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Project

Social Productive Infrastructures

During the past decades, the traditional conception of infrastructure as a set of static structures, systems, and facilities serving the economy of a city, is switching to a broader and more social-oriented meaning. Particularly in the last two decades a new understanding of infrastructures has emerged (Amin and Thrift, 2002)(Simone, 2006)(de Boeck, 2011)(Farias. 2010 (Amin, 2014)(Graham and McFarlane, 2015)(Friedman, 2006). This school of thought rethinks infrastructures beyond their material and technical limits and critically reframes them as a part of the “urban social” and collective culture and space (Amin, 2006). In this context, the Social Productive Infrastructures are a set of catalyst architectural and urban devices both able to offer some basic services to the users and involves them in the productive making processes. The focus of this research will be on the design of Social Productive Infrastructures which can lead to the redistribution of resources, increase urban justice and promote solidarity. The research will be pursued with the help of 1) carefully selected architectural project tasks directly relevant to the research question 2) Contemporary theories on social infrastructures in three parallel and interactive tracks. These tracks will help to conduct: T1: Socio-spatial investigation of the specific urban context(s) in European cities the relevant projects are situated in, T2. Research on the social-productive cycles employed in the relevant projects: T3. Strategies, tactics and tools for the implementation of social-productive infrastructures and architectural devices for activation

Date:26 Oct 2017 →  13 Feb 2023
Keywords:social productive infrastructures, collective space, social justice, urban devices, redistribution.
Disciplines:Architectural engineering, Architecture, Interior architecture, Architectural design, Art studies and sciences
Project type:PhD project