The city in transition, from unsustainable to sustainable

Concetta di Noto

Analysis of the theme “The overpopulation and the unchangeability of the city” through research on the Internet, watching documentaries, films on sustainability and the crisis facing the planet and reading literary texts such as The Invisible Cities by I. Calvino, study of eco-sustainable materials and recycling.

Field Study- Ideation: From the research carried out from the reflection on the same, from the reading and analysis of the invisible cities, the students developed the idea of creating objects playing with recycled materials, cardboard, wood and natural resins, to furnish a park of their own city.

Fabrication: creation of a model of a park containing objects such as a slide in the shape of a tower, a mushroom-shaped house, a leaflet containing fairy tales, a turtle, which serves as a bench, and a dinosaur camouflaged in green and made with recycled or environmentally friendly materials, wood and natural resins and painted with acrylic colors.

Argumentation and reflection: the difficulties encountered in the realization of the prototypes, in the coordination to which they were not accustomed and in the confrontation with school children from other countries do not seem to have discouraged the students, on the contrary, they made them aware of their limitations and how to overcome them.

For the realization of the project the students followed the Design Circle 

Inspired by “Le Città Invisibili”, the students decide to develop ideas to fabricate toys to put in a city park. The groups decided to create: a book at child height, each page is browsable and contains a fairytale; a turtle bench; a dinosaur to ride; a mushroom house and a tower-shaped slide