Un-Residual. A research hub for organic waste materials
Un-Residual is a research hub focused on materials obtained from local organic waste. The project is intended as a replicable model which constitutes a network: each hub establishes a symbiotic relationship with its proximal ecosystem, from its monitoring and study to material production and innovation. Local citizens, researchers and companies are involved in a collaborative environment where to change the paradigm of local production chains and start new conversations about sustainable living.
Cross-border/international
Italy
Other
European reach
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Vignole Island in Venice (Veneto Region, Italy)
Mainly rural
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
As an individual in partnership with other persons
First name: Francesca Last name: Coriele Gender: Female Age: 23 Please attach a copy of your national ID/residence card:
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 del Redentore, 19 Town: Schio (VI) Postal code: 36015 Country: Italy Direct Tel:+39 346 473 1873 E-mail:francesca.coriele@gmail.com
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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 Sottocroda, 7 Town: Revine Lago Postal code: 31020 Country: Italy Direct Tel:+39 339 656 9671 E-mail:auroratorresan@icloud.com
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Yes
New European Bauhaus or European Commission websites
Un-Residual aims to become a European network of locally-operating research hubs focused on the experimentation of new organic waste-based materials, collaborating through a digital archive. Each application of the model thus results in a unique combination of a common accumulated experience and the specificity of the surrounding environment, community and resources. Not only virtual, but physical is the “kit” of this model, with a laboratory and a research structure and a pathway immersed in the landscape. Being energetically self-sustaining, building from locally collected and manufactured materials, weaving horizontal and transparent relationships is the set of values and approaches that accompanies this kit.
Un-Residual was then applied to the specific territorial context of the island of Vignole, Italy, one of the few green areas in the Venetian lagoon, a trove of biodiversity, local crops fields and few private homes, becoming ReSto. Here, the symbiosis with the proximity lies not only in the aesthetic and sensory experience of wandering in the fascinating landscape, but in the relationship with VERAS, a proactive association which includes most of the residents. Therefore, the regenerative force of the project lies also in its effort to bring to life the vision of the residents.
Four kinds of organic waste abundant on the island were identified: tree leaves, seaweed, bamboo, and artichokes debris. These are the focus of temporary public workshops on the material production itself and its use in traditional local practices, of conferences, roundtables and other cultural activities. Instead, the permanent activities are the mapping of and research on the ecosystem, the selection of new organic waste, the choice of companies, experts and local realities to collaborate with. All of these activities are planned in a 12-months program, at the end of which new research fronts will be: a self-generating model of resonance between territory, resources and know-how.
Research and innovation
Circularity
Organic waste-based materials
Community and knowledge network building
Contextual design
Un-residual sets out to be a model of a shared civic space that is environmentally and socially sustainable. It aims to research and disseminate knowledge and good practices on circularity by producing and building with experimental materials derived from local organic waste. It wants to raise awareness and accompany the local production chain toward a paradigm shift from a linear to a circular type of supply chain. It also wants to spread civic awareness about good practices that can counter the globalization of markets through the model of a local context-adjusted production. It is indeed essential to explore the opportunities offered by innovative materials obtained from the optimization and recovery of resources and that’s why the structures themselves are built with local wood and panels and insulating materials obtained from local waste, as a manifesto of the untapped potential opportunities of the surrounding landscape. But, since the environmental crisis cannot be solved in isolation, the model is based on a network system both of the hubs themselves and of the local relationships weaved among companies, residents, independent researchers, research institutions. The involvement of local communities, know-how and resources aims to erase the distinction between owners of the hub and consumers/targets, creating a space of participation, of “enthusiasts”, shifting the behavioral model from a passive to an active and interested one. In this aspect lies the social sustainability: a revolution that opens the door to a new way of understanding design by adopting interdisciplinary-oriented and inter-generational exchanges.
Un-Residual aims to raise awareness of the reuse and valorization of what is considered waste through beauty, accompanying actors in a process of knowledge in a kind, engaging and immersive way. In fact, the designed place, which is established in a natural environment and aspires to develop a cohesive community, allows for a comprehensive and environmentally and socially engaging experience.
Un-residual is established in a specific territory that is predominantly natural. Those who benefit from the experience, i.e., those who do research on site, those who attend the center as interested, and those who attend workshops and other events, benefit from a complete experience by being immersed in the nature that is the very object of study. Un-Residual emerges as an almost utopian community working together to achieve a real paradigm shift, it is then a mini-community that tries to live in symbiosis with an ecosystem by generating a non-impactful and circular exchange between humans, fauna and flora.
