A second training module entitled ‘Protecting the Future’, organised by PoliTO per il Sociale, will illustrate theories and practices on the themes of participation and co-design.

The addressees of the initiative are young administrators, under 35 or newly appointed, and young people under 29, in order to approach active citizenship paths by reducing the gap between politics and institutions, addressing topics that aim to increase passion for the common good, public commitment, value ethics and aimed at deepening topical issues.

At the end of the cycle, FULL issues a report to summarise the themes and methods of the initiative, a charter of intentions with the motions expressed by the course participants to be submitted to the administration, and the four-episode podcast ‘Zeta’.

Course program

March 21, 2025 – Visions for a fairer future

• At OGR
• Loris Servillo, Mauro Fontana, Erica Mangione, Manuela Ronci – Polytechnic University of Turin/FULL
Presentation of the course program and objectives.
Lecture on the challenges of planning and managing contemporary cities and the importance of thinking about the city of the future in the context of the “just city,” in line with SDG 11 of the UN Agenda: “Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.”

March 28, 2025 – Regeneration of urban spaces & community spaces

• Presso Scuola primaria “G. Parini” – Corso Giulio Cesare 26
• Cristiana Rossignolo – Politecnico di Torino, Monica Postiglione e Anna Pratt – esperte della materia
Spazi di comunità come hub ibridi sociali-culturali.
• At the “G. Parini” Primary School – Corso Giulio Cesare 26
• Cristiana Rossignolo – Turin Polytechnic, Monica Postiglione and Anna Pratt – experts in the field
Community spaces as hybrid social-cultural hubs.
The presentation will explore the role of urban regeneration of common goods in Italy, analyzing approaches, policies, and tools available to cities and citizens. We will start from the experience of community spaces as cultural hubs, highlighting their impact on urban dynamics and social and institutional innovations. Within this framework, we will present the results of the SPAZI DI COMUNITÀ (COMMUNITY SPACES) research project, carried out in 2024 by NUVAP (Nucleo di Valutazione e Analisi per la Programmazione, Evaluation and Analysis Unit for Planning) at the Department for Territorial Cohesion of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, as part of the SI.VALUTA project. The research analyzed these practices at the national level, with a focus on significant experiences in the Turin area.

April 11, 2025 – Space justice and social justice in the transition towards fairer roads.

• At the Mollino Room of the Valentino Castle
• Gabriele D’Adda and Elisa Vitale – Polytechnic University of Turin/FULL
Reflections, starting from the “Just Streets” project, on spatial justice and social justice in the context of the transition to active and sustainable mobility and the creation of fairer streets. In order to make the transition from car-dominated streets to public spaces characterized by active mobility and a variety of uses, it is essential not only to take into account but also to prioritize the needs and visions of social groups that are often underrepresented in urban planning. A “critical walk” is planned in the pedestrianized area of San Salvario.

May 9, 2025 – Green/blue infrastructure and the environmental transition

• At OGR
• Manuela Ronci and Tymon Wolender – Polytechnic University of Turin/FULL
Strategic planning in river environments
The first part of the meeting will take the form of a lecture and will consist of a theoretical introduction, an overview of the evolution of the main planning approaches, and an in-depth analysis of international case studies, characterized by different focuses and scales of intervention.
The second part of the afternoon will be dedicated to workshop activities. Starting from a reflection on key issues in the transformation of urban river areas, related to the content of the lecture and applicable to the context of Turin, the workshop will aim to identify areas with regenerative potential and to develop macro-objectives/strategies/actions that could potentially be applied in the river areas of the city of Turin.

May 23, 2025 – Digital infrastructure

• At OGR and the nearby Energy Center
• Maria Ferrara – Polytechnic University of Turin/FULL/EST@EnergyCenter team
Digital Twin and climate city contract
The meeting aims to outline the potential offered by digital twins on an urban scale to support the design, implementation, and monitoring of sustainability policies for cities. In this regard, the European context will be analyzed, and in particular the response of pilot cities to the EU Mission “Climate Neutral and Smart Cities,” including the City of Turin. The meeting will conclude at the Decision Theater of the Energy Center of the Polytechnic University of Turin, with a demonstration of the current capabilities of the digital platform under development to support the drafting and monitoring of the Climate City Contract of the City of Turin, outlining its potential for further development and replicability in other urban contexts.

