This project was a finalist in the European Responsible Housing Awards 2022 under the ‘Building strategic alliances, fostering community participation’, organised by Housing Europe, the International Union of Tenants and DELPHIS.
Organisation: Municipality of Bologna and Acer
Goals
The objective of ACER was three-fold – to increase the environmental footprint of the area, to improve well-being and to build a stronger community.
Environmentally speaking, the project aimed at increasing the resilience of the urban area, using eco-friendly components and materials; to lower the heat island effect, and fight energy poverty. Villaggio Grandusio also set an objective to solve issues of use of indoor and outdoor spaces, as well as to assign concrete functionalities to shared spaces. To boost the community spirit, the project managers wanted to create an identity for the available spaces, improve the attractiveness of the area, increase the sense of belonging and raise awareness of the need to take care of common areas.
Context
Bologna is an attractive European city, rich in diversity and designed for people. Rental prices in Bologna are among the highest in Italy and this has a great impact on resident families. In 2018, the Municipality of Bologna – through its managing body, ACER- started a complex activity of retrofitting and achieving energy efficiency of the buildings of the public housing complex Via Gandusio no. 6-8-10-12. Over the decades, this settlement, in addition to normal physical deterioration, has experienced phenomena of increasing social conflict. This is partly due to an excessive concentration of situations of fragility in the same context, with negative repercussions on the housing quality and liveability of the entire neighbourhood system.
The process involved the refurbishment of the façades with thermal insulation; better maintenance of the balconies, roofing, atriums and stairwells; improvement of the maintenance of the electrical and gas system; replacement of fixtures; installation of heat meters.
An integrated project was needed to provide not only a physical but above all social regeneration, to restore the dignity of living and positive relationships between people in the Via Gandusio.The challenge was to transform one of the city’s most critical public housing areas into a place of social innovation, with an experimental project that could also be replicated. Villaggio Gandusio aims to be a place integrated into the neighbourhood, where the quality of living and social inclusion are expressed in the sustainability of the social mix and in shared projects of aggregation and solidarity. To achieve this goal, a coaching was necessary and social mediation, to ensure a good coexistence among residents.
These measures took place with the help of social mediation activities of the social cooperative, an open group, and a constant presence and coordination by the institutions. The social mix was also enriched by an agreement with Er.go (Regional Authority for the Right to Higher Education) that granted apartments to benefit low-income university students who have engaged in a community care project, helping residents’ children with after-school activities.
What is innovative about this project?
In a large part of neighbourhoods with public housingin Bologna, apartments were assigned according to a criterion of social mix allowing the creation of a lively and diversified community, in compliance with the rules in force. Through the work of social mediators, this methodology built up a sense of positive belonging to the community, empowered residents, fostered care and respect for common goods, and favoured the consolidation of self-help networks between neighbours.
The idea of havinglow-income university students being involved in the collaboration project with residents’ children, has strengthened the social mix and the change of image of Via Gandusio from a conflictual and run-down area into one of civic participation and collaboration between residents and public institutions. This is a project intended to be repeated in other large social housing areas in the city.
Interventions
- Retrofitting of the public houses in Via Gandusio (160 apartments, plus common areas).
- Constant presence of facilitators with a designated office inside one of the buildings.
- Assignment of the renovated apartments according to a social mix model.
- Allocation of some apartments to benefit low-income university students.
- Social mediation actions to foster a good coexistence among residents.
- Activities to improve common spaces and green areas surrounding the buildings.
- Draftingof a common manual for the use of spaces by the tenants
- A website dedicated to the development of the project, open to the collaboration of inhabitants and citizens.
- Regeneration of the common external areas.
- Training for residents to become community facilitators.
- Activities and events to foster social cohesion.
Impact
160 housing units plus some spaces for associations were involved in the transformation process. Following the project:
- retrofitted buildings have a lower energy impact
- a committee of residents facilitators was created with the task of acting as a referent for the municipality and the management body of the buildings (ACER) and also enabling internal relations between neighbours
- a digital chat was introduced for communication between neighbours
- neighbours help each with small works and tasks on a voluntary basis
- high participation in after-school activities for the children that have been taken care of by the students
- a positive change in the image of the street and in the perception of the area and also in the way residents describe the neighbourhood
Lessons learned
- Neighbourhood based approach to create more liveable spaces around the buildings and improve the image.
- Innovative model to choose the combination of tenants and sustainability, inclusiveness, participation and interaction with low-income students.
- Allocation of some apartments to low-income university students.
- Clear combination of social and physical retrofit, an experimental project that could also be replicated in other places.
