New European Bauhaus Prizes 2023

Initiative category

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

Email user
erpinio.labrozzi@gmail.com

Basic information
Initiative title
FerrAria

Full initiative Title
Citizen information center and living lab on air quality

Please provide a short, catchy description of your initiative to be used in communication towards the public.
FerrAria is an urban living lab and information center on Air Quality (AQ). It is a space open to all, where to learn about the factors that influence AQ in Ferrara, disseminate the experiences of the AirBreak project, and host collaborative activities with the citizens.

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
Emilia Romagna - Ferrara

Does your initiative address mainly urban or rural issues?
It addresses urban-rural linkages

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?
Yes

Which fund(s)?
Urban Innovvative Actions (UIA)

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 organization, in partnership with other organisations
If you are submitting this intiative as part of a group, please provide the contact details of the other individuals or organisations
- Name of the organisation(s): Politecnico di Milano
  Type of organisation: University or another research institution
  First name of representative: Erpinio
  Last name of representative: Labrozzi
  Gender: Prefer not to say
  Nationality: Italy
  Function: Research Fellow
  Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Piazza Leonardo Da Vinci 32
  Town: Milano
  Postal code: 20133
  Country: Italy
  Direct Tel: +39 333 583 2462
  E-mail: erpinio.labrozzi@polimi.it
- Name of the organisation(s): Politecnico di Milano
  Type of organisation: University or another research institution
  First name of representative: Farah
  Last name of representative: Makki
  Gender: Female
  Nationality: Lebanon
  If relevant, please select your other nationality: Italy
  Function: Research fellow
  Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Piazza Leonardo Da Vinci 32
  Town: Milano
  Postal code: 20133
  Country: Italy
  Direct Tel: +39 375 549 0115
  E-mail: farah.makki@polimi.it
- Name of the organisation(s): Politecnico di Milano
  Type of organisation: University or another research institution
  First name of representative: Eugenio
  Last name of representative: Morello
  Gender: Male
  Nationality: Italy
  Function: Associate Professor
  Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Piazza Leonardo Da Vinci 32
  Town: Milano
  Postal code: 20133
  Country: Italy
  Direct Tel: +39 347 770 9889
  E-mail: eugenio.morello@polimi.it
  Website: https://www.labsimurb.polimi.it/
Social Media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.)
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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
FerrAria is an urban living lab and information center on Air Quality (AQ). It is a space open to all, where to learn about the factors that influence AQ in Ferrara, disseminate the experiences of the AirBreak project, and host collaborative activities with the citizens. The AirBreak project is funded by UIA (Urban Innovative Actions), an initiative of the European Union promoting pilot projects for sustainable urban development.

FerrAria’s objective is to inform and engage citizens on AQ challenges in the local territory. The project aims at:
-Reframing the geography of responsibilities and action, involving everyone in a socio-technological environmental challenge, which asks for new tools and perspectives, in line with the transformative society approach.
-Exploring new ways for making the invisible challenge of AQ into an impactful and visible phenomenon. FerrAria rethinks AQ communication through new modalities for visualizing and diffusing situated data, combining science & art, and engaging the built environment as a support to spread out meaningful messages.
-Be an innovative test ground, at a small scale, for sustainability strategies in the construction sectors, such as Design-for-disassembly and the use of digital twins.

FerrAria was co-created involving citizens and local institutions (the Air Alliance) such as ARPAE (Regional Association for the Environment Emilia Romagna) and local schools. In fact, The co-creation path provided key information about the thematic areas and what kind of devices to put in place.
The project is particularly relevant ad it takes place in the most air-polluted area in the EU.

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with 5 key words.
Air Quality

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
Citizen Science

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

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
Engagement Pathways

Please indicate the main themes of your initiative with key words
Transformational Learning

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.
FerrAria is designed using biological or easy-to-recycle materials. The elements are built in such a way as to be easily disassemblable and/or reconfigurable. In fact, the project relies exclusively on mechanical and reversible connections: no glues or other adhesive materials were used). The goal is to preserve the quality and entirety of the single elements and allow their recycling or reuse at the single components level at the end of their first lifecycle. Such a strategy is called Design-For-Disassembly.

A digital database was realized (https://airbreakferrara.net/database/) including a digital twin (a 3D digital model) of the exhibition components. The files can be downloaded in .cad format. The database is subdivided in material categories: wood, steel, screws and bolts and textile.

A co-creation pathway is going to be developed with secondary school students from the institute Dosso Dossi (Ferrara) to envision new uses for the building components in the municipality of Ferrara.

