New European Bauhaus Prizes 2023

Initiative category

Identify the award category for which this initiative is being submitted
Regaining a sense of belonging

Email user
alice.saracchi@edu.unige.it

Basic information
Initiative title
AEDICULA

Full initiative Title
AEDICULA - The Community Culture Magazine

Please provide a short, catchy description of your initiative to be used in communication towards the public.
Aedicula is a digital participatory magazine covering cultural topics of tradition and current affairs.
It features gamification and augmented reality elements that encourage students to visit local GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archivers, Museums) cultural venues, stimulating them to rediscover their sense of belonging.

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 other types of transformations (soft 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 an individual in partnership with other persons
Please provide the contact details for the intiative promoter (the individual or representative of the organisation authorised to represent the intiative).
- First name: Alice
  Last name: Saracchi
  Gender: Female
  Nationality: Italy
  If relevant, please select your other nationality: Italy
  Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Via Vastato, 22/24
  Town: RECCO
  Postal code: 16036
  Country: Italy
  Direct Tel: +393407345350
  E-mail: alicesaracchi3@gmail.com
  Website: https://www.fabriekstudio.com
Social Media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.)
- URL: https://www.instagram.com/fabriekstudio
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
Aedicula is a participatory digital magazine, accessed by scanning Qr codes placed on striking posters resembling the cover of a magazine. The posters are displayed monthly by the teacher in the classroom. Once the Qr code is scanned, students access the Aedicula platform that contains that month's digital cultural experience.
The experience covers cultural topics related to tradition and current affairs. Each topic is explored and deepened both in hypermedia articles and through edutainment and gamification elements.
Students can manipulate 3D models and move around in 360° virtual environments representing the objects and places of culture and heritage discussed in the articles. These virtual objects and spaces are geo-localised: Aedicula suggests the interactive route and map to visit the objects and spaces in the real GLAM places (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums) in extra-curricular free time.
This experience aims to bring students closer to cultural places and strengthen their sense of belonging.
In addition, Aedicula offers a 'prosumer space' where students can
share their contribution on the theme and creatively express their ideas through various forms (comments, photographs, productions). The best contributions are published in the magazine.

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with 5 key words.
cultural awareness and expression

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
digital innovation

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
citizenship

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
learner centered design

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
sense of belonging

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.
Using digital devices, the initiative is highly sustainable and easily reproducible.
The magazine covers various topics related to sustainability, with a focus on ocean conservation and underwater life. Other topics covered are the importance of experiencing nature and learning about environmental heritage.

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.
Aedicula is an aesthetic experience.
The magazine posters feature an eye-catching design, encouraging students to scan the Qr Code to activate the digital experience. The online experience uses design both to ensure usability through colours, fonts and images, and to show users faithful illustrations and representations of digital cultural heritage (both digitised and born-digital).
The topics addressed in the first edition of Aedicula are cultural and they are:
"A sailor's life"
"We are all at sea"
"The dream during the shipwreck".
"What does modernity compete with?"
"The colours of the Mediterranean"
"The intergenerational local community
"Welcoming".
"Myths and Stories
"Festivals: evocations of tradition?"
"Landscape
"Transatlantic
"Ecology in Contemporary Art".

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.
Aedicula is an inclusive initiative and it is learner-centered.
It is accessible via smartphone or tablet by all students (and anyone with a personal mobile device). The principles of design-for-all ensure:
- Equal use: Aedicula is useful for students with different abilities.
- Flexibility of use: use is free and has no deadlines or time limits.
- Simple and intuitive use: affordances guide and suggest the path in a clear and simple way.
- Perceptible information: contents are in-depth, explained and geo-localised.
- Error tolerance: the path of use is guided, linear and always allows 'going back'.
- Low physical effort: it can be enjoyed remotely. The experience of visiting real GLAM sites is not compulsory.
- Adequate size and space for approach and use: posters are printed and posted inside the school. Everything else is online.

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
Starting with the involvement of students, the initiative benefits all citizens.
In fact, the students show Aedicula to their parents and relatives and ask them to take them to the real GLAM sites during the weekend or in their extracurricular free time.
In this way, a phenomenon of rapprochement to cultural venues is triggered, not only by the students, but by the entire community.

