Cosa Faresti? - A mobile workshop station

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Cosa Faresti?

A mobile workshop station to harvest and broadcast opinions.

The annual theme of Master in Eco-Social Design was Commoning.
The students were asked to work on sharing and Commoning projects in collaboration with one partner: Yob, a service for young workers which is currently designing a co-living project inside Ex-Telefoni di Stato in Corso Italia, Bolzano (SmartUP ).

A co-living project should include the individuals who are going to co-live. However, co-livers are not being involved. Yob has done some research on already existing realities, but neither they nor the Provincial Council (the main executive) explicitly involved the community which is going to live inside the building and the neighborhood.

Therefore, the focus of our work is to ask the future inhabitants of SmartUP about how they could contribute to and profit from the co-living and co-working situation.

In order to discover individuals’ opinions, we designed a series of brief workshops addressed to inhabitants of Corso Italia and visitors of final exhibition of the master (likely young students and possible beneficiaries). During these workshops persons are asked to fill some questionnaires and discuss about the future of Ex-Telefoni di Stato.

Results are shown on a movable cart, a dialogical artifact (Fuad-Luke, 2017) that harvests and broadcasts opinions in the form of requests and offers, and can be a starter for participation.

The cart is a blank canvas for voicing opinions of citizens and passer-byes of a certain area.

The inaugural workshop has been presented to the public the 1st December of 2017. On that occasion pedestrians have been asked to answer through writing or drawing on a questionnaires to a specific question:

What would you like to see happening inside SmartUp ?

The goal was to get an understanding of the needs of the neighborhood and to find an audience for future workshops. On that day we have set up a stand in the corner between Corso Italia and Viale Duca D’Aosta. We had the chance to discuss with different people about the neighborhood and about the building itself and we received their feedback.

However, passer-by were not completely willing to participate, probably thinking we could be salesman.

That is the reason why a movable workstation has been considered a better alternative to gather a substantial quantity of opinions during future workshops.

The cart was made from salvaged artifacts from Ex-Telefoni di Stato building, and one of them was a movable computer cart. Thiis object is useful as a frame, because computers thirty years ago used to be quite heavy.

The wooden panels are made of 12mm birch plywood, which is light and strong. The top sheet is interchangeable and can be redesigned with outcomes of the future. On the sides cork strips display people’s contribution during the second and third workshops.

Thanks to pins people could attach their answers creating a colorful 3D bar chart. Finally, the cart is decorated with telephone related items salvaged from the building.

The objective of the second workshop was to verify the cart concept and get answers to the new questions. While on the first workshop we asked about needs and services people would like to see happening in the building, in this second workshop we harvested opinions on the spot on activities passer-by and inhabitants of the area could / would do in the co-living and co-working in the future.

Imagine a place where you could contribute to the neighborhood and / or get something from it, working with young creative people: Cosa Faresti? (what would you do?)

On the 6th of January we took the cart to Corso Italia and walked around there for three hours in the afternoon.

The second workshop was a success in a way that we were able to get a proof of concept. The cart drew attention: people where curious, and even approached us by themselves.

The questions allowed for a nice flow of storytelling and information, they gave freedom but also provided ideas. The answers were mostly requests, and less offers. Some participants seemed to be reluctant to offer something because they were unsure about what to offer.

The main objective was to design something useful and interesting for the neighborhood and for decision makers from the Province which could become an example on how to harvest and broadcast opinions.

From the two workshops we gathered two different kind of results: Quantitative results and Qualitative results.

From the first questionnaires with multiple choice we've harvested quantitative results, noticing that people appreciate creativity. Most voted choices have been workshops and places to meet other people or play music.

From the second workshop we had the chance to discuss more with people thanks to the open question, that is why we can talk about qualitative results. Inhabitants liked the idea of exchange with young creative people and would prefer to visit the building / having the chance to learn something new thanks to training courses.

All the results are shown on the cart which had been laser engraved on the top with the most important gathered information.