June 6, 2025 – Intangible culture – data and citizen science

• At Officine Creative (Cecchi Point)
• Sofia Fellini and Tommaso Listo, Polytechnic University of Turin/FULL
Data and citizen science
The meeting will be structured as follows: 1) a theoretical lesson on citizen science as a practice of knowledge construction and exchange between the public and institutions; 2) a visit to La Biblioteca dell’Aria, a citizen science project based at Officine Creative; 3) a workshop activity, in which participants will be asked to work in small groups and propose a possible citizen science project on issues relevant to their local areas, to be discussed collectively.

June 13, 2025 – Young people and public engagement

• At OGR
• Loris Servillo, Mauro Fontana, Erica Mangione, Manuela Ronci – Politecnico di Torino/FULL
Final lesson in which participants are guided through a review of the course content, with the aim of presenting their images of the city of the future through two in-person activities:
• Drafting a letter of intent to be presented to the City of Turin
• The creation of an informative podcast together with a radio communication expert

PROTECTING THE FUTURE – curated by PoliTO for Social Issues

June 19, 2025 – Theories and practices on participation and co-design
• At Castello del Valentino or online

June 26, 2025 – Practical workshop on participation and co-design
• At Valentino Castle

The post Challenges for the contemporary city appeared first on FULL | the Future Urban Legacy Lab.

Challenge@PoliTo by Firms – Azzurra

The Topic

The construction and subsequent management of new treatment plants for industrial waste is a process that challenges the local contexts with a number of environmental, spatial and socio-economic repercussions, including the infrastructural networks, the landscape characters, the relations with the local communities, etc.

The challenge

The purpose of this challenge is planning the future expansion of an existing facility treating hazardous and non-hazardous industrial waste, starting from the company’s current strategic development plan. The new expansion will be specifically devoted to the treatment of sludge. The project must include the logistic plan inside and outside the plant, the selection and design of equipment, taking into account the operations to be carried out on sludge (inertization, drying, thermal treatment), the assessment of the most critical aspects in order to obtain the necessary permits and authorizations, a preliminary calculation of the costs and revenues of the project.

Specific attention will be paid to the urban and landscape outcomes of the operation. The challenge, from this point of view, is to conceive a new model of facility that could be seen not just as an unavoidably downgrading installation for the local territory but, on the contrary, as an opportunity to introduce new models of hybridization and symbiosis between waste treatment plants, agriculture, energy generation and local community.

Key objectives:

• Minimize the potential harm associated with waste treatment;

• Ensure the best integration between the waste treatment plant and the surrounding territory;

• Circular economy, Industrial symbiosis;

• Safe handling, storage and disposal

The post Wastescapes appeared first on FULL | the Future Urban Legacy Lab.

The course aims to prepare students for local and global challenges by reflecting on the actions needed to make the cities of the future more equitable and sustainable through technological and social innovation. The economic wellbeing and quality of life of more than half of the world’s population depend on urban and metropolitan areas, the ability to balance growth and innovation in urban areas with social needs and the mitigation of environmental risks and social inequalities, and the concern to protect and promote tangible and intangible cultural heritage for future development.

In this context, the teaching proposes an interdisciplinary approach to the most pressing urban issues, such as: mobility, energy consumption, the water cycle, digital infrastructure, the fight against economic and social inequalities, the regeneration of economic and social inequalities, the regeneration of urban spaces through the ability to reuse the material and immaterial heritage embedded in urban forms and landscapes. Methods, technologies and best practices in the development of applications for smart mobility through the internet of things, climate control and zero energy districts in the urban environment, energy communities, ecosystem services for resilient and sustainable cities through an eco-hydrological approach, new tools for representing the city and city data, methods for assessing the socio-economic impact of policies on the future of urban populations are explored. Each topic is addressed by combining a theoretical framework with laboratory and application activities related to the Turin context.

The lectures include the participation of lecturers affiliated with the FULL centre and external guests, and will explore in detail the research conducted both within the Interdepartmental Centre of the Politecnico di Torino and internationally, success stories, and the analysis of some experiments in pilot cities. The disciplinary areas involved are urban studies, planning and architecture, energy, environmental, network and electronic engineering, and geomatics. The first edition of the course ran from November 2022 to June 2023. The inaugural lecture was delivered by Chiara Foglietta, Councillor of the City of Turin for Ecological and Digital Transition, Innovation, Mobility and Transport.

The third edition is underway for 2024/25.

