Designing #nevicata14
#nevicata14 was a unique public space in Milan as well as on the international level. Its distinctive characteristics are the strong vision which was enriched through the communication with citizens, systematic approach to the creation of public space as a continuum of physical equipment and intangible digital services, as well as the project-long curation by the same team that worked on it since very beginning. It was created in the situation of very restricted time and budget and a lot of public attention and pressure. Thanks to the coordination of 2 studios teams and close work with our client — Comune di Milano — we ensured the high quality of process from ideation phase through all the period of project “life” in the square.
You can find full info about #nevicata14 in the Interstellar Raccoons’ publication:
What I did at #nevicata14:
At #nevicata14 I was one of the core members of team and the only person working on it almost full-time for all the duration of project, functioning as a lead designer and project coordinator: leading the production process with subteam of 2–6 people and coordinating the workflow with the overall team of 2 studios (Guidarini-Salvadeo & Interstellar Raccoons) as well as with external actors involved. It also involved controlling the coherence of overall vision of the project in all details of the final outcomes and guiding application of defined strategies. As well as social media managemenet defining the strategies and guidelines as well as documenting the life of the square and following day by day process on all the channels of #nevicata14.
List of activities:
July — October 2014 Atelier Castello public consultation phase:
- developing the initial identity and storytelling of #nevicata14, launching and managing the social media channels to build network;
- designing and running the partecipative workshop in Expo Gate as the part of Atelier Castello process (29/07/2014) — learn about it in our collective post;
- coordinating the creation of #nevicata14 story to be presented as the outcome of the first phase of project as well as the final presentation of all process for public voting.
December 2014 — April 2015 project development phase:
- benchmark of the international successful public spaces cases studies and summarizing the ethnographic findings about Milan based on Eterea work;
- defining the vision and overseeing it implementation when coordinating the efforts of 2 teams — Interstellar Raccoons and Guidarini Salvadeo;
- developing the transmedial identity and storytelling strategies;
- preparing and managing social media channels on daily basis;
- project coordination — communication with internal and external actors and coordination of tasks, team and time.
April 2015 — #nevicata14LAB in Expo Gate — 1 months of work as an open studio overseeing and communicating the construction process and curating program of events to prepare city to #nevicata14:
- developing the space design based on #nevicata14 identity:
- defining the strategy for the program of events, overall management of team and resources;
- daily communication and moderation of events happening;
- archive building.
May — November 2015/#nevicata14 active in the square:
- day to day observations and documentation of the square life;
- social media management, coordination with channels of city administration;
- coordination with events organizers and administration when required;
- running new editions of #nevicata14LAB events at Expo Gate.
November-December 2015/temporary closing:
- defining closing strategy;
- developing the final report;
- curating the postal project to thank all the involved network.
You can read my full reflections on being 360-degree designer in this kind of work and its influence here:
What I brought to the project:
- first of all — my freshly acquired in Politecnico di Milano knowledge of Product Service System Design — it turned to be crucial to be ready to work on the system that we were creating without losing time on overcoming some limits of specialization that designers and architects often have;
- organisational skills which had to be improved a lot refocusing them from my personal tasks management to the team, getting info from all the actors involved and then processing it towards the feasible outcomes coordinating the group efforts when it was required to get that result done;
- product and communication design experience that let to design transmedial identity of #nevicata14 applied to various mediums from website and socials to the physical information signs in the square, Expo Gate space interior, handmade objects, etc.;
- attention to details and skills to really be involved in those details production which insured that every little piece of project was following the general vision and identity;
- storytelling skills: starting with the very first postcards and story of #nevicata14 through the online socials and offline workshop with people, numerous interviews and articles — I played the major role in supervising the integrity of #nevicata14 story;
- ethnographic research —I brought to #nevicata14 the summary of my previous work about public spaces in Milan and followed through all the square lifetime with new observations;
- Russian accent — being the only foreigner in the project team I believe to have brought certain required difference in approach to work as well as cultural diversity of the background;
- most of all — determination to see it through and not give up, trying to adjust and develop new skills out of those that I haven’t ever imagined that designers should have.
What I learnt from it:
- Dark Matter matters — this complicated public process was the best occasion to understand the complexity of real design work, how it gets far beyond what we usually perceive as design competencies but how carefully operating on this deep level permits to have real impact and implement the changes that wouldn’t appear possible for regular design intervention.
- Public design processes have their own dynamics to which regular planning doesn’t really apply, instead its about keeping clear vision in your mind and acting according to it one step at a time trying to reach highest quality possible with resources in hands (it’s Tetris vs. Chess).
- Team dynamics actually also enter the dark matter realm as human factors should be treated with special care and not just managed as an ordinary resource. Professional growth of the team in the end is one of the serious outcomes of the project, not just a means to realize it.
- Process of public engagement is a complicated and difficult issue, requiring a lot of patience and special mindset to be able to maintain your understanding welcoming also the inputs from the outside, it is no always gratifying as well as people eventually have also contradictory opinions on things.
- Coordination and organisation of some activities and events as a software design — even after studying some “immaterial” design on the example of services, it turned to be not instantaneous to apply some of its general principles to the realm of short term happenings, though they play a crucial role in city experience providing to people some delightful moments opposing to the regular service routines.
- A lot about diverse life of public space — I spent hundreds of hours at nevicata involved in different activities, but especially people watching.
- Italian language and the way of doing things— it turned to be not that different from Russian after all, but involving more wine and fun =)
Full project credits:
Sponsors:
City of Milan
Triennale di Milano
Project team:
Guidarini-Salvadeo: Stefano Guidarini, Pierluigi Salvadeo, Luca Varvello, Riccardo Spreafico, Clara Grignani + Chiara Bianchi
Interstellar Raccoons: Yulya Besplemennova, Camilla Ceschi, Chiara Cicchianni, Marco Lampugnani, Camilla Marini, Martina Pini, Marco Pioventini + Lucalberto Bordignon, Clara Michielon, Marta Iole Procaccio, Martina Genovesi, Ilaria Lagioia
