Speaker
Description
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted health challenges, renewing attention to mental health issues, impacting particularly on younger generations. In the face of increasingly rapid processes of urbanization and de-urbanization though, isolation and social disconnection are emerging as a structural public health issue. The anxieties inherited from the cities of the 20th century thus add to new fears related to climate change, depicting a geography of loss that invests both the social and urban fabrics. For cities to be resilient and prepared for today's "grand challenges", the creation of places of hope becomes an essential element (Rao, 2022) that pairs with the need to revise governance and welfare models on the basis of new paradigms of publicness, collaboration, and flexibility. As recalled by recent communication by the European commission, mental health prevention and support require an integrated approach across different policies, including those related to sustainable urban development (European Commission, 2023).
Reaffirming the active and biopolitical role of the space (Viganò, 2023), the contribution presents the first evidence of the European funded project We-Z: emotional WEllbeing of generation Z: reconnecting communities and spaces through imperfect health *(EUI-IA 2023-2027). To combat increasing mental health conditions especially of young people, We-Z aims to test an urban regeneration model based on the intersection of place and heritage making as remedies to human-urban fragmentation. Driven by the principles of the New European Bauhaus, the project develops the public spaces (open and not) of Vigne Nuove, a public housing complex built in the 70s in the northeastern periphery of Rome. Although characterized by the high experimentalism of Modern Italian architecture, the area remained incomplete and today is well known for its closeness and neglect, which is also reflected in prevalent feelings of mistrust between residents and public authorities.
To understand the potential of the city in supporting emotional wellbeing, the project advances a co-creation process based on the theory of recognition (Honneth and Fraser, 2004), exploring alternative ways to enhance human and urban patrimonies. In order to re-activate affective bonds between people and places, the new realised attractors (green, public, welfare spaces and related facilities) become durable transitional devices that foster new common goods and productive ecosystems. Following the lifelines emerging in the district, the paper reflects upon the nexus between public spaces. To this end, it delves into the results of a research activity developed through the Living Lab methodology along three main trajectories: 1) "hidden dwelling": through a process of mapping of the transformations from public to private space with the objective to recognize the housing emergency of the occupants and, revealing the hidden while opening a path towards possible scenarios of future affirmation; 2) memories collection and archiving: a qualitative process of valorizing the collective knowledge situated in the territory, through the collection of material (photos, objects) and immaterial (oral history, interviews) testimonies; 3) co-design: a process advanced with the newly built community.
The methodology combines participatory research with design interventions, emphasizing the transformative power of co-producing relational spaces. This aligns with Geddes's (1915) transdisciplinary vision of education engaging hands, heart, and mind to facilitate social change. Through experimentation, heritage is understood as a dynamic process rather than a static condition, which shapes and is shaped by daily negotiations of urban space and socio-spatial relations.
References
European Commission, 2023. Communication from the commission to the European parliament, the council, the European economic and social committee and the committee of the regions on a comprehensive approach to mental health.
Geddes, S.P. (1915) Cities in Evolution. London, Williams.
Honneth, A., Fraser, N., 2004. Redistribution or Recognition?: A Political–Philosophical Exchange. Verso Books, London; New York.
Rao, M., 2022. Mental health impacts of the climate crisis: the urgent need for action. International Review of Psychiatry 34, 439–440.
Viganò, P., 2023. Giardino biopolitico: spazi, vite e transizione. Donzelli, Roma.
| Best Congress Paper Award | No |
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