ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to present a research path carried out within a very specific territory of the city of Milan, the Nolo district, aimed at unlocking the potential of urban public space. The chapter aims to contribute to the research of new approaches to the field of public space design, highlighting in particular how the application of codesign methodologies and the direct involvement of inhabitants can support the development of new models of proximity. The research presented is carried out within Off Campus Nolo, the living lab of the Politecnico di Milano. It was developed as part of the “Vocabolario di Quartiere – The Situated Vocabulary”, an ongoing action-research project led by Polimi DESIS Lab, which aims to contribute to the search for convergences of action and meaning that can lead to new transformative urban processes. It is about collecting, comparing, defining and investigating the meaning of nine words (e.g. public space, common good) by including voices from the human and non-human realms.
