REASSURING PLACEMAKING Daniela Petrillo – PhD candidate in Design Politecnico di Milano, Doctoral School of Design @ - daniela.petrillo@polimi.it Agnese Rebaglio – PhD, Assistant Professor Politecnico di Milano, Design Department @ - agnese.rebaglio@polimi.it Abstract: This paper aims to stimulate a new cultural vision about “social safety”: as the lack of beauty is one of the most immediate ways of recognizing the difficult living, and experience is the most popular method of accessing beauty, the goal of this work is to “nurture people imagery” (Lambertini; 2013) through awareness, because pride in the place motivates collective actions to protect beautiful assets. According to the framework of “Design of Hospitable Cities” (Fassi, Giunta; 2009), the notion of “hospitable” merge in all of those process able to transform the city in a open, accessible and sustainable device and, together with the notion of “beauty”, they redefine the concept of wellbeing in the experience of public spaces. The multidisciplinary design research meets here the practice of placemaking. Both of these are characterized by a continuous process of redefinition because of their capability to interpret and solve the variable communities’ needs, above all in the condition of “difficult living” (Lavarra; 2007). Due to several research-action activities, this hardship was identified in San Siro and Gratosoglio, two council neighbourhoods in Milan. There will be here described the three – years - long research process where Humanities, as ethnography and environmental psychology, met the design discipline in order to operate a paradigm shift. From a “Defensible City” (Newman; 1971) to the wider concept of “Reassuring Scenario” in which a set of guidelines for institutions and local stakeholders enriches the existing programs of urban regeneration. They drive the community to apply a series of mixable urban interventions through a socially responsive design process (Gamman, Thorpe; 2009). These interventions transform the places, maybe only for a limited time and in the form of temporary appereance, but they also permanently enliven the site and greatly affect the people’s lives. (R. Lüscher; 2015). Keywords: urban fear, difficult living, urban interior design, reassurance, scenario design, placemaking INTRODUCTION This study starts as a PhD research in Design aiming at actively contributing to the debate on “fear and safety in urban environment”. The interest starts from the concept of city and surveilled space (Foucault 1975). Foucault draws the relationships between the city, its inhabitants and the authority meant to protect and guarantee the fair development of daily activities within the complex urban system. In this new era we can recognize a “new surveillance” 1, different from the one described by Foucault (functional to the State in order to administrate the Country), more related to commercial brands or agencies. They

                                                                                                               1 Surace, M.; Dalla sorveglianza moderna alla New Surveillance: il ruolo delle tecnologie informatiche nei nuovi metodi di controllo sociale in Analisi socio-giuridica del rapporto tra sorveglianza e diritto alla riservatezza nell'era di Internet, research available on L’altro diritto – Centro di documentazione su carcere, devianza e marginalità - www.altrodiritto.unifi.it/ricerche/control/surace/index.htm

elaborate personal information to control and manipulate social interactions, preferences and opinions. Considering the knowledge as the main component of the paradigm of control (Revel 2003), it is possible to assume that data is the reason for which control mechanism works. There are two kinds of control: the institutional one, meaningful and believable, socially clear, with the specific task to verify that people do not trespass normal symbolic boundaries; instead the informal control passes through the social interaction between people and it represents the hidden part of control mechanism, then it resides in the daily activities. Personal safety is a crucial factor of lifestyle options, and crime is considered one of the main problems threatening the quality of urban life (Blobaum 2005). Further, the fear of crime is now recognized as a more diffused problem than crime itself (Hale, 1996). The first research question inquiry the nature of this fear: is it only a product of a criminogenic condition or is more broadly related to the concept of city-dwelling, as a metaphor for quality of urban life? (Bannister and Fyfe, 2001) This approach can be characterized as being concerned with 1. - Explaining fear as the product of victimization, 2. - As the consequence of a breakdown in social control; 3. - As being mediated by the urban environment. Building upon this classification, it is possible to discern that an understanding of the city, of its people and their interactions and of its public and private spaces, has much to offer the investigation of fear. The most interesting consideration for this research is the third one and it focuses on how fear is commonly known as the environmental thesis.

