6 days in Italy with 30 international students and 15 partners in august 2023
Building :
floors, furniture and parapet for the second floor of the Casa
floor and furnitures for the kitchen
balcony in the garden
Living :
investigating the territory and meeting its inhabitants
edition and production of a fanzine
design and screeprinting of “cannovacci”
The Commons are not just for humans
You are exactly like the plants in this garden. You come from all these different places, move around, gather, and thrive here.”
AWC • Issue 26 • Grassroots Chapter III • The Spaces We Make
1 – Building BelMondo – Domestic infrastructure
During ASOC 22 last November, the group, made up of ten students from the Politecnico of Turin together with their professors, Le Seppie, Orizzontale, Zuloark and Collectif etc., worked in the cellar of the Casa di BelMondo, as laboratory spaces where to collect, study and experiment with local building techniques and materials.
For the second part, in August, with Italian students and their European academic partners, the aim is to develop and apply the techniques learned in November between the first and second floors of the Casa di BelMondo.
The Casa di Belmondo, the hybrid and multifunctional public space with educational and cultural purposes, from a creative construction site, after four years, this summer will become an utterly habitable space and in which, together with the students and collectives, the objective will be to build different living environments, always fluid and hybrid, which can respond to the diverse needs of the people who now pass through Belmonte throughout the year for medium-long periods.
2- Living BelMondo – Human, not Human
It is necessary to start again from the concrete places of life to regenerate communities. Public space is a frontier of connections; it is here that social life takes place, and it is here that communities build their own identity and gain experience simultaneously.
Co-designing public space means putting relationships back at the centre, creating collective conversations with the different souls of the place, not just humans.
For these reasons, the second part of ASOC – the Italian workshop, Living BelMondo, will be a path of collective study and exploration to map the village’ green areas, collecting materials useful for the research initiated by the Glocal Center, the committee of Care formed by local and international associations, by informal groups, the municipal administration and citizens that focuses on the care and management of the tangible and intangible commons of Belmonte Calabro. This new body being formed sees among its primary objectives promoting responsible behaviour for conserving and enhancing green areas.
Starting from the idea of a census of all the essences and plants present in the Belmontese area, “Int’e graste we trust (In the plants we believe)” is a small communication, narration and awareness campaign to respect and enhance the green areas of Belmonte Calabro, co-designed with the Green Thumbs and the country’s political and educational bodies.
This widespread communication campaign, through the installation of small aesthetic devices that tell about the plants present and how to preserve and care for them, aims to make everyone, both inhabitants and visitors, more aware of the importance of promoting a culture of respect and protection of the environment, enabling greater attention to nature and its balance.
We are used to a system developed over many years by establishing practices and models that are difficult to change. For this, above all, awareness is needed to face a learning and change path with the right decision. There are new skills to bring into organisations, new ways of working with more cooperation and fewer vertical approaches. Participation and involvement must bring creativity, new solutions and new protagonists.
The activities on the territory will have the following modalities:
Learning by doing: the support of the professional figures involved will guarantee the development of the activities capable of performing a training function that will allow those who have never experienced co-planning and self-construction techniques to contribute to the creation of the works actively;
Transdisciplinarity: the working methods will ensure a concrete and synergistic exchange between traditional forms of work, artisan knowledge, and innovative work tools;
Horizontality: shared planning will allow the free expression of knowledge;
Conviviality: the presence of moments of informal exchange and comparison will guarantee a type of complete participation, capable of combining the time of shared work with that of everyday life.
Credit : Giulia Rosco