Please explain how different stakeholders at various levels (local, regional, national, European) were engaged in the design and implementation of the initiative.
The first stakeholder involved in the initiative is the school. In particular, the project involved the Istituto Tecnico Nautico San Giorgio in Camogli and Genoa.
In fact, the first edition of Aedicula deals with topics related to the sea and therefore brings back objects from GLAM locations such as the Genoa Principe Library and the Galata Museo del Mare, and the 'Niccolò Cuneo' library and the Museo Marinaro in Camogli.

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 initiative involves different sectors of the social context Work, Education and Public.
- Work: studio Fabriek conceived, designed and developed the project. Experts in the field of art direction and Digital Humanities were involved. Design and web design work enabled the creation of the posters and online experience (layout and web structure).
- Public: the GLAM places (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums; public social context), which are the heart of the cultural experience, provided the cultural knowledge useful to create the content, either the articles or the objects or reconstructions of the places.
- Education: students are the active users of the experience, and are also involved as prosumers. They exercise European Key Competencies No. 4 (digital competence) and No. 8 (cultural awareness and expression competence) and produce digital cultural content under the supervision of teachers.

Please highlight the innovative character of the initiative, when compared to mainstream actions in the field of the initiative
Aedicula is an innovative initiative.
It is based on gamification and augmented reality elements, and it enables the exercise of European key competencies, with a focus on digital competence.
The element of innovation also lies in the structure of the experience: instead of bringing cultural content out of the GLAM places, digital is applied to draw students and citizens into the places themselves.

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 methodology, technology, processes and learning modes are entirely replicable.
It would only be a matter of adapting the content to the subjects being taught within the schools and connecting it with the GLAM sites in the area where the schools are located and which preserve the cultural content related to the topics covered.

Please describe the methodology or approach used in your initiative.
The methodology and approach used are those of constructivist education: through digital, an active fruition of the experience is proposed by the user who is involved in both online activities and in the activities of visiting the GLAM sites.
This develops cultural awareness.
In addition, the production part allows students to use their prior knowledge to practice cultural expression. This again is done in an active way and with a constructivist approach.

Please explain what kind of global challenges the initiative addresses by providing local solutions
The global challenge relates to the goals of the UN 2030 Agenda, specifically that of Culture 2030: The Role of Culture for Sustainable Development.
The initiative considers some of the SDG priorities and macro goals that have been the subject of cross-disciplinary learning and study across cultural goods and services of Museums, Archives and Libraries and their stakeholders for the past few years in order to find responses that flesh out joint development actions, research projects, improvement, modernization, security and safeguarding, that address public cultural heritage in the rapidly changing global society that requires more updated skills and different approaches from the current ones.

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
Progress in implementing the initiative: increased visits to GLAM institutions by the public (citizens); reaching a younger audience (students).
Progress in learning: effectiveness in learning given by the constructivist approach and the type of experience proposed. Through the practice of "learning by doing," students demonstrate consolidation of their knowledge of cultural heritage and strengthen their cultural identity.
For the following year, Fabriek studio proposes a second edition of Aedicula in a collaboration with other museums in the area that deal with other cultural issues and involves other high schools in the area.

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-1-30419.pdf
If relevant, please describe how your initiative contributes to developing new competences, especially in the context of the European competence framework on sustainability.
Aedicula supports the exercise of key competencies for lifelong learning, with focus on:
- digital competence (no.4)
- the digital awareness and expression competence (no.8)
Students and citizens who use Aedicula also develop the following competencies:
- Embodying the values of sustainability: valuing sustainability, supporting equity, and promoting nature through valuing heritage and strengthening cultural identity while respecting cultural diversity.
- Embracing complexity in sustainability: particularly critical thinking and problem framing as it relates to current issues addressed.
- Acting for sustainability: collective action, individual initiative. Through sharing, an individual's action becomes of value to the whole community.
- Imagining a sustainable future: future literacy, exploratory thinking. Cultural heritage that promotes the caring activity by which value is preserved for future generations.
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