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.
Given the variety of the programmed uses, and the intention to modify the design over time based on the needs and proposals of the users, FerrAria is realized by flexible elements. Those elements are reconfigurable and movable within the space without generating any waste. These include 16 lightweight panels, 2 touchscreens, and a 3d-printed maquette of the city of Ferrara standing on a 200cm times 200 cm table.

The goal of the exhibition is to provide an interactive experience, displaying air-quality data and knowledge through multimedia supports (both physical and digital).

An undulated blue canopy made of textiles gives a dynamic appearance to the space and works as a distinctive mark immediately connecting the users with the AQ topic.
The interventions privileges the use of wood, for both aesthetic and sustainability purposes. This natural material adds natural warmth to the space that would otherwise be mostly white and grey. The lightweight wooden supports are designed starting from the great history of Italian museography and design, taking inspiration from legendary authors such as Franca Helg, Franco Albini, and Enzo Mari.

The wooden panels host background information on air quality in FerrAria curated by the Regional Agency for the Environmental protection Emilia Romagna (ARPAE), one of the participants in the co-creation path, and information about Air-Break actions in the city.
The experience of the 3D-printed maquette is augmented through interactive projections providing air quality, urban temperatures, mobility, and land use data. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLHBbRbpwvc)
A “collaborative panel” provides a space for users to leave comments and suggestions on how to improve the FerrAria experience and how to address the AQ challenge.

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 project takes place in the Ferrara Open Lab, a regenerated cultural venue dedicated to learning activities for the youth on ICT and technology-driven innovations.
FerrAria is free, open to all, and poses specific attention to just transition aspects (no one left behind), aiming at enlarging the engagement to fragile groups and how these can contribute to tackling AQ.

Attention was given to the entities appointed in the organization (the Air Alliance), prioritizing local young people, gender equity, and fragile people. A network of local high schools was engaged in the process, and the activities developed have always been attentive to include special needs, students.

Data on Air Quality, mobility, and urban metabolism collected in the exhibition are available to all according to the findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) principles.

The initiative takes place in an environment without architectural barriers and is accessible to all. The exhibition is also available online thanks to a Virtual guided tour (https://airbreakferrara.net/i-contenuti/#tourvirtuale)

The initiative is exemplary because it provides a first-of-a-kind spatial hub where AQ topics are being channeled to the citizens and city actors in a transparent and inclusive way. Several information mediums are employed to put the social context in contact with innovative technologies.

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
The Air Alliance, including approximately 100 local actors and institutions, was engaged in more than 70 activities to identify and prioritize challenges and for the ideation and co-creation of solutions.
Activities mainly prioritized challenges and looked for solutions to:
- communicate situated AQ data in town with engaging messages to all;
- sustainable lifestyles & behaviors;
- green commuting & sustainable mobility.

Furthermore, a network of citizen science community (sensing community) shaped with 20 schools and 20 other actors (citizens, private sector, NGOs) participated in FerrAria to workshops for the self-assembly of AQ sensing stations and “adopted” and installed them in their living/working/studying locations, building a distributed infrastructure measuring the AQ data. This information is then displayed in FerrAria.

Please explain how different stakeholders at various levels (local, regional, national, European) were engaged in the design and implementation of the initiative.
The Air Alliance is a community-led initiative supported by the consolidation of a multi-actor’ ecosystem in town, with the support of the Air-Break partners and the Municipality. The appointment is a call for citizen participation, public engagement, and Responsible Research and Innovation in the private sector to think together, and design and adopt sustainable and shared solutions to improving urban health.

Approximately 100 actors joined the Air Alliance. Target participants (co-organizers and audience) were: high schools, municipality, data companies, environmental prevention agencies, mobility agents, activists, universities, and urban regeneration professionals.
At the present day, the activities engaged more than 1800 people.

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
Several disciplines were reflected in the design, including:
-Architecture
-Education
-Environmental protection
-Geography
-Spatial Analysis
-Data Analysis
-Design thinking for participatory planning
-Circularity
-Information/Interface Design
-Urban regeneration

Representatives from these fields interacted with each other within the co-creation activities organized prior to and during the establishment of FerrAria. The representatives collaborated with each other in online and in-presence appointments.

The added value consisted of precious indications and contributions to:
-Select the thematic areas to be communicated.
-Organize and contribute to the realization of the contents exhibited.
-Understand how to effectively communicate AQ data to citizens.
-Spatially organize the contents of the exhibition.

Please highlight the innovative character of the initiative, when compared to mainstream actions in the field of the initiative
FerrAria is a one-of-its-kind citizen science hub and open living lab where engagement activities are converging, making visible the density of sustainability actions in the city. It became a reference point for the city where to exhibit sustainable practices and innovations, and where to plan events to convene the local community around critical questions of sustainable planning (air quality related, greening, energy consumption, data management, green citizenship, etc.)

