ARCUS "connecting parallel lives"

Project

269174

Status

Submitted

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

Project title

ARCUS "connecting parallel lives"

Full concept/idea title

Description

Arcus aims to design a framework for community-building, inclusivity, sharing, learning and creation by and for wide range of residents. It becomes a hub for the engagement of different aspect of culture, both tangible and intangible. It mainly promotes visual and audial communication of cultures. It fosters young people of different skills and backgrounds, who will play a leading role in the future neighborhood area through a collaborative structure that converge different generations.

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

Please provide a summary of your concept/ idea

Dergano, a suburb in the north of Milan, has undergone a rapid shift from an industrial complex to a residential neighborhood and its identity as well has been weakened spatially and demographically due to the arrival of numerous immigrants. We see in the evolving diversity and multiculturalism a great potential for shaping the identity of the future. In particular, it has been caught the compelling necessity of knowledge exchange in the area, especially among younger generation. Therefore, our action will land in a recent abandoned semi-open space, reviving it as a hub for encountering with different aspect of culture, and will spread around the neighborhood as a trigger for a collective participation. We foresee Arcus as a self-operating system which enables co-creation of new neighborhood values. We offer opportunities to reach and exchange knowledge in the context of multiculturalism. The intervention pertains programs and space, transversally connected through a digital platform. The activities foster people's interaction and a sense of collectivity, while space act as welcoming architecture that flexes according to their needs. The whole system is digitally interconnected to overcome barriers as distance and social insecurity. We aim to nurture an inclusive as well as dynamic neighborhood where difference in culture and capability is a strength to be enhanced, where the youth's vitality is jointed with other generation's knowledge through social exchange, connecting parallel lives in time and space.

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

Arcus meets sustainability in four main aspects: organization, knowledge, economy, space. Considering the neighbors’ commitment as a central condition for this project to be long-lasting and widespread, we tackled in them the leading force necessary to keep it active and working. The organizational system will be self-reliant, structured in young local volunteers paired with mentors to guide them with their experience, and apprentices to train as future leaders. The scope of the structure is to institute a commission responsible for the organization and moderation of the activities, deadlines, and relations with partners, collaborators, participants. Secondly, the informational exchange within people will be entirely voluntary as the payback will be in the achieving of new skills, social connections, and a shared identity cohesion. We call it circular knowledge as the output of the activities stimulating this exchange will only be the latest manifestation of a process in continuous development and implementation. Furthermore, each workshop will be the continuity of the other as tangible and intangible outputs will serve as a starting point to inspire the next one circularly. Thirdly, sustainability also is manifested in a conscious choice of the materials employed, concerning their accessibility and re-use. Provisions will come from neighbors and local construction companies' discharge to turn in material for space furnishings and craft productions.Local organizations and institutions will have room for their initiatives in exchange for visibility and financial support. Finally, in the creation of local identity, utilizing unused spaces plays a central role. We consider the renovation of an existing building is fundamental to build a bridge between the territory and its inhabitants to obtain their support and recognition.We will identify old/unfinished structures as landing spaces respecting their charm with a non-invasive, reversible intervention.

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

We foresee in multiculturalism an opportunity towards the maturation of society, with the acceptance of diversity, and its' unique advantages. Therefore, a mixture of the locally present cultures will be the starting point to create a distinctive and unique character in the visual identity of the neighborhood. The process is designed in a sequence of passages that will take to a collective creative re-interpretation of cultures’ tradition, history, costumes, and languages for a new local identity portrayal, in autonomy. In particular, patterns, different in form and graphics, will be generated for the following occasions: the visual promotion in the area, the space identity, and brand identity. To begin with, cultural idioms will be compared in their meanings and use of words to create new local ones. These will be elaborated into wall-painted, patterned graphics to disseminate in the surroundings as promotional triggers for locals and visitors to discover Arcus activities. For this purpose, a digital application will reveal, through an on-site interaction, the hidden meanings related to the graphic installations, thus allowing the booking of the next workshop events, as an active participant, or just upload idioms, stories, anecdotes inspired by the installation, as a passive participant. These informations will be employed for another activity: the generation of stories inspired by neighbors’ perspectives. Then, again, those extracts will be abstracted into raw, colorful canvases made by entangling plastic fabrics and wires within construction meshes. These “tapestries” will contribute to the headquarter spatial identity and to urban aesthetics on events, construction projects etc. An ephemeral, shared knowledge will be transferred into tangible visual outputs, allowed by the sharing of know-how. This interconnected system guarantees continuity and consistence between the felt identity and its expression, unifying individuals toward a shared vision.

