La Scatola di legno
La Scatola di Legno is a temporary wooden structure set up to give a special value to the inner courtyard of Cascina Martesana in Milan: it supports the association’s activities, as social events, workshops, exhibitions, markets and chill-out areas.
A private space turns back to be public, a new gathering place for aggregation opens to the neighborhood. When Cascina’s restoration will start, the structure will be disassembled and re-built in a new location, possibly the garden, hosting other activities.
The idea starts from Sofia Coutsoucos, Anna Milani and Stefania Monici, three students from Master Architecture at Politecnico di Milano. Since two years they carry on collACTION (http://collaction.polimi-cooperation.org), a research project that gathers and anylizes bottom-up projects of urban re-generation.
Thanks to La Scatola di Legno, collACTION can actually experiment the ongoing research themes on collective participation in public spaces.
The structure is composed by double fir wooden elements. The details are studied to let part of the facade to be reversed, transforming the structure into a scenic space, a stage ready for new upcoming shows. The space is flexible and multifunctional, open to different atmospheres.
Once the structural elements have been settled, La Scatola di Legno has been built together with a group of students and involved people.
A first workshop completed the finishing with recycled materials. The floor has been made out of recycled construction-site boards, together with the other vertical components. The roof is in pvc panels, letting the light in for most of the day.
Then, another workshop customized other missing details, like furniture, lighting system, decorations.
Since it is there, music nights, reading book club, yoga classes and artist exhibitions are taking place in La Scatola di Legno.
The project has been supported by a crowdfunding campaign on Ulule.
collACTION (Collective Actions – a collection of participated practices) was born in 2012 as a Bachelor Thesis project. A blog that weaves together a network of uses and people, an open platform of uses where spontaneous creativity and horizontal exchange pratices show to have the potential to modify urban space and social dynamics.
In spring 2015 collACTION had the possibility to curate and participate to one month talks’ palimpsest during #nevicata14LAB in Expogate: bringing together a virtual network (students, collectives, activists and architects from all over the world), that had the possibility to actually meet up and debate.
collACTION is an ongoing project, that involves both research and design projects. It will not end with La Scatola di Legno, you can follow their work on Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/collactionblog
Sofia Coutsoucos, Anna Milani, Stefania Monici
