A design challenge "junior" version for the design of the village playroom, organized by Future Food Institute and the City of Pollica with the collaboration of the Pro Loco, at the Paideia Campus Living Lab.
During the weekend of 23 and 24 April - immediately after Earth Day - took place in Pollica the Design Challenge dedicated to children, to recover and give new life to the playroom, now waiting to be set up, and make it available to the community, creating value for a reality that wants to imagine a more inclusive and sustainable future in order to plant the seeds of trust and resilience in the new generations.
The event was held at the Paideia Campus Living Lab, living laboratory included in the largest network of Cities2030. Local institutions were involved, and the children were called to take part in the co-planning of the service designed for them, through a stimulating and innovative design challenge.
The initiative was born with the aim of redesigning the decision-making mechanisms at local level that risk stifling the voice of the community, thus preventing them from expressing their real needs. Enabling the population by inserting it into deliberative processes is the first step towards efficient and sustainable local development.
The playroom designed by children, for children
30 boys and girls answered the call of the Future Food Institute: young scientists, artists, creatives, inventors, innovators and climate shapers, united to field the most beautiful ideas developed through flexible and imaginative thought patterns. It is therefore crucial to involve them when talking about the future, especially when it comes to their projects.
With the support and guidance of facilitators and professionalsthe young protagonists of this hackathon were invited to express their initial considerations on the playroom, before carrying out a direct inspection in the space made available by the Municipality of Pollica for the realization of the project.
Later they returned to the workplace, the Castle of the Princes Capano, to be divided into groups and start working on the design challenge through moments of divergence and convergence, training the values of collaboration and inclusive thinking until reaching a final result on Sunday morning.
The co-design process with the community
The participation of the community during the design of new services is fundamental not only to obtain better ideas and solutions, but also and above all to encourage opportunities for aggregation, discussion and debate develop a proactive mindset that looks to the future with hope and that is able to strengthen the roots that bind the population to its territory.
To use the words of mayor Stefano Pisaniwhich participated in the activity: "There was a time when in Pollica it was difficult to see clearly the future [...] From today, we have a different path to take. The future we build together, starting with the little ones who will have their space - Pollicalandia "the Heart of Fun" with the soul that this weekend, have chosen to give him".
The themes touched on and the projects outcome of the design challenge
The design of the playroom was not limited to imagine a space to play and end in itself, but was preparatory to a rediscovery of the identity values of the territoryEcology, conviviality, biodiversity, sociality and the Mediterranean Diet were all taken into account for an optimal result. Children have learned to reflect on these topics with a overviewin full respect of the principles on which the Pollica 2050 project was founded.
Towards the end of the activity, the working groups were mixed according to different areas and on a voluntary basis of the passions and preferences of the participants: from sport to digital, through ecology, creativity and socialityeach group has contributed to a result that is able to express the local identity in the round and that acts as a compromise for the many proposals made.
The President of the Future Food Institute, Sara Roversi, was satisfied with the outcome of the hackathon: "We designed not a simple "playroom", or a tremendous "baby parking", but a community house able to express its identity, able to preserve the values of the territory, train the ecological awareness of children, stimulate creativity and integrate digital in a "smart" way so that it can truly become an effective tool for improving our lives and not a reason for alienation".