Fear is embedded in the physical and social characteristics of place and the familiarity of that space to the individual. People effectively read the environment as a barometer of risk and protective factors. In the end, the environment provides an individual with visual evidence (when other knowledge is limited) of the likelihood of criminal risk and the likelihood that others will intervene on their behalf. Clearly, if this hypothesis carries worth, then fear is allied to urban form and the ways in which urban spaces are utilised and given meaning. As Hale (1996, p. 84) observes is more probable that we are not merely measuring the fear of crime, but rather some other attribute which might be better characterised as ‘insecurity with modern living’, ‘quality of life’, ‘perception of disorder’ or ‘urban unease’. A significant part of what we take to be the fear of crime actually represents a ‘displaced’ urban anxiety. (Bannister, Fyfe 2001).

FEAR, WELLBEING AND PROXIMITY IN CONTEMPORARY URBAN INTERIORS One of the goals of this work is to inquiry the current tools for reading the phenomena related to perceived fear and safety in the urban context. Between these, the Safe City Index 20152 sponsored by NEC for The Economist. It ranks 50 cities worldwide across five continents and its aim is to introduce a new definition of “urban safety”. The SCI measures the relative level of safety of a diverse mix of the world’s leading cities using four main categories of safety: digital security, health security, infrastructure safety and personal safety. The five safest cities in the world are distributed in Europe (Amsterdam – 5th, Stockholm - 4th) and in Asia (Osaka – 3rd, Singapore - 2nd, Tokyo – 1st) and the final report highlights that cities are growing at a pace that’s greater than the ability of some governments to develop and mantain additional services. (D. Lewis, Urban Risk Reduction Program – UN Habitat). There are other valuable programs that deal with the exploration of “safety” considering it related not only to technological devices, but as a complex system. Between the ones developed by UN Habitat, the Safer Cities Program stands out. It was launched in 1996 at the request of African Mayors seeking to tackle urban crime and violence in their cities. To date UN-Habitat has supported initiatives in 77 cities in 24                                                                                                                2 http://safecities.economist.com/

countries worldwide. The Safer Cities Programme has evolved over time as knowledge on the drivers of urban insecurity has been gained and approaches to addressing it have been refined. Today the Programme embraces a holistic, integrated, multi-level government and multi-sectoral approach to improving the livability of cities and quality of life for all urban residents, predicated on the confidence that good urban governance, planning and management can improve the safety of neighborhoods.3 Within the same framwork the Concept Notes A Safe City as a Just and Equitable City realized during the World Urban Forum 7 (Medellín, April 2014) is considerable relevant. The final report highlights the innovative thoughts and experiences related to urban development which have positively impacted on the safety of the most excluded and vulnerable groups, which have engaged them as agents of change and made their cities and urban lives more equitable. It discuss original programming, skills and methodologies which focus specifically on the most vulnerable and excluded urban populations as key agents of change and encourage multi-level networks and partnerships interested in improving urban. Finally, it identifies roles of different levels of government and legislative mechanisms that promote safe and just cities for the most marginalized. More in detail, this document suggests to involve youth and women in educational processes on urban culture, to empower communities through accessible public spaces and economic opportunities. These are just two examples useful to explain the necessity of a new kind of integrated approach about the fear and safety issues in urban context. It is clear that the value of the experience, in our post-modern era, it has become predominant. Safety is no more necessarily at the base of the system’s needs, but it is a goal to achive. Then it is possible to observe an overturning of Maslow’s Hierarchy [img 1]: safety is a results of a series of actions that start from the single person (self–actualization and esteem), extending its power to the wider context (creating a sense of belonging) and then allowing people to express their personal sense of safety and physiological needs.