Its lagunar adaptation - ReSto - offers itself as the perfect example of the Un-Residual concept: a slow imagery, far from the rhythms of industrial production, far from the very rhythms that characterize the world today, since the Vignole site is an island with no cars and not particularly trafficked by boats.
Activities are conceived within dedicated spaces that communicate directly with the outdoors and that, with their materials, convey its essence, but they can also move outside: to the platforms immediately outside the structures or to the three points that highlight the pre-existences of the site, taking time to immerse oneself in the bamboo grove, under the centuries-old trees or to have a convivial lunch on the water of the lagoon.
Un-Residual is based on the principle of collaboration to achieve the goal. The project views learning and research as active, experimental, confrontational practices of recovering manual knowledge, doing, dialogue, freedom, and resilience. It is not a top-down model that precludes research by insiders, but believes in experimentation and study by all participants, so that multiple strands and energies coexist on the same topic. We believe that highlighting the potentials of a community and of a territory is a tool to bring awareness and can trigger a change of mentality among people in favor of social, environmental and economic sustainability and induce design innovation itself.
It is therefore about inclusivity understood both as direct participation in the research process, which then becomes unique, local and transversal: inclusivity as openness to the community understood in terms of passing on knowledge through exhibitions, workshops, debates, conferences, publications; inclusivity as the implementation of collaborations with schools and institutions, but above all inclusivity as shown by the direct involvement of the elderly, local repositories of a valuable form of wisdom and knowledge.
The model is a participation-based one, which implies that all resources are shared or invested by local companies each according to their possibilities, both on a cultural level and on an economical one. The structures themselves are low-budget being built from locally produced materials.
About the concept of accessibility, it was a key factor in the design process itself for the case study of ReSto: the choice of the accesses to the space, of the pathway, of the spaces dimension are all thought in line with a policy of total inclusivity, where the activities and the experience offered both by our space as well as by the environment itself are not restricted to some.
Un-Residual connects with citizens by developing events, programs and workshops to raise awareness and teach the practices studied and discovered. Citizens learn concepts and techniques through doing. Programs are open to all age groups, creating partnerships with elementary schools, universities, associations.
In addition, the approach to learning, conceived not only as top-down but dual-direction up and down, concerns wherever possible the direct participation of local experts who make their knowledge available with respect to the topics covered. There is thus an enhancement of knowledge that is not elitarian and one-way, but polycentric, presenting itself to citizens as an opportunity for personal reevaluation and action in their own area, with and for their community.
Here citizens find opportunities for experimental training, knowledge transfer and transdisciplinary laboratories in which to research and explore waste as opportunity. This is possible by bringing together traditional lagoon knowledge, lagoon forces (associations, museums, locals, schools) and innovation.
In the specific case of ReSto, the model has settled on the island of Vignole with a view to urban regeneration. The roughly 50 residents present on the island, mostly part of the VERAS association, already have in mind the vision of an energetically independent community developed together with the adaptation of a very peculiar natural area, characterized by a bamboo grove and a panoramical view on the Venetian archipelago. ReSto aims to rehabilitating the territory, especially the abandoned spaces, in collaboration of with the association, allowing not only for the regeneration itself and for the maintenance of the environment, meeting hub and provision of services in an island pretty devoid of them. It settles in the territory in resonance with the activities promoted by the association and in synergy with citizens, offering itself as a place for building an active community.
First and foremost, the project tries to respond to European programs that promote sustainable actions and transitions, which is why it is expected the Un-Residual participation in calls dedicated to funding projects geared toward the implementation of sustainable practices.
In the specific case of the model's application, i.e., the ReSto case study, it was assumed that it would have as its main funder the Natural History Museum of Venice, already an active an funded force working on issues of organic waste reuse, on ecosystemical balances and on the monitoring of endangered and invasive lagunar species. A specificity of the Venetial lagoon is the close interaction between man and nature: the Vignole almost untouched space would be a perfect base point for the Museum to monitor and map the ecosystem.
The Museum is already in touch with the research institutions of SIBM (the Italian Society of Marine Biology) and CIESM (the Mediterranean Science Commission), active in keeping a balanced ecosystem in the delicate conditions of the Venetian islands: their insights were fundamental for a critical selection of the four waste.
Alongside, meetings with the VERAS association were also crucial to the design process: its members were able to express their needs, desires and perspective, while allowing us designers to fully empathize with the first line of users of the space. Therefore, ReSto was defined together with the local community, as well as influenced by the local experiences of Tabinotabi and Doppiofondo, important for defining the temporary activities program.
