Creative Places for Collaborative Cities: Proposal for the ‘Progetto Habitat e Cultura’ in Milan

Abstract

This paper presents a service design project developed in an old milk factory in Milan. The proposal is part of a PhD research whose aim was to develop a solution that enhances the growth and development of Creative Places for a new urban everyday life. Places where groups of people collaboratively promote and manage a mix of creative initiatives in the fields of art and culture, economy and production, social services and urban regeneration. The project that is now showcased has as its main objective to identify and develop optimal strategies for building the necessary infrastructure in which sustainable collaborative services can flourish. In particular, the project proposes to endow local authorities and community with a strategic plan and specific tools, respectively, to orient them in the most promising direction: that is, in the direction of becoming a network of effective laboratories of a new, sustainable, urban identity and active citizenship.