Despite the current crisis has compomised the self-actualization process, it has triggering a progressive approachment between people, redefining the rules of “proximity”. Talking about proximity means to focus the attention on the middle of the Maslow’s Hierarchy: it is useful to analyze in depht the “sense of belonging” as a consequence of a complex experiential system, as a result of a singular path (because of it is lived by singles) and that find its complete expression when it is shared. Proximity legitimizes the authenticity, the truth of the processes and their sustainability. The daily practical experience, that                                                                                                                3 http://unhabitat.org/safer-cities/

Img 1. – The scheme represent the overturning of Maslow’s Hierarchy

marks the quality of life, aim to the physical (and not only digital) proximity. Today we are witnessing an extraordinary revenge of the physical places and territories against abstract and virtual experiences, completely de-contextualized, a recovery of the physical capability of the land to produce energy in a unique way, deeply emphasizing its own elements and conditions. And the community usually less prepared to managing globalization, but strongly rooted in the places of their daily existence, are the first to experience the potential of "universal proximity" in which we all now destined to live.4 This renewed bond with the territory where we live, where we are ‘at home’, seems to emerge from the multiple forms of re-appropriation of urban space implemented by its inhabitants in a process that provides institutions with a new agenda on re-lived and re-semantised spaces. Spaces and significant urban places are occupied, re-invented, through dissent and converted again into public spaces. Places of the urban landscape that were sadly closed or are underused are re-activated through different ideas, such as the common good, the importance of the sustainability of living in cities, the principle of social justice, which are critical to the processes of unbridled globalisation, address the need to make all living spaces accessible. The urban interior design5 includes new instances and adopted tools, methods and processes of which fewer and fewer seem to belong to the historical discipline of architecture, but which are increasingly contaminated by related and varied disciplinary practices. The boundaries between the process and the project will fade, especially thanks to the activation of participatory and inclusive paths in which the community is the main stakeholder. The design practice is, finally, more and more contaminated with artistic practices, with reflections carried out by social disciplines that are anthropological and geographical in nature. Urban interiors as common areas, squares, empty streets, courtyards and micro-worlds are sought and re-activated. Spaces are immediately and temporary changed, to be and to do, together. The signs of the re-appropriation of these spaces and the establishment of new ties with them reveal an inherent value in them—a functional value but most of the meaning and identity speak of the awakening of a collective creativity and an urban social, a new demand for well-being and happiness. These phenomena left their mark on the urban living space that has suffered processes of divestment of productive places but also of small residual spaces, processes of transformation of places of everyday living. For some years now, we have seen how it has established a research measuring a value that ‘subjectively’ quantifies the perceived well-being by people. The European Union launched, for the first time in 2007, the initiative Beyond Gdp. It develops indicators that are as clear as GDP, but more inclusive of environmental and social aspects of progress6. Economic indicators such as GDP were never designed to be comprehensive measures of prosperity and well-being. In addition to the more traditional indicators of GDP, the concept of the measurement of well-being was developed. Well-being indicators are used to broadly illustrate people’s general satisfaction with life or to give a more nuanced picture of well-being in relation to their jobs, family life, health conditions, and standards of living7. Perhaps it is the economic crisis that makes additional measures of the new GDP even more important and necessary. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has advocated the need to develop new measures of people’s well-being and societal progress and has                                                                                                                4 F. Morace, Società Felici (2004) 5  For a definition of Urban Interior Design: “Arredo Urbano o “Interni Urbani”? by L. Crespi - text from the conference held November 20th 2013 at Triennale di Milano available at http://www.arcipelagomilano.org/archives/28584  6 http://ec.europa.eu/environment/beyond_gdp/index_en.html 7 ‘Well-being measures can be both “subjective” and “objective”. The subjective measures are based on self-reporting by individuals, which makes it possible to capture direct measures of high complexity such as life-satisfaction. Objective measures, on the other hand, attempt to capture these complex life-satisfaction variables by looking at indicatory variables, such as leisure time, marital status, and disposable income’. http://ec.europa.eu/environment/beyond_gdp/indicators_en.html

