THE POLITECNICO DI MILANO IS PART OF THE EU INITIATIVE TO SPREAD THE EUROPEAN GREEN DEAL CULTURE AMONG CITIZENS.

The Politecnico di Milano continues to affirm its leading role in European research with two projects in the context of the New European Bauhaus initiative, launched by the European Union to spread the culture of the European Green Deal among citizens.

DESIRE – DESIGNING THE IRRESISTIBLE CIRCULAR SOCIETY
It was kicked off in October 2022 and involves the Department of Design with the group led by prof. Alessandro Deserti.

This Coordinated and Support Action supports the “100 climate-neutral and smart cities” mission, proposing an approach to design that is attentive to circularity principles and open to artists, creatives, makers and other organizations. Starting from architecture, design and art, DESIRE will create an open learning environment, defined by principles, methods and guidelines that support the design of an irresistible circular society.

DESIRE is one of the six “demonstrator” projects of the New European Bauhaus initiative and will be tested in 8 urban spaces and neighbourhoods in 5 different European countries: Denmark, Italy, Latvia, Slovenia and the Netherlands.

DESIRE will work in and with these contexts, focusing on three challenges: creating of forms of inclusive housing; the “symbiotic relationship” typical of urban landscapes and the related optimization of the use of material flows; “reconciling cities with nature” for designing liveable habitats and functional ecosystems from a multispecies perspective by rebalancing land use to accommodate the generation of resources and biodiversity.

PALIMPSEST – CREATIVE DRIVERS FOR SUSTAINABLE HERITAGE LANDSCAPES
Project activities will start in March 2023 and will be coordinated by the group of prof. Grazia Concilio of the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies.

Inspired by the idea that territories are “palimpsests” shaped by the stratification of projects and practices that have acted on the natural environment, the project looks at landscapes that make this stratification visible, focusing in particular on three agricultural and urban landscapes called to face significant environmental and climatic challenges.

PALIMPSEST, whose activities will be carried out in Milan, Jerez de la Frontera and Lodz, aims to reconnect to a lost “wisdom” by triggering co-creation processes in which architecture, design and artistic practices are in dialogue with technical-scientific knowledge, specific needs of places and the great systemic challenges, to imagine new scenarios and experiment with innovative practices capable of combining human actions, landscape heritage and sustainability goals.