2022/23 Course program

INTRODUCTION

– 04/11/2022 Presentation of “100 Climate-neutral Cities by 2030,” the case of Turin (with Councilor Chiara Foglietta) + presentation of the course and exercise (Loris Servillo, Caterina Quaglio)

MODULE I/a – Physical and social infrastructure

– 11/11/2022 NZEB, Nearly zero-energy buildings (Maria Ferrara)

– 11/18/2022 Integration of renewable sources and energy communities + visit to the PVZEN laboratory – PhotoVoltaic Zero Energy Network (Enrico Fabrizio)

– 11/25/2022 How food market logistics are changing our cities (Agostino
Strina)

– 12/02/2022 The Valentino Park project (Elena Vigliocco)

– 12/16/2022 Wrap-up 1 (Loris Servillo, Caterina Quaglio)

MODULE II – Ecology and circular economy

13/01/2023 – Designing Circularity – Introduction to the Circular Economy (Elena Piera Montacchini and Silvia Tedesco)

03/03/2023 – Reuse of Rainwater (Roberto Revelli)

10/03/2023 – Water Remediation (Tiziana Tosco)

24/03/2023 – Visit to Ortialti (Elena Carmagnati)

31/03/2023 – Wrap-up 2 (Loris Servillo, Caterina Quaglio)

MODULE III – Smart and Digital

MODULE II/b – Ecology and Circular Economy

MODULE III – Smart and Digital

28/04/2023 – Mobility and Vehicle Traffic Simulation Systems (Marco Rapelli)

05/05/2023 – Visit to 5T (2:00–6:00 PM, two groups)

MODULE I/b – Physical and Social Infrastructure

-19/05/2023 – Regenerating the Existing City, Bike Tour of Case Studies in Turin (Daniele Campobenedetto)

– 26/05/2023 Wrap-up 3 (Loris Servillo, Caterina Quaglio)

(TBD) FINAL EVENT: Presentation of the work and open discussion

cover photo credit: Lucio Beltrami

The post CITIES OF THE FUTURE – Interdisciplinary education dedicated to urban themes. appeared first on FULL | the Future Urban Legacy Lab.

The summer school aims to share, in an international comparative framework, innovative approaches and tools for the synergistic design of financial instruments, environmental recovery procedures and urban master planning operating in complex market conditions on large-scale obsolete industrial sites that embody controversial legacies.

Participants will focus on the analysis of case studies of urban industrial legacy and urban production transformation. They will be asked to develop a toolkit (in terms of architecture, urban planning, landscape design, management, environmental and economic sustainability) and present it publicly at the end of the summer school.

Case Study

Comparative overview of international case studies and focus on Thyssenkrupp Torino, Corso Margherita 400, as a test-case to re-discuss and refine working and investigation methods.

Methodology

• The transformation and re-signification of a physical place in the city imposes interdisciplinary approaches and scientific investigation tools. The identification of economic models of reuse linked to the redevelopment project of industrial buildings / areas that are in search of a new identity need to take into consideration the contributions given by architectural and urban composition, environmental engineering, landscape architecture, industrial and information engineering, economic-political geography, urban economy and engineering for industrial production, all at the same time.
• The project is built not only on an interdisciplinary ground but involves also an international team of scholars. The possibility of hosting interventions, contributions and criticisms of projects carried out jointly by professors of foreign Universities invited by PoliTO.

The research project will be organized in 4 steps:

1. Preliminary research and overview of international best practices of economic and spatial models of industrial legacy re-use.
2. TRANS-USE: TRANS-forming industrial legacy. Spatial and economic models of re-USE. A joint interdisciplinary and international summer school between Politecnico di Torino and Tsinghua University of Beijing, School of Architecture, School of economics and management, held in Turin from 10th to 24th of July 2019.
   Teaching activities will test “in the field” and discuss the various theoretical frameworks, methodological and design approaches. The subjects of investigation of the summer school will not only represent a topic for interdisciplinary analysis and design activity, but they will serve as a test-case to re-discuss and refine working and investigation methods on the Europe-China axis.
3. Students will focus on the analysis of case studies of urban industrial legacy and urban production transformation. They will be asked to develop different strategies, scenarios and visions that will be collected and exhibited in a public event at the end of the school.
4. The final output of the summer school will be a toolkit (in organizational, architectural, urban, construction, environmental and economic sustainability terms) which develops and improves an analytical approach through “research by design” method, concerning transformations at architectural and urban scales and the question of industrial legacy.

Outputs

For each step of the research project the outputs will be:

1. Un atlante di casi di studio su scala globale di ex complessi industriali;
2. Open seminars;
3. A Report of different scenarios: booklet;
4. A toolkit book: it will transform this applied experience into an opportunity for scientific research, further developing the “research by design” method, explored during the summer school.

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