recently launched its Better Life Initiative8. The general objectives of the operation call for the identification of policies for improving the quality of the built environment: ‘The framework for regional and local well-being starts with the consideration that making better policies for better lives requires making where people live a better place.’9 Among other experiences it is important to note that the United Nations’ working program UN-Habitat, which aims to focus on the quality of cities: ‘Its mission is to promote socially and environmentally sustainable human settlements development and the achievement of adequate shelter for all’.10 We observe, therefore, a new and growing attention to ‘soft’ and subjective values in a framework of ‘living together’11 in the urban environment in transformation. It is also interesting to note that the proposed indicators are always present; on the one hand, the connections/relationships, on the other hand, the quality of environment that is perceived: ‘The environment also matter intrinsically as many people attach importance to the beauty and the healthiness of the place they live’ 12. In this sense, we can say that, at the heart of institutions, as well as the design sensibility, there must be an urban space in which to identify, in which build relationships, which recognises an aesthetic quality; in short, that is liveable and more habitable.

THE PARADIGM OF DIFFICULT LIVING IN MILAN: TWO CASE STUDY The challenges of livability in urban places are more real when we observe a stress in the dynamics of social inequality and in complicated cohabitation, where the goals of individual well-being are far from being achieved and often are accompanied by a collective discomfort. In the Italian context, we refer in particular to the council housing estates, where there still exists an excessive concentration of inhabitants in difficult conditions and what Lavarra has well defined as ‘difficult living’ often occurs. In 2007, in ‘Cronache dell’abitare’ (translated by the author as ‘Chronicles of Living’), which was an extensive study lead by Multiplicity about the state of living in Milan, G. Lavarra describes the paradigm of difficult living as composed by three layers: the relevant presence of foreigners from disadvantaged areas, most of them from non-EU seaward Mediterranean countries, the lack in the housing offer and the building decay. As to the first level, it is a typical discomfort of those people who already have a long tradition of immigration to Italy and that have become part of a network of informal protection in their introductory path to the country. This is the case of immigrants from Egypt, Morocco and the Philippines. There are also many groups of people that come to Italy ‘without a network’ who must integrate into their new community with their own poor resources. The second layer concerns the coexistence between vulnerable categories, such as recent non-EU immigrants, as well as students from other cities or elderly people. The inaccessibility of the housing market necessarily leads them to choose home-sharing within difficult community life. The house collects many individual privacies and the bed no longer corresponds to the sole function of sleeping; instead, it plays a role in daily living. The third level, related to the building decay, is not necessarily linked to the previous two, but it marks clearly the public building sector. This stems from the absence of ordinary maintenance by responsible institutions and has a relevant endemic character because it produces and disseminates further degradation around him (Wilson and Kelling, 1982). Neglect building weighs negatively on interpersonal relations among the inhabitants: the social bonds become weakened and conflicts arise.

                                                                                                               8 The web site http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/ allows one to compare well-being across countries, based on the 11 topics the OECD has identified in the areas of material living conditions and quality of life. 9 http://www.oecd.org/gov/regional-policy/regional-well-being-framework.htm 10 http://unhabitat.org/un-habitat-at-a-glance/ Mandated by the UN General Assembly in 1978 to address the issues of urban growth, it is a knowledgeable institution on urban development processes, and understands the aspirations of cities and their residents. 11 R., Sennet, Together (2012) 12 OECD (2013) How’s Life? 2013: Measuring Well-being, OECD publishing

