A DUT Partnership Project on Circular Urban Economies
Community reclaiming of the city through the lens of participation and circularity_Building a new corpus of knowledge on Circular Urban Economies
*corpus \\ noun [plural corpora]
a. all the writings or works of a particular kind or on a particular subject
b. a collection or body of knowledge or evidence
Co.R.Pu.S. aims to conduct research on alternative processes of retrofitting public space at neighbourhood level, grounded on Circular Urban Economies (CUE) through involvement of local stakeholders and citizens. Having as its main challenge the revival of degraded public space in the periphery of the city, the project will investigate alternative ways of cooperation through the concept of Urban Living Lab (ULL) as a diffusing entity of CUE. Two case studies of ULLs (park of Public Housing Complex in Egaleo/Greece and micro-circular economies in Turin/Italy) will be set up, in order to design semi-permanent urban equipment through participatory processes, up-cycling techniques and the development of digitally enabled systems (civic blockchain) to promote circularity of materials, services and goods.
The interaction between two ULLs will generate tangible insights on how to form a phygital model of cross sectoral cooperation to tackle degradation of urban space and promote socio-economic development. The entire process will document methodologies and prototypes (platforms, urban equipment, policies) to engage citizens, SMEs and Municipalities, leading to the formation of a model to transform ULL into permanent community labs, oriented to CUE and public space reclamation.
CORPUS MAIN COMPONENTS
Civic Blockchain
Building on the potential of digital platforms to support participatory and circular socio-economic models, while avoiding technological monopolies and exclusion of people with low tech-literacy.
Public Space + Participatory Design
The successive crises of the last decade and the collapse of state policies in the maintenance of public infrastructure led to turn the public space in the periphery of the city into hostile places.
Circularity + Upcycling
Big amounts of unused materials in abandoned warehouses and construction waste from renovations could have a second life through community fab labs devoted to the retrofitting of public space.
