Designing Connected Places is the slogan of the International Summer School, an initiative of great interest in the calendar of Torino 2008 World Design Capital, which led students and teachers to look at the territory of Piemonte understood as a complex network of social co-existence and production processes.

The six workshops were held at the University of Gastronomic Sciences of Pollenzo under the banner of the promotion of effective and original local development strategies linked to the following emergencies: citizens' health and well-being, sustainable urban mobility, security and quality of life in the city, new distribution networks of local food products, advanced systems of representation of complex phenomena that involve local communities, and distributed re-organisation of production facilities.

At the end of the work, that lasted two weeks and involved students and teachers of various nationalities, concrete solutions were offered to the problems raised by the local communities, using the tools typical of contemporary design, a catalyst for experimental and innovative reactions able to originate new kinds of interaction between local areas, resources, users and clients.

Positive comments on the results achieved and on the preparation and participation of the students were expressed by the tutors, who we asked to draw some conclusions of this highly creative teaching experience.

Caterina Tiazzoldi, of Columbia University in New York, is very satisfied with the result of the week of work in the cross-disciplinary session held at the Politecnico di Torino entitled Prototyping The City, which led to the creation of a temporary installation, the result of research on the border between the digital avantgarde, design and architecture, developed in an atmosphere with a creative buzz because of the practical goal. "Thanks to parametric design systems, an experimental public place was created to display the activities of the International Summer School workshops, an info-point that is also a self-promotion due to its strong personality and sculptural presence" is how Caterina Tiazzoldi described the project, adding that "at the inauguration, the presence of representatives of the international media and academic world gratified the work of the students, which had been truly commendable."

The structure is currently on show at the former Officine Grandi Riparazioni railway repair yards of Torino (OGR).

A positive judgment was also given of the outcome of the workshop entitled Food Networks, organised by Martí Guixé, the pioneer of the experimentation of the relationship between food and design. In this case, participants were asked to build a network that promoted the local production of fruit and vegetables and at the same time strengthened direct distribution by the producers. As the organiser explained, the result is a "system based on the concept of a common centre to supply products, but also the exchange of experience and traditions, where the producer takes pride of place both in terms of economic power and from the conceptual point of view of becoming themselves enhancers of local production and specific gastronomic understanding."

Cristian Campagnaro, the local team leader of the workshop of the redistribution of new production networks, started from analysis of Piemonte, characterised by industrial development that, on the traditional American model, separates the places of production from the other forms of use of the territory. Over time, production systems have changed considerably and their relationship with the territory has also changed, creating new relations between the production and residential systems. All production activities generate output of recognised economic value, the products, and outputs, which are generally considered as waste to be processed at very high economic and social costs, the refuse. This negative model can be overturned by adopting a systemic approach that triggers virtuous relations thanks to which the outputs of one process become inputs of another one. Settlements can thus be created that blend production, agricultural, residential and tertiary activities, with almost zero waste. (L.P.)

Link: Summer School