The contemporary western cities are hybrid and multifaceted realities, where people with very different cultures, live side by side. The main aim of this research is to imagine, design and create games that are able to improve people’s lives. A Hostile World is a persuasive game designed to take place in urban contexts with a high level of multiethnic presence with the goal of generating a sense of comprehension, due to the identification of some issues felt by cultural and racial minorities.
Creative Citizens project originated as a result of the PhD research led by Daniela Selloni at Politecnico di Milano. This project has brought the expertise of researchers to the service of ordinary people in Cascina Cuccagna, creating a laboratory of solutions for daily life, improving existing services and designing new ones, acting as a semi-public office for service design and connecting citizens with designers, stakeholders and institutions, thus creating a good environment for co-designing social innovation.
ZUP Zuppa urban project, started its activities in Dergano, a neighbourhood characterized by a cultural mix, in the north of Milan, with more than 20.000 inhabitants. ZUP project wants to play with the mixture of elements of this area, trying to put together all the different communities that are not defined by ethnicity but by cultural practices. Like a soup, ZUP intends to make an inclusive, simple and participative project, working together with really involved and engaged communities.
Imagine Milan suggests a collaborative approach between Comune di Milano and the research team, testing activities and practices of co-design for social innovation. The research process integrates the communication project with the experimentation of innovative tools for collaboration: semifinished artifacts, moodboards communicating the imagery of the area, storyboards and basic visual tools. The project is based on the critique of a possible future, allowing needs to emerge and stakeholders to share a path of growth.
The overriding imperative for our society is continued economic growth. The engine of this growth is innovation – the creation of new kinds of artifacts. The increasing frequency and scale of environmental, social and economic crises urge us to pose the question: is the innovation society sustainable? The INSITE project intended to mobilize civil society to construct a socially sustainable future, by designing generative interactions and feedback loops between technical artifacts and social problems/narratives.
The overriding imperative for our society is continued economic growth. Engine of this growth is innovation – the creation of new kinds of artifacts. The increasing frequency and scale of environmental, social and economic crises urge us to pose the question: is the innovation society sustainable? Emergence by Design aims at mobilizing civil society to construct a socially sustainable future, at developing new theories of innovation and action, as well as new research practices and tools (ICT also), based on case studies.
Imagine one of your beloved, someone you live with, to be suddenly arrested and taken away by the police, imprisoned far from home with the risk of being expelled from Italy forever. Imagine these things happening not because of any criminal act nor for a perpetration of violence, but merely because of a lack of proper papers. Limbo tells these stories of wait, anger and fear. Stories of relationships built and cultivated on the edge of different cultures and families, where children seem destined to suffer for the absence of their fathers and women have to bear the weight of an unjust and heartless law.