In addition, collaborations with national companies, such as Favini, now more and more focused on the new horizons given by bio-based materials, allowed the deepening of the processes, spaces and tools needed for the ReSto case study.
It is envisioned that other parties at the national level could be involved, considering the international reach of the Un-Residual model.
The ecosystem that Un-Residual develops is possible thanks to the contamination between various disciplines and fields of knowledge. Biology, botany, agriculture, design, anthropology, and economics meet in this space. In fact, a research space primarily focused on the local ecosystem meets here a place for processing waste that is not only natural but can also come from the agricultural activity of the area, in a melting pot of connections ranging from business interests to the educational effort of local experts, repositories of local knowledge, material culture and know-how unique to that context.
At the design process level of the ReSto case study, however, it was primarily the botanical, agricultural and design aspects that provided the tools for informed design. Professors from the botanical field of universities in the area mapped the island's flora, coming into direct contact with the VERAS association and the island's frequenters, mainly residents - of course - and farmers. In addition to the choice of waste, their coordinated input was crucial to the choice of space and size of the project, as well as its very direction.
Indeed, we are talking about a great territorial capital, made up of stratified knowledge, identities, activities and resources, and interdisciplinary relationships: only through such analysis was it possible to fully know the territory and identify real needs and latent needs, strengths and weaknesses, thus offering new possibilities for action to the project and the territory itself.
Un-Residual brings innovation as it focuses in a local and site-specific condition and is articulated as an open center of experimentation that welcomes and incorporates various unconventional actors and moves from diverse knowledge and not just insiders. It works directly in situ on the raw material, organic waste, and allows for a total experience, building both a relational world and a concrete dimension. The center does not disregard its context, but is born and shaped by it: the model becomes an engine of change through the coming together of multiple centers, since designing in terms of sustainability requires first of all a change in consumer behavior and business models, towards a participated reality.
Contemporaneity requires the rethinking of design theories and practices that offer proposals compatible with a systemic and sustainable dialogue between business, design and the territory understood as a reservoir of material cultures and that’s the effort of Un-Residual.
That is why this is a model based on hubs and not simply labs: its attempt is creating a micro-world of the future, because defining design methods and tools can build processes of transition to a circular economy, in which the understanding of the technical and expressive value of materials determines a sustainable use of resources.
In such a context, Un-Residual makes of interdisciplinary-oriented approaches the link between design and society, the embodiment of the transformations taking place. The discipline of design assumes a key role in promoting operations of understanding and practicability of the paradigms activated by the systemic approach of the circular economy.
The soul of Un-Residual is its replicability and the development of a European network that joins forces in working on the same theme. Un-Residual replicates in different places and adapts to each individual context, searches for the typical waste of each place and unites the discoveries and experiments made through a digital archive that allows the development of a database of processes and new materials derived from the starting ecosystem.
The low-budget and zero-kilometer nature of the model, as well as the wide variability in form and construction methods, makes Un-Residual highly repeatable and adaptable to context. Rather, the key aspects are methodological and value-based: being energy self-sufficient, building with locally harvested and manufactured materials, weaving horizontal and transparent relationships, striving for ever new, feasible yet innovative research fronts that benefit from the interdisciplinary nature of the model. This intangible part of the project is what makes it a design tool that can enable productive, economic, ecological and cultural change, through a thorough knowledge of the context in its natural, social, anthropological stratification.
Un-Residual responds to the challenges of sustainability, climate change, and the need for circularity through the action of a paradigm shift from below and the local coming together in an international network. Each small dot comes together, thus succeeding in responding to a global challenge through many small local pushes from below.
Waste is considered as much the raw material of this push as the conceptual material of a challenge, of a revolution of supply chains toward sustainability operated from a focus but spreading like wildfire. The model aims to raise awareness and accompany the local supply chain to a paradigm shift from a linear to a circular supply chain.
Through the local paradigm shift and the establishment of a shared network and the establishment of Un-Residual in multiple places, widespread and global change is achieved, keeping the local and its values and approaches as fuel for change.
Sustainable development on the other hand cannot but always refer to context: hence the need for design solutions that support the use of local material resources, hence Un-Residual's set of design interventions. The model strives, on the one hand, to convey the deep meaning of belonging to an identity of material culture and, on the other, to enhance the positive spillover effects on the territory itself and on production systems, to reshape our relationship with natural and socio-economic ecosystems.
