“LA REPUBBLICA DEL DESIGN” - Bovisa Dergano, the only district that starts and does not end with the Design Week

The “Repubblica del Design” is born with the Milan #design Week 2019, it is localized in Bovisa/Dergano area with various “consulates” in other milanese areas which recognize into the Republic aim.

It is born with a “wishful” spirit: that of Ghigos (the studio inter-disciplinary by birth), that of the creatives of the area and that of the academic institutions that daily promote knowledge and research in the territory, believing in the strength of innovation and imagination; but also that of the Municipality of Milan, which constantly supports experimentation, seeking environmental quality and social cohesion into the project area. And finally, that of POLI.design, who decides to celebrate its twentieth birthday by opening up to the territory, to share with citizens the bets won and the challenges of the near future, with a “design party”.

It is born with a “sensitization” spirit: that which Enea and GSE constantly purse, promoting studies on new urban and territorial models of energy consumption that now arise Bovisa in a futuristic “wall of energy”, but also that which many teachers of Sistema #design of the Politecnico di #milano carry out daily - in field research here told in narrative form - dealing with passion and professionalism with the Autism, Alzheimer, Huntington themes and with the participated “urban construction” practice.

It is born with a “revolutionary” spirit, a spirit the the collective ADA (Associazione Designer Anonimi) perfectly interprets thanks to the subversive and proactive charge of young Interior and Spatial #design students, who, redesigning urban fragments, have chosen to get directly involved, standing up for it, event if in the guise of “anonymous designers”.

It is born with a “dialogic” spirit, promoting an intergenerational dialogue and an ideal passage of #design witness: elementary school children involved by Enea and GSE in the “Kidzdream” project built “urban dreams” and guide a TED with reversed parts; the young creatives of the area play, instead, to rethink the great classics in the technological key “challenging” “master’s” thought. So Ghigos and Alchimia, so ADA and Paolo Deganello #design how to know and recognize each other.

It is born with a “collaborative” spirit, networking local resources: associations (from Amico Charly to the Bocciofila of Via Candiani), creatives (from Mr. Smith to CTRLZAK, from Carlo Contin to Foro Studio, among others) and enlightened companies (from Be Part to Ideas Bit Factory) set up the district, insert concepts, giving an opportunity for urban and social regeneration. While Alessandro Guerriero, Natail Crasset, Lorenzo Damiani (and many others) sign a new “Design Constitution” for the occasion, the enthusiasm for “La Repubblica del Design” is contagious and also involves a heterogeneous system of actors outside the territory: a Musem devoted to #design oriented research like the MAC of Lissone now plays “away” bringing traces of itself and its precious collection to the historical pubs of Bovisa; a historical brand like San Martino exports to the Campus of Via Durando a “collective budinata” open to the city; a street artists collective uses “pictorial design” to prequalify an unresolved urban space thanks to the support offered by Colorpack and, together with the MAUA (Museo di Arte Urbana Aumentata), transforms it into a contemporary fairytale visible augmented reality.

Even foreign contamination enters into the district: Yelab by Weicheng Zhong exposes a creative short circuit and a #design partnership between Milan and Shangai, between the #design Hostel and te ART 72 ROOMS HOTEL.

Thanks to the generosity of all these actors . coordinates by the passionate direction of #davidecrippa from Ghigos - a project is born that has the ambition to consolidate itself in the neighborhood, starting an urban regeneration guided by the look of #design. Far from the economic logic that, too often, directs the action of the operators of the Fuorisalone, the Bovisa-Dergano District opts for a strategic construction of a “poetic” infrastructure action on which rethink the city with the citizens.