public.
Have you ever been inside a beehive? or seen the underwater roots of tropical plants?. The initiative foresees the creation of an open doors digital museum in Terra Franca a confisted land to the Mafia, involving technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality. The goal is to educate the ‘visitors’ using non-formal methodologies on sustainable practices and biodiversity conservation while providing an immersive experience.

What was the geographical scope of your intiative?
Local

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

If relevant, insert names of region(s)/municipality(ies) involved
{Empty}

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

Does your initiative 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 initiative benefited from EU programmes and/or funds?
No

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

Does your initiative has a minimum level of maturity? The minimum level of maturity is exemplified by stakeholder/ initiative promoter commitment to implement the initiative in practice and a clear methodology /approach.
Yes

On whose behalf are you submitting the application?
As a representative of an organisation
Please provide the contact details for the project promoter (the individual or representative of the organisation authorised to represent the project)
- Name of the organisation(s): HRYO Human Rights Youth Organisation
  Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation
  First name of representative: Abril
  Last name of representative: Marcozzi Ahumada
  Gender: Female
  Nationality: Spain
  Function: Project Manager
  Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Via M 11 13/7
  Town: Palermo
  Postal code: 90046
  Country: Italy
  Direct Tel: +34 692 81 98 54
  E-mail: abril.marcozzi@hryo.org
  Website: https://www.hryo.org/
Social Media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.)
- URL: https://www.instagram.com/h.r.y.o/
- URL: https://www.terra-franca.it/
In case my initiative 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 initiative 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 initiative
Please provide a summary of your initiative
The 'Terra Franca - Digital Museum' project aims to create an open-air digital museum located in 'Terra Franca', a property confiscated from the mafia in Cruillas, a peripheral district of the city of Palermo. Since 2019, the year in which the association had the land assigned, the association HRYO (Human Rights Youth Organization) has been working on the implementation of non-formal activities, the regeneration of the land, the creation of a sense of community, and the conservation of biodiversity. Today Terra Franca is an educational Hub oriented to creating awareness and education on environmentally friendly practices based on permaculture as well as protecting and contributing to the conservation of the biodiversity existing in the Mediterranean area in which Palermo is located. Due to the particularity of the land the space is also used to create awareness of the consequences of criminalized organizations related to the Mafia.
Therefore, the initiative aims to create an open-air digital museum collecting all the educational paths created in Terra Franca by HRYO and other stakeholders, by digitalizing the content and providing a full experience, thanks to virtual reality technology to all the activities and installations.
The initiative aims to create a permanent digital exhibition on the following themes:
Bees and biodiversity. Observe the bees as if you are inside the beehive, feeling the buzzing and observing the beehive.
Green House and lake. Get inside the lake and the greenhouse to study from the perspective of the plants, the roots, and the needs of each plant.
Mafia Memorial. Create a digital memorial of important figures of people who fought against the Mafia.
Henhouse and chickens. Observe and listen to the chickens as if they were inside the henhouse.

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with 5 key words.
Environmental awareness

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
Education on Human Rights

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
Green transformation

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
Conservation of biodiversity

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
Sense of community

Please give information about the key objectives of your initiative in terms of sustainability and how these have been/will be met. Please highlight how the initiative can be exemplary in this context.
The initiative will increase the level of awareness on environmental issues, educating the new generations (and not only) on the importance of how the different elements of nature interfere with each other and coexist as well as other sustainable practices focused on the conservation of the environment. The museum will be “open” 24 hours every day as the content is accessible anytime and anywhere, allowing people from other countries or with physical mobility to benefit from the activities implemented in Terra Franca. The use of technologies in education can increase awareness and engagement of people as well as facilitate access to information on the topic. The goal is to provide an alternative education methodology to create awareness of environmental issues by creating experiences for the ‘visitors’. The initiative is easily replicable in other educational sectors or activities as well as other countries and can be translated into other languages as well as include the information sign language.

Furthermore, the initiative will contribute to reducing the materials used in the implementation of the activities, reducing the footprint generated in these activities, and helping to be more coherent with the mission and vision of the organization.