This is the scenario of social exclusion and economic poverty, but especially that of cultural weakness that prevents a clear interpretation of the system of causes and effects. Since 2002, In order to counter these phenomena, the city of Milan has adopted the Neighbourhood Contract II13 and it is currently active in five districts: Ponte Lambro, Molise - Calvairate, Mazzini, San Siro and Gratosoglio. Thanks to a joint effort between the government and local stakeholders, beyond the aim of improving the physical and tangible places of everyday life, there are several supporting actions and social cohesion initiatives. The main tool that connects the Administration and residents is the Laboratory of District, mainly consists of a group of educators who support and promote the empowerment in the neighbourhoods. This research is developed in two of these neighoborhoods, San Siro [img 2] and Gratosoglio. The first one is is located in the northwest part of the city of Milan. It was built between 1935 and 1947 according to a Rationalist approach of some of the greatest Italian architects of the time, including F. Albini, Camus and De Carli. The entire compound was built with a higher building density at the expense of green areas and public facilities14. Even today, the relationship between population and public facilities is not sufficient to ensure the quality of life of the inhabitants. The spare, devoid of movement buildings, which are 3 or 4 floors high and flat-roofed, are interspersed with courtyards and are distributed along a neatly orthogonal street system that determines the characteristic shape of the neighbourhood, now known as the ‘quadrangle of San Siro’.The progressive aging of the population, together with the increasing presence of foreign people seeking housing and the strong presence of individuals in mental distress, are the main demographic features of the San Siro district. This plurality of issues triggered and fuelled a widespread conflict that afflicts the lives of residents and feeds prejudices, thus increasing the sense of insecurity. Furthermore, a series of physical, territorial and social elements outline the image of marginality that, over time, have been linked to this area of the city. The partly decaying buildings, few remaining shops and the neglected public spaces have strengthened the image of ‘social enclaves’. The neighbourhood of Gratosoglio [img 3] is located in the south of Milan. The district was founded in the early sixties with the intent to give a quick response to the housing needs resulting from migratory pressure of those years. The use of prefabrication allowed to reach the goal in time greatly reduced. Gratosoglio, designed as "satellite district" and designed by the group BBPR following the precepts of modern architecture (on the wake of the French Grand Ensemble) is composed of 52 linear buildings (9 floors), 8 towers (16 floors) and related services as schools, churches, commercial equipment and leisure. The design of open space have received a great importance, the green areas are still a dominant element of composition and represent a very important resource.15 The critical issues are here related to the raised presence of NEET (Not (engaged) in Education, Employment or Training) and to the presence of one of the biggest hosting centre for homeless and disadvantaged people from different countries. There is a lack of integrated services open at the day time for both of these groups: their inactivity among the buildings is not considered as what it is - a social problem – but most of the inhabitants read it as an element of decay. Alongside these problems in both of the neighborhoods, some elements of social dynamism are recognisable, including the active presence of groups for support of the inhabitants, volunteer associations, social cooperatives and active and lively parishes. Despite this active vocation, interaction and dialogue with the rest of the city is still essential for the district. This amount of energy could help activate latent socio-territorial

                                                                                                               13 http://www.mit.gov.it/mit/site.php?p=cm&o=vd&id=60 14 An in-depth analysis about the borough available at http://www.laboratoriodiquartiere.it/contratto_quartiere_index.htm 15 more information available at http://www.laboratoriogratosoglio.it/

conditions and expand the horizon of action with stimuli that start from the local community. This change in perspective allows for the transition of the identity of the neighbourhood as a ‘fenced’ and confined place to a more open and attractive vision of the territory as a part of the big puzzle of the city.

Img 2 – San Siro and Img 3 – Gratosoglio: the collages aim to show the physical characteristics of the area.  

HOW REASSURING SCENARIO MEETS PLACEMAKING To enrich the knowledge about San Siro and Gratosoglio and to re-frame the goal of this work, is useful to consider the data about crime events. The most complete release was developed by Transcrime Joint Center16. In this report Transcrime inquiry the spatial conditions of urban crimes through new techniques and methods, in collaboration with the Police Department and its database. Considering three specific events as muder, burglary and robbery and three indexes as places, time and timing evolution, it is possible to draw a dynamic crime-portrait of Milan. [img 4] These images show that San Siro and Gratosoglio are not considered as hot-spots of crime compared to other areas closer to the city center and usually considered the most livable and welcoming.

