Organo

Project

269165

Status

Submitted

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NEW EUROPEAN BAUHAUS RISING STARS : concepts or ideas submitted by young talents (aged 30 or less)

Project title

Organo

Full concept/idea title

Description

Organo is a diffused community garden in Baggio (neighborhood in west Milan, Italy). Its name comes from the legend of Baggio's organ, that wasn't a real organ but a painting on the wall of the church. Organo enhances the proactivity of its inhabitants, providing them a place to gather. Each structure is designed to be easily set up and decorated as a unique piece, and all modules combined create a giant majolica, that is the way in which the historical center of Baggio communicates stories.

Where is your concept/idea being developed or intended to be implemented in the EU?

Please provide a summary of your concept/ idea

Baggio is a neighborhood in the southwest of Milan. Before the Second World War, it was a city independent of Milan, so it has the urban plan of a small city, including the typical historic city center. In the time it became a stage of delinquency, and this didn't help in improving its reputation in the eyes of Milanese people. Moreover, Baggio is geographically distant from the center of Milan and not easily accessible by public transportation. In the last few years, they planned to build a new metro station, and this can be a great opportunity for people from Milan to explore Baggio in a more positive way. Baggio also has a very strong identity related to the historical center, which seems to be stopped fifty years ago. Another very strong point for Baggio is the high presence of green areas, and the most known one is Parco delle Cave, which peculiarity is the presence of the lakes. Organo is therefore a good solution to exploit these green areas and connect different parts of Baggio. As a service, it provides a platform for people to meet and create community through a network of public gardens placed in unexploited parts of the city. Organo is a decentralized community garden system that gives neighbors the opportunity to meet under the pretext of tending to crops or to connect with people nearby through the online portion of the platform to adopt plants. It is a product-service system strategy designed to highlight Baggio's bright side, the ability to create community and embrace collaboration in less popular places within a community to drive a more positive perception. This strategy includes three design interventions; communication, community engagement through a collaborative urban garden system, and seasonal experiences.

Please give information about the key objectives of your concept/idea in terms of sustainability and how these would be met

In terms of sustainability, Organo follows three main objectives: repurpose, reuse, reachability. Since the core of Organo is to be a reason for people to be together, space isn't just used as a community garden, but there are more activities held in it, according to the seasons. In spring and summer, Organo is mainly focused on the gardening activities such as planting, taking care of the "adopted" plants, and harvesting. From the end of summer to fall, along with gardening, in Organo there are also activities for creating sub-products out of the harvest, for instance, jam, tomato sauce, and so on. In fall and winter, when there are and fewer plants to take care of, Organo organizes workshops to recycle leftover materials from the harvest. The packaging that is used for the delivery of vegetables is made out of recycled paper plus dry leaves. This last activity embodies the reuse objective: instead of acquiring new bags to contain the crops to deliver, Organo creates the material out of its own production waste, establishing a circularity in its activities. The last goal, reachability, is met by having the different Baggio venues in areas of the city that can be reached within a fifteen-minute walk, allowing people to meet each other in the same neighborhood.

Please give information about the key objectives of your concept/idea in terms of aesthetics and quality of experience beyond functionality and how these would be met

The project's idea is to spread the identity of Baggio even in the most peripheral districts of it, creating consistency in the neighborhood. Baggio is a place full of stories and traditions, which are communicated through a set of majolicas positioned all around the streets of the historical center. The product, therefore, takes inspiration out of Baggio's majolicas, which peculiarity is the creation of an image by combining several tiles in a mirrored way. Organo is designed to be composed of four easy-to-assemble modules which together remind of majolica tile. Once every "tile" is combined with others on the ground, Organo becomes not only a community garden but, if seen from the top, also a beautiful big scale majolica pattern. All modules are specially designed to be produced of a resistant, yet smooth and paintable material, such as wood. Inspired by the belief that a participated space leaves no room for degradation, Organo offers people the possibility to set up and decorate each module as they like. People will find instructions on Organo's website as well as a set of printable stencils that can be combined in many different ways to create unique designs. In this way, each garden will be different from the others spread around Baggio while still sharing a common visual language. The ultimate goal of Organo is to create cohesion among neighbors and strengthen the sense of belonging to the place. Allowing the citizens to build the garden themselves is a way to encourage proactivity and to provide an excuse for people belonging to the same neighborhood to interact and get to know each other better.