Please give information about the key objectives of your initiative 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 initiative can be exemplary in this context.
The digital content that the initiative foresees will follow a coherent and aesthetic format that makes it easy to navigate and intuitive. The experience of the digital museums will provide ‘visitors’ with an innovative experience in nature, based on virtual reality and augmented reality while they learn permaculture techniques as well as biodiversity conservation practices. By involving the senses and thanks to augmented reality ‘users’ will be more engaged, committed, and aware of environmental issues. The ‘visitors’ will be educated by experiencing nature from another point of view which will encourage learning and awareness.

Please give information about the key objectives of your initiative 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 initiative can be exemplary in this context.
The initiative aims to educate regarding environmental issues to a larger number of people. The use of technology and virtual reality will help everybody to benefit from this educational path created by the association even if attendance at Terra Franca is not possible. The association will provide a free website in which the ‘visitors’ of the museum can experience the activities developed in Terra Franca. This platform to access the information will be intuitive with a simple design in which the content will be divided into different topics and will be adapted to different ages. The content will be permanent and accessible from anywhere anytime. The initiative will create a new way to reflect on the issues related to environment and biodiversity conservation by seeing the problems and the conservation of nature using an immersive experience.

Please explain the way citizens benefiting from or affected by the initiative and civil society have been/will be involved in the initiative and what has been/will be the impact of this involvement on the initiative
Terra Franca as an educational Hub benefits local people mostly, as the land is located in Palermo, although thanks to this realization of this initiative, more people can benefit from it. The activities and laboratories implemented in Terra Franca have enriched civil society, bringing alternatives to cultural activities to the population and creating awareness of environmental issues, permaculture, and biodiversity conservation. The people from the neighborhood had been involved in the participation and organization of these activities, aiming to create a strong sense of community with the implementation of activities and laboratories.

To continue with these goals HRYO will integrate technology such as the augmented reality that will help increase the content's reach and the educational paths' impact. Therefore, the initiative aims to impact people other than the Parlermitan population who can easily reach Terra Franca, giving the opportunity to others besides the residents in the area of implementation.
Moreover, the initiative will contribute to increasing the networks in the field of permaculture and conservation of biodiversity, by creating relevant content and providing it to all the users, sharing knowledge and methodologies with others outside the Palermitan context.

Please explain how different stakeholders at various levels (local, regional, national, European) were engaged in the design and implementation of the initiative.
Other stakeholders have been involved in the ideation of this initiative and the activities in Terra Franca. The land has been assigned to HRYO although many partners participate in this long-term project. For example, the Buddhist center of Palermo has donated beehives used to create awareness of the importance of biodiversity. Other association partners such as Maghweb and Palma Nana use the educational Hub for implementing their activities and contributing to the content, thanks to the exchange of good practices. The municipality of Palermo has participated actively in the creation of Terra Franca, developing festivals and creating social encounters to promote citizen participation in the neighborhood.

Please explain which disciplines and/ or knowledge fields were reflected in the design and implementation of your initiative. Please explain how representatives of these different fields interacted with each other, and what the added value of this process was
The project aiming to tackle environmental issues and education has involved experts and social workers to achieve an excellent content and educational path based on non-formal methodology. The team of HRYO with experience in permaculture as well as in apiculture has created the content to be exposed in the open-air ‘museum’. The staff has more than ten years of experience in the implementation of social projects and informal methodologies with children, adults, and young adults. For the digitalization of the content, HRYO will count on experts in augmented and virtual reality that will guide the association into digitalization of the content and the site creation to have the information.

Please highlight the innovative character of the initiative, when compared to mainstream actions in the field of the initiative
The project sets the ambitious goal of combining digital tools and HRYO's main areas of intervention. In particular, the innovative element lies in combining non-formal education on Human Rights, and environmental education by integrating augmented and virtual reality, as well as digitizing all educational content making our daily work more engaging and impactful. Thanks to the use of technology, the educational path will be interactive, giving the opportunity to the users to experiment being in a field and in contact with nature regardless of their location and condition. From HRYO we understand education as a powerful tool to contribute to a better society and we believe education has a bigger impact when the learning comes with a personal experience.