Another innovative aspect is the combination of physical and digital (phygital) engagement pathways organized within the space. In that sense, the “Air-Fest”, 3 days of events and activities, represents a key moment of citizens' engagement (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNW9Rwc2vkg&ab_channel=PolimiAir-Break).

Finally, innovative sustainability strategies were used for the realization of the exhibition, including the use of bio-based building materials, the realization of a digital twin, and the Design for Disassembly strategy.

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.
Several elements could be replicated in other experiences and projects:
-The replicability of FerrAria as a living lab and community hub format based on co-creation and dissemination activities on AQ issue: extending the format firstly to other cities of the Po Valley, the most air-polluted region in Europe, arguing that only through networking with existing city-based groups of interest it will be possible to support each other and activate citizen-led initiatives.
-The small-scale experimentation on Design for Disassembly could provide important indications for the sustainable design of similar living labs and exhibition designs, which are generally extremely wasteful. Moreover, it is an occasion to test the efficiency of the strategy through several life cycles, in a temporal frame shorter than those needed by conventional construction projects.

Please describe the methodology or approach used in your initiative.
A co-creation pathway leading to the definition of the program with the Air Allies relied on focus groups & workshops, applying mixed co-design approaches to raise stakeholder interests, map the geography of responsibilities, and enhance resources and assets available. Stakeholders became protagonists of a capillary reach out and empowerment in town.
A "phygital" approach to co-creation, combining the physical and digital domains of inclusion, will accompany the engagement strategy and the asynchronous participation of allies. The appointment was a call for public engagement and Responsible Research and Innovation in the private sector to think together, and design and adopt sustainable and shared solutions to improving urban health. FerrARIA is the enabler of this approach, a platform for knowledge and ideas exchange and to measure the progress of the action.

Please explain what kind of global challenges the initiative addresses by providing local solutions
The main global challenge addressed by the project is air pollution, which is affecting more than 90% of the world's population and poses a serious threat to human health. In fact, environmental health has been recognized by WHO as responsible for 24% of world moralities.
FerrAria is part of the Air-Break project that put in place concrete actions to monitor and mitigate the environmental challenge of air pollution. The project uses urban science and sensing technology to gain an understanding of the urban determinants affecting pollution trends. It works on implementing green mobility solutions (hard and soft: both a new bike lane and mobility campaigning), Nature-based Solutions (Air pollution absorbent trees, green areas).

The issue of air pollution is also connected with social, cultural, and economical aspects, highly affected by human practices (car-dependent mobility, heating, combustion, etc.). Addressing pollutant emissions also requires a wide public engagement to act on changing unsustainable behavior. The initiative works on citizen engagement and provides a social learning environment to recognize the local impact of this global challenge and understand the local spheres of agency to improve the situation and the sphere of action to make the change/urban transition happen.

The exhibition represents a manifesto for sustainable management of natural resources, through a reversibility strategy. In fact, the world is destined to go towards a scarcity in the availability of primary resources. Through the use of recyclable materials and dry reversible connections, it is possible to guarantee on the one hand the entire reuse and/or recyclability of the components, and on the other great ease in its maintenance, as well as speed up its construction.

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
FerrAria and the activities related already accomplished great results:
More than 70 engagement events and innovative collaborative formats were organized during nearly two years of the project.
2 Air-Fests took place in FerrAria, in the Ferrara Open Lab, and across the city.
Around 100 entities from the city engaged and mobilized in the process.
A network of citizen science community (sensing community) shaped with 20 schools and 20 actors (citizens, private sector, NGOs) active in co-monitoring the environmental challenge with self-assembled sensing instruments.
More than 1800 citizens engaged
Novel Urban data about air pollution, mobility, and urban metabolism publicly accessible and easily visualizable according to the findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) principles

In the next months, new co-creation activities will lead to new life for the building materials used in the exhibition after its dismantling.
Furthermore, the benefits to the initiative in case of obtainment of new funds will be manifolds:
-Consolidation of the initiative and producing a third edition of the air-fest.
-Organization of new engagement activities with the Air Alliance and retainment of the local partners.
-Scientific dissemination of the activities, including open-source publications and other promotional activities.
-Realization of a system to display real-time data measured by the sensing community on the 3D-printed city model.

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.)
Web link
Web link
- https://airbreakferrara.net/
If relevant, please describe how your initiative contributes to developing new competences, especially in the context of the European competence framework on sustainability.
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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.
- ProjectReport.pdf
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Yes

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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

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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