Please give information about the key objectives of your concept/idea in terms of inclusion and how these would be been met

Organo proposes itself to be a facilitator in setting up a highly participatory community in Baggio, bringing together residents of all ages and associations. This happens through three main channels: a community garden, seasonal activities, and communication strategy. People can be part of the community garden as cultivators or adopters. Cultivators are the ones who have more free time and actively take care of the garden: they collaborate with their neighbors and can keep the result of their work. If someone has no time to take care of the garden but still wants to meet their neighbors, they can, by paying a fee or offering relational assistance, "adopt" a plant that a cultivator will take care of on their behalf. This relationship is a one-to-one kind so that cultivators won't get work overload and adopters don't have to pay too much. Organo's configuration is designed to ease the gardening activity: the height of the module allows people to bend less and the stools on the sides facilitate children in reaching the soil and elderly people can have somewhere to rest. When people are not gardening this space can be also used by children to play, while adults can hang out there sitting on the stools. Organo wants to be a place where there is something for everybody. Children in school can take part in activities meant for them like painting with stamps, learning about vegetables and plants, and helping making paper. Adults can actively be part of the cultivating community setting up the modular structure, organizing the gardening activity, and the delivery.

Please explain the innovative character of your concept/ idea

Organo is not a regular community garden. It is thought to be part of a greater system, that primarily focuses on strengthening cooperation and relationships in the local community of Baggio. Organo provides a platform where people and associations work together autonomously covering the role of cultivators, adopters, and connectors (existing local associations) to interact among them. The platform works both online and offline. The offline space includes the community gardens where cultivators physically gather to work on gardening and harvesting activities and spend free time together with the neighbors. On the other hand, the online platform promotes seasonal workshops, where schools, existing associations, and residents can get to know and be part of upcoming activities. The whole system takes into account the identity of place. Nowadays Baggio's identity is divided in two, the center of the neighborhood is traditional and rich in history while at the same time the peripheral area lacks these characteristics. The design of the community gardens' shape is strongly related to the majolicas that can be found in the historical center: this uncommon choice has the goal of creating consistency between the identity of the most modern part of the neighborhood with the oldest one. Apart from searching to create unity in the visual language of the neighborhood, Organo's deepest aim is creating the excuse to gather, facilitating social connections.

Please detail the plans you have for the further development, promotion and/or implementation of your concept/idea, with a particular attention to the initiatives to be taken before May 2022

The first stage of the project will be to develop and launch the website, which contains the information about the project, and the toolkits for people involved in Organo to build the garden and to grow crops autonomously. In order to have acceptance and to acquire our first cultivators and adopters, we will involve local associations as key partners of the project. Once the early adopters will be set, we'll be ready to launch the opening event, which consists of gathering with them and the local associations to build and personalize the first community gardens together. The first Organo garden will be strategically placed in Parco delle Cave, a well-known spot for citizens of Baggio around which will rise the first community. We estimate that within six months we'll be ready to start with the first prototype of the online platform and community garden. While the first prototype will be running, we plan to organize the Seasonal activities with schools and families, such as creating recycled paper out of wasted plant leaves. We envision the upcoming arrival of the M1 subway line to Baggio as a possible strategic marketing site for creating awareness among people and lead them to see and join the Organo. We then think of expanding the project in other green areas of Baggio, fostering as much as possible the meeting among people of different buildings.

By ticking this box, you declare that all the information provided in this form is factually correct, that the proposed concept/idea has not been proposed for the New European Bauhaus Rising Stars Awards more than once in the same category.