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

Arcus is aimed to integrate people of different ages, skills, backgrounds, and ethnicity through both physical and digital implementations. The physical approach can be further divided into three aspects: organization, program, and space. Arcus' organizing team is made up of volunteers from the targeted neighborhood with a focus on young adults. The young generation will be given the task of hosting programs with the guidance of another experienced Mentor. The pairing phrase will be based on each individual's experience and background, moreover, corresponding to the program contents. The program consists of topics related to language, storytelling, and crafts. Each workshop is designed for a target group and with some requirements, in addition, demand in the range of ethnicity. It is the responsibility of the organizing team to promote, invite and maintain diversity among participants to stir up conversations in the context of culture. In terms of space, the objective is to create an accessible and permeable environment for the entire time it is open, guaranteeing free access to services and covered areas. The inner space is also divided into two main sections, enabling scheduled events as well as spontaneous interactions. As a step forward, Arcus also provides a high level of accessibility through digital platforms. The archive from the programs can be reached from people outside the neighborhood, therefore, they can also contribute to the content accumulation. On a larger scale, Arcus will establish a collaborating and mutual relationship with existing local organizations, enterprises, and municipalities to form a sustainable, self-operating system.    

Please explain the innovative character of your concept/ idea

Milan is a city constantly in the vanguard for experimentations and innovation, and several established realities are present on the theme of inclusion. If their work focuses on social integration, with the teaching of languages, trades, and the sharing of resources; Arcus does with social cohesion, identifying the multilingual and multicultural component as the main advantage for the future of areas on the outskirts of cities, usually characterized by limited resources, widespread deprivation, and unawareness of their local identity. Our approach, therefore, aims at the development, through the eyes and enthusiasm of young people, of a new identity, not transformed but inclusive and renewed of all the emerging realities. Youth empowerment will be fundamental to create a future vision; as bearers of change, they can take on roles of responsibility and mediation with local realities, reaching a shared agreement by listening to the elders. The innovation lies in the spontaneous participatory methods, driven mainly by curiosity rather than necessity. This way, diversity of participants in their skills and knowledge, age, and social status, will be achieved. In addition, the use of a digital platform, as a transversal tool for connecting space and activities, will complete the service in an innovative inclusion perspective as people will contribute to a "phygital" identity cohesion. Their presence will be equally felt in both modalities and finally unified in the various outputs at Arcus. In this regard, communication between participants will be accomplished through verbal and visual modalities, facilitating the creation of a common language made of unique local idioms and a distinctive visual identity for the entire neighborhood. As aforementioned, innovation stands in the original way of proposing cohesion and identity that start with a full circle integration of people of any kind and ends with the local self-management and sustenance.

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

We take the initiative to implement the concept by starting from a digital service. Through the first round of promotional activities in the neighborhood, volunteers will be gathered for training about methods to run the programs proposed in our concept. This initial group of volunteers will then conduct the first trials of the activities provided by the program. After these trials, the program will be a self-operational service system thanks to the adaptations over time. Once the loop is created, our future development plan includes the formed Arcus Team and other related associations working together to contribute to the self-sustainable process.   In the first year, we plan to collect the necessary money for further development of the program. With the help of Municipality and other existing local organizations and associations, we will renovate the space that we chose as the landing space of our concept in order to make it a proper gathering place for volunteers and participants. Since the space is a key factor as important as service, we will create a place for residents of the neighborhood to exchange their knowledge and share their skills with each other. With the inclusion of dedicated space, promotional street walls, and people to the digital platform, all managed by the Arcus Team, completes the service system of our concept.

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.