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Accepted Paper:

Beauty, participation and inclusion: designing (and making) with homeless people  
Valentina Porcellana (University of Turin) Cristian Campagnaro (Turin Polytechnic)

Paper short abstract:

“Living in the dorm” is the action-research started in 2009 in Italy. It’s dedicated to develop strategies to strengthen the quality of housing for homeless people. With a participatory approach, anthropology and design to promote process for the co-design and co-construction.

Paper long abstract:

"Living in the dorm" is the action-research started in 2009 in Italy. It is dedicated to develop strategies of product and process to strengthen the quality of housing for vulnerable people. The theoretical postulate is that spaces that host the housing service for homeless can only be redeveloped and transformed into places rich in symbolic contents and opportunities for relationships. With a participatory approach, anthropologists and designers are using the tools of the design and the languages of creativity to generate ecosystems in which the idea of beauty and change and the need for a qualitative dimension of the service acquires priority.

The development and embodiment of the design concepts respect the self-production strategies shared among the process stakeholders, making the most of the biographies, skills and professionalism of the users of the service. The projects draw on biographic elements and specific circumstances of the homeless people with respect to the housing service provided giving them value, by incorporating them into the fruition of structure and service, which design culture identifies as essential.

This generates products suited to the space and to the people, which are also worthy in terms of the relational value that they express. They tell the story of lives that have crossed paths in the everyday nature of moments of shared life and negotiations. The reflection led to rethink the purpose of the housing for homeless, also in terms of development of territory, of citizens' welfare, empowerment and cohesion.

Panel P16
New directions in anthropology, architecture and design
  Session 1