The previous considerations have led this work towards a more detailed analysis of the territories through two research-action paths. The first one, Mapping San Siro, held in the same district in the winter of 2013 in collaboration with the DAStU17- Politecnico di Milano, has fostered a study on the issues related to the housing offer and to the accessibility of public spaces through many meetings, debates and discussions with local stakeholders. The second one, Gratosoglio TVB18, held from 2013 to 2014 within the project “Adolescent and Safety”19, has allowed us to focus on sense of safety and coexistence in the district through the involvement of NEET. Since both of these experiences have emerged many useful elements to understand which are the spaces and the shapes of uneasiness. Concerning to San Siro, courtyards are the most critical element: several "micro worlds"20, disputed areas marked by the difficult coexistence between the elderly and children. In the case of Gratosoglio, some areas of transition between the 8 white towers of via Baroni are defined as "difficult": characterized by a succession of semi-enclosed "corridors" that connect paved platforms. These areas have any kind of attractiveness, especially due to the closure of the shops that were located at the ground floor some years ago.

Without a complex crime’s emergency in these two cases, the need to contextualize the perceived fear phenomenon as a product of the urban environment is more relevant. Interpretation, use and management of public spaces become the key nodes of this

                                                                                                               16 http://www.transcrime.it/ 17  Department of Architecture and Urban Studies 18 translated “Gratosoglio, I love you” 19 Project developed by Lo Scrigno in collaboration with Amapola, Farsi Prossimo and the support of the Council of the 5th district. According to the law 285/1997 – promotion of right and opportunity for childhood and adolescence - www.comune.milano.it/portale/wps/ portal/CDM?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/wps/wcm/connect/ContentLibrary/giornale/giornale/tutte+le+notizie+new/sicurezza+e+coesio ne+sociale+polizia+locale+protezione+civile+volontariato/disagio_giovanile_adolescenti_sicurezza

20 definition by F. Cognetti, coordinator of the permanent research lab Mapping San Siro http://www.mappingsansiro.polimi.it/?page_id=51

Img 4 – from the left to the right: Robbery, density of crime events happened from 2007 to 2010; Muder, density of crime events happened from 2004 to 2010; Burglary, density of crime events happenend from 2007 to 2010. The neighborhoods of San Siro and Gratosoglio are highilted with a circle.

research. The project proposal aims to promote a paradigm shift within these communities, so as to shift the focus from "security" to "reassurance." Considering the overturning of Maslow's Hierarchy as described above, it is possible to design a process that includes, empowers and involves individuals, and then the local community, in order to gain an emotional stability in relation to the places of their daily lives. Unlike the "safe city", that has always been strongly investigated by many disciplines and yearned by the policies as a system that can guarantee protection through control, the construction of a "reassuring scenario" expects shared action from the bottom, made up by concrete visions on the future of public space.21 The research starts from the concept of “reassurance” that means “renewed or restored confidence” or “to relieve (someone) of anxieties” and “allay the doubts and fears of” (The Oxford English Dictionary 2nd Ed. Vo l . XIII., 1989:293). These definitions show how broader the term could be and how is related to the feelings and to the personal experience. Then, the concept of “reassurance” is combined with “scenario” as design tool. Like other user-centered approaches, scenario-based design changes the focus of design work from defining system operations (i.e., functional specification) to describing how people will use a system to accomplish work tasks and other activities. However, unlike approaches that consider human behavior and experience through formal analysis and modeling of well-specified tasks, scenario-based design is a relatively lightweight method for envisioning future use possibilities (Rosson and Carroll, 2002). The pattern proposed by Design for Urban Reassuring Scenario22 research aims to be applied within the existing urban renewal programs (as the Contract of Neighborhood), with the goal of provide useful guidelines to fight the perceived fear through cohesive actions with a direct impact on public space. The strategy runs according to four stages: Insight, Frame, Glean, Envision. The first phase includes stakeholders and activities monitoring, as to track the strengths and weaknesses of the community.

