What does “community engagement” mean in architecture?
It’s a very complex topic. The simplest answer is “sharing the project with the local community,” but that definition has been overused. It’s really about conceiving a project collaboratively, where all stakeholders take part in the project’s journey. Let me give you three examples:
- Our project on the island of Sant’Erasmo: The team was made up of engineers — in charge of infrastructure, safety, and budgeting — and architects who focused more on the “soft” side: integrating the project into its context from a geographical, topographical, and material perspective, but also socially — shaping a landscape sensitive to the expectations of the island’s 800 inhabitants. We were working in a place where the 1966 high tide had led to the proliferation of sea-defense walls everywhere, causing residents to lose their relationship with the water. The island had become a collection of small fortresses detached from the lagoon. Reclaiming that relationship with the water was a priority for everyone. By softening the island’s edges, we turned a limit into a space — achieving both flood protection and renewed access to the lagoon. So, community engagement is a way to deeply understand problems — without delegating solutions to stakeholders, but rather maintaining the designer’s responsibility to define technical solutions and spatial form at all scales: from landscape, to city, to building.
- Project for the school in Alzano Lombardo: For us, schools are spaces open to the community beyond school hours. Architecture, in our view, is a political act — in the sense that it works with and for the polis, the community. We networked local associations that could make use of the facilities, opening the school to multifunctional use, designing spaces that can be adapted depending on who uses them at different times of day and evening. Even the storytelling of the project is an important part of participation. In this sense, we collaborated with a children’s book illustrator — Roberta Gorni — who illustrated a story we wrote about the construction of the new school, using language and visuals accessible to everyone. This is how we foster affection (ownership) for public spaces and community environments.
- GAMeC Museum in Bergamo: We opened an Open Table, where all stakeholders met weekly to discuss the project and its challenges. From this ongoing dialogue, shared solutions naturally emerged.
There’s a lot of talk about “Impactful Design.” What does this term really mean, beyond the hype?
Impactful design is what allows you to strengthen the identity of a place. In other words, it answers the question: Why should I feel a sense of belonging to this place through an architectural project? This involves several elements — light, well-being, social aspects, history, materials, and more. The impact is greatest when design captures the genius loci: imagining the place where we live and work as a bridge between tradition and contemporaneity, working to build the legacy of the future. The languages, forms, and techniques reflect our time, but remain deeply rooted in tradition and shared values. Those who practice impactful design are translators of context — they understand a place’s DNA and reinterpret it in another time and form.
For example, we redesigned the school in Alzano Lombardo, a town famous for white cement production and with an important industrial past. The local school was dilapidated and needed to be rethought. We translated the industrial legacy by designing an interior space illuminated from above by shed-style skylights, recalling the old factory buildings. We added a playful ramp and imprinted on the red reinforced concrete walls — inspired by the retaining walls typical of the Val Seriana valley — the animals from Enzo Mari’s 1957 wooden puzzle for Danese. The goal was to create a layering of elements tied to the genius loci that would generate happiness, allowing children to grow up surrounded by beauty.
Architecture is a multidisciplinary field, as are some of the world’s biggest challenges — for example, Climate Change. Do you think this systemic nature is a real resource, or does it still act as an obstacle by creating complexity and higher costs for institutions and funders?
In multidisciplinary fields like architecture, the key issue is effective coordination between disciplines. Coordination matters at multiple levels. The example of schools is crucial: schools are already a network, a system. Connecting them allows us to strengthen the community of young people — not every school needs its own gym or auditorium. We can organize shared use of existing facilities, allowing them to be fully utilized beyond class hours — a kind of sharing economy for public spaces.
Let me give you an example from London, where I lived: each Londoner has access to around 40 square meters of public space (well-maintained museums and parks), which means that even those who live in small homes can enjoy double the space through shared resources. This is why we need to redesign our cities. We have the means to do so, but we often keep thinking of cities as serving the needs of the male commuter who drives to work every day. Cities should instead be designed with the most vulnerable in mind.
The climate crisis challenges us in this regard — many cities still lack trees! Again, to activate these visions we need resources and coordination: those responsible for infrastructure must speak with those managing green public spaces before starting specific projects. In Italy, we completely lack good planning and management.
Can you recommend a film or a book that helps us understand your world and the themes closest to your heart?
Of course! As a book, I recommend “Beyond the Self” by Matthieu Ricard and Wolf Singer, which explores neuroscience in dialogue with Buddhist philosophy. As for a film, I suggest Walt Disney’s Wall-E — a deeply hopeful animation that shows how working alone leads to failure, but rediscovering ourselves as a community allows us to return a better world to future generations. After all, that’s why we women are mothers!