Neighbourhoods of contemporary cities are 'hypersensitive' and 'fragile' areas where dismantling and transformation processes generate fragmentation and displacement. Reconstruction and re-occupation of urban spaces guided by residents are becoming increasingly frequent in these places; inhabitants, claim local references to their identity and their daily lives. This book presents some reflections on the role of design discipline in this fertile and proactive context, proposing specific research methodologies and intervention strategies in close relation with the resident population, building new skills, creating original synergies, and new processes of inclusion and social innovation. The research done at the Design department in the Politecnico di Milano aims at generating future scenarios of hybridization of functions, places, activities that will provide an answer to the future development of neighbourhoods.
Two applications of the results have been done in the neighbourhood recently named as NoLo - North of Piazzale Loreto - in Milan - Italy, characterized by the existence of many associations and a social district. The process and results of them are described in this book by analysing the impact and the legacy they have: "ARNOLD - Art and Design in NoLo Social District", based on the set-up of exhibitions of artworks by 22 artists in 22 unconventional places of art through a co-design process with neighbours, artists and owners of the concerned sites, and "Zip Spaces" focused on the creation of interior design proposals through solutions of temporary reuse of dismantled commercial spaces that can display innovative aggregative formats of activities derived from existing business in the neighbourhood.