Please describe which elements of your initiative 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 initiative foresees the application of technology on an educational path regarding the environment and the conservation of biodiversity. The technology can be transferred to other educational paths or museums, creating other educational paths. Moreover, virtual reality has the potential to educate people and youngsters from a unique and experimental point of view of nature in order to create bigger awareness of environmental issues. The initiative can be replicated in other environments and with other educational paths to offer an alternative instrument for youth and social workers to educate on social issues.

Please describe the methodology or approach used in your initiative.
This project consists of gathering all the laboratories and activities of HRYO implemented in Terra Franca based on non-formal educational methodologies regarding environmental issues to then digitizing them in order to increase the reach of the content and the impact. The association HRYO has been developing activities and laboratories to create awareness of this issue, creating non-formal education paths for the past 10 years. Although in this initiative HRYO aims to involve the use of technology in their educational paths, in order to create a bigger impact, achieve better learning outcomes and increase the reach of the content. HRYO believes in educational methodologies that involve a personal experience and allows people to observe, touch and experiment with the topic. The technology implemented in the initiative will contribute to increase the outreach of the content, guaranteeing accessibility as well as creating an immersive in-the-land experience, allowing the ‘visitor’ to see nature from another point of view.

Please explain what kind of global challenges the initiative addresses by providing local solutions
The content to be digitalized has been adapted to the land and to the educational path that HRYO develops, the activities and the information is made ad-hoc for the territory. In order to replicate in order countries or sectors, it would be necessary to change the approach and the content, although the use of technology would stay the same. Therefore, HRYO has been working on the content for the past years, finding the most ideal educational path to understand permaculture and biodiversity.

Please detail the scope of progress in the implementation of the initiative. This can include already demonstrated results/outputs related to the chosen Prizes category, and the already achieved benefits from the initiative for direct and indirect beneficiaries. This can also include a development plan of the initiative, with a particular attention to the steps envisaged in the year following the application, and including envisaged results and benefits from the initiative
The educational path has been already delineated and specified, the staff from HRYO for the past two years since they got assigned Terra Franca has been implementing and creating laboratories and activities to impact different targets and create consciousness on environmental issues. The laboratories and activities implemented in the land have involved and impacted more than 500 people in the past two years, creating opportunities for civil society and creating awareness on permaculture topics, as well as creating a space to debate on this topic. The number of laboratories implemented in Terra Franca are growing since more schools and educational center has asked for the laboratories as a way to educate on environmental issues, supporting teacher and tutors to educate the youth to be more environmentally resposanble and adopt sustainble activities. In 2023 HRYO has already agreed more than 20 laboratotiesand activities involving more than 400 people.
In order to implement this initiative, the organization has applied for national fundings in a call for the digital transition of creative and cultural sectors. The initiative aims to impact a bigger number of people due to the use of technology, that as well as communication strategy will allow the content to reach an international context.

The initiative will consist of 18 months of work. The first six months will be dedicated to the preparation of the project, and the content to be digitalised. Then the content will be adapted to the different age gaps that HRYO works in, and adapt the languages in which the content will be exposed. For the month eight of the project it will take place the digitalisation of the content and the creation of the site for the digital museum that will last 3 months to open the digital portal for the ‘users’ to visit the museum.

Please provide documents that demonstrate the maturity level of the initiative and commitment to implement the initiative in practice (e.g.: evaluation report, final or mid-term initiative report, certification, publications, building permit, grant agreement, letter of support, partnership agreement, etc.)
PDF
PDF
- pdf-1-29261.pdf
- pdf-1-29261_0.pdf
If relevant, please describe how your initiative contributes to developing new competences, especially in the context of the European competence framework on sustainability.
The initiative aims to create a space in which learners can discuss and create awareness from topics related to the environment thanks to non-formal education methodologies supported by digital instruments, giving the students the opportunity to learn and reflect on this issue differently. Due to this initiative, the learning path created by HRYO will be more accessible in a way that any educator can use the platform as a complementary tool to teach and reflect on climate issues. The initiative aims to educate through the immersion in nature, the ‘visitors’ will receive the information using interdisciplinary methods, on a topic which is relevant for the local context.
Please attach at least 6 high resolution images or visual representations of your initiative to your application.
If you would like to upload additional documentation, please upload or write below.
{Empty}

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 initiative 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 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 initiatives, initiative, 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 initiative, initiative 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