The Frame phase consists of a direct involvement of the community, inviting people to think about the theme of the image of the place as a mirror of their daily lives.  The work of the Laboratory of District San Siro with the activity "San Siro: I like, I do not like" it is within this framework: the photographs taken by the inhabitants during one entire month, in different days and conditions, has enabled the identification of the most critical elements of the district.

                                                                                                                22  ongoing PhD research by Daniela Petrillo at Doctoral School of Design at Politecnico di Milano  

Img 5. – Applied strategy for DURS – Design for Urban Reassuring Scenario

This stage is followed to the Glean one, in which the data related to the problems previously identified are intersect with the results of the Insight phase. This way allows to understand how many and which stakeholders has to be involved in the next phase, enhancing the specific skills of each one, integrating competencies by themselves. Then comes the phase of Envision within the scenario is build through the use of images of the real context, foreshadowing possible actions of intervention. These will consider not only the ways in which the design disciplines has so far acted on “safety”23, but considering the practical actions on the space taking into account that needs and visions can evolve quickly together with the community and the strategy has to be light and adaptable. Temporary projects can – just like vagabonds – transform a place, maybe only for a limited time and in the form of transitory appereance, but they also permanently and substantially remain in the people’s memories. The fundamental success factors in these endeavours are the way the public space is dealt with, the aesthetic quality of the product, and the adaptation of the approach to the situation’s speficities.24 And this is Placemaking. According to the contribution of Places in the Making (2013) “we stress placemaking’s empowerment of community through the “making” process. In placemaking, the important transformation happens in the minds of the participants, not simply in the space itself. As placemaking does, the project is centered around observing, listening to, and asking questions of the people who live, work, and play in a particular space in order to understand their needs and aspirations for that space and for their community as a whole. With this knowledge, we can come together to create a common vision for that place. CONCLUSION The process developed in this research aim to contribute in nurturing imagery (Lambertini 2013), stimulating new cultural vision and awareness because pride in the place can motivate collective actions to protect beautiful assets.25 Beauty is the reassuring element that design is able to deal with through its creative process. In 2010 the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (UK) carried the research People and places.26 One of the results suggests that beauty is fundamental to people’s lives, independently from their cultural or geographic background. Its consideration cannot be pigeonholed in certain areas of policy: the perception of beauty, or the lack of it, is part of people’s everyday lives.27 The lack of beauty is one of the most immediate ways of recognizing poverty and deprivation and, at the same time, experience is the most popular method of accessing beauty – the ability to have an environment in which people can receive the best of what that it has to give. The act of creating […] brings a self-selected group to the table - a group ready to deliberate and create positive change is the best forms of community engagement andis the best forms of placemaking: those that recognize and exploit the virtuous cycle of mutual stewardship between community and place. This is the conceptual glue that supports success at the project level and propels the placemaking field forward.28

                                                                                                               23 in particular this paper considers as the most relevant the contributions of the following exhibitions: Safe. Design Takes on Risk – MoMA, NY, October 2005 – January 2006, curated by Paola Antonelli and Senza Pericolo! Building and Safety – Triennale di Milano, MI, May – September 2013, curated by Alessandro Mendini 24 R. Lüscher; 2015 25 Bauman, I; Beauty and the new localism in Beauty, localism and deprivation - People and places: essay three, Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment CABE (2010) 26 www.webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110118095356/http://www.cabe.org.uk/files/people-and-places.pdf 27 Bakhshi, H.; Beauty: value beyond measure? - People and places: essay seven, Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment CABE (2010)

28  Places in the Making, pag. 66  

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