BUDDlab Volume2, BUDDcamp 2011: The City of Euphemia, Brescia / Italy

8/3/2019 BUDDlab Volume2, BUDDcamp 2011: The City of Euphemia, Brescia / Italy

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BUDDcamp 2011The City of EuphemiaBrescia / Italy

Volume 2June 2011

BUDDlab

UCL Development Planning Unit


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FOREWORD

William Hunter

INTRODUCTION

Agostino Zanotti

STUDENT REFLECTIONS

BUDD 2011 Class

REFERENCES

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BUDDlab is published by the Development Planning Unit, UCL.

The Development Planning Unit is an international centre specialising inacademic teaching, practical training, research and consultancy in sustain-able urban and regional development policy, planning and management.

Development Planning Unit, University College London

34 Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9EZ, United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0)20 7679 1111Fax: +44 (0)20 7679 1112Email: [email protected]/dpu/courses/masters/msc_building

All photographic images taken by MSc BUDD students 2010-11

Design and layout: Ricardo Martn

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The students and tutors of the MSc BUDD course wouldlike to sincerely thank all the individuals at the Local De-mocracy Embassy of Zavidovici (LDE) for their gener-ous hosting during this pilot Brescia BUDDcamp fromthe endless ne Italian food and wine to the opening

of their facility (and history) as a platform for the stu-dents investigations. A very special thank you goes toAgostino Zanotti, head of the LDE, for initiating, devel-oping, and coordinating the workshop program. Withouthis enthusiasm, BUDDcamp 2011 would have provedfar less successful. Last, but not least we would like toacknowledge the people of Brescia who so effortlessly

shared their stories and local avour.


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3BUDDcamp 2011 THE CITY OF EUPHEMIA: Brescia / Italy

ForewordWilliam Hunter

In Trading Cities 1 from his now seminal text InvisibleCities, Italo Calvino describes the city of Euphemia asa place where the merchants of seven nations gatherat every solstice and equinox. These merchants arriveat Euphemia for trade and simultaneously develop anevening cultural exchange, sharing tales of wolves,

sisters, treasures unifying merchants from different na-tions along their travels for nancial gain. Though cul-tural diverse, this sharing of second hand experience ofthe world serves to connect specic lifestyles, thereby

giving Euphemia a distinct social identity.

Unfortunately, in most urban areas throughout the world,this symbolic and evocative aura of collectiveness faltersby way (among other things) of stereotypical fear andfragmentation. Nestled near Brescia, Italys main centralsquare, the Quartiere Del Carmine, was a place not un-like Euphemia. Though nding itself in a state derelic-

tion in the 70s and 80s, subsequent refurbishment andtransformation in the 90s has given way to a completelygentried character with pockets of mixed immigrant ar-eas. A major consequence of this development is thatit has stied the use of open spaces and semi-public

spaces where everyday meetings took place and strongsocial ties were formed and thrived. However, despitethis challenge, small groups of women have initiatedprojects underlining good neighbourhood practices thatrevolve around a network of open houses where immi-grant families develop care practices at different levels.These exchange services range from shopping assis-tance, collective studying and prayer to the promotion

of responsible tourism and assimilation support. Thoughsmall in scope, the positive revelation of these networkshas in some ways resulted in the obvious need to by-pass the rigid schemes of closed (condominium) livingwhich fosters exclusion and isolation in favour of sharedspaces within houses and shops that could serve aspossible civil society nodes or headquarters at the levelof the streets.

Located in the old working class barriera style peri-urban fringes of the city center, amongst empty factoriesand corridor houses full of marginalized immigrants are

the remnants of the Movimento Nonviolento Headquar-ter via Milano. Housed in a large abandoned factory, itis now occupied by the Peace Anti-Militarist Associationcalled MIR (meaning peace). During the 80s and 90sthis was a very active organisation working on de-mili-tarisation and Gandhi-style processes and essentially a

point of reference for all of Italy (remember that BRES-CIA was once home to a vast weapons/mines industrywhich allowed for a direct emergence and confronta-tion with peace and non-violent movements since the70s). A sort of contra gentrication is happening here.

However, the activities of the association are currently

much reduced and the space is sort of un-used. Yet,still of vast importance and potential is the extensive li-brary which contains a collection of nearly 50 years ofpublications on non-violence and pacism- a collection

of memories.

Run in conjunction with the Local Democracy Embassyof Zavidovici (LDE), an organization focusing on socialand educational projects for immigrants and refugees inBrescia and promoting democracy and peace overseasBUDD Camp 2011 involved a 3-day charrette concern-ing the spatial and temporal exchange and integration

of immigrants and locals with a particular parallel focuson how MIR (in collaboration with LDE) can re-dene itsidentity and expand its active capacity to serve as a driv-ing force and platform to combat these challenges. Withan introductory testimonial from Agostino Zanotti, headof the LDE, BUDDlab Vol.2 represents the reections of

the MSc Building and Urban Design students opera-tional experience as they sought to navigate betweenthe multiple meanings of design action and synthesis.Engaging in methods including psycho-geographicalmapping and one-on-one interviews, the student groupsdeveloped a range of interventions meant to serve asinvestigative catalysts for the promotion of community

identity, organizational strategy and overall urban inte-gration within Brescia.

William Hunter is a Teaching Fellow on the MSc BUDD course

at the Development Planning Unit, London.


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4 BUDDlab Volume 2 June 2011

Towards Euphemia:Thoughts on the City and its Citizens

Introduction

We have crossed together, during these days of thestudents visit, the doors of Eupemia City. It has been

a good occasion to compare words, thoughts, expe-riences of everyone, linking them to places of a city:Brescia.

From our perspective, the aim has been to show to dif-ferent people, that is, foreigners, places ordinary to us,spaces in the city that have represented and representthe story of a varied political acting.

In this attempt of opening, we addressed the foreignerso that he could give us useful cues, in order to readand understand in a new way our way of living the city.

Master students, during the days of work, have beeninvestigating the urban space in its different constitutiveaspects and, rst of all, have told the stories of some

of the several persons that inhabit the roads and thedistricts of the city.

One more time, the external look has been the one ableto catch the most controversial and worn aspects of acity crossed by a politic of no citizenship, wherein theperson/citizen does not nd in the present the reasons

to create a community and social links.

We live in more and more crowded cities, while the phys-

ical distance between persons decreases, the affectiveone increases. A cooperating community is a com-munity that lives closeness, builds up relations basedon reciprocity and dissolves its own fears through thestrengthening of social cohesion between all citizens.

During the internship days (this is maybe not the mostappropriate denition) events of serious international in-terest hanged as grey clouds on our daily work. Theterrifying earthquake in Japan and the tragic news fromTunisia and Libya fed our fears of a new radioactive ca-tastrophe and of a future migratory exodus towards our

cities. The territories that we live in are crossed by eco-nomic, migratory and environmental ows able to in-uence their own productive, social and environmental

state. The sense of bewilderment that invests people isjoined by a wish of security that turns places we inhabitin stones without any past.

Agostino Zanotti

The four proposals that came out of the groups workhave offered interesting cues to all of us to rebuild theurban space, so that it becomes not just a place forsocialization, but also a space of a policy of meeting, aspace of telling and thinking. It is a policy wherein hu-man qualities are able to sparkle and wherein human

beings are able to discover springs of bare life.

*Translation by Valeria Marengoni (ADL) and Camillo Boano

Agostino Zanotti is the head of the Local Democracy Embassy

of Zavidovici in Brescia.

Camillo Boano is the Director of the MSc BUDD course at the

Development Planning Unit, London.


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To build means to collaborate with the land,

to impress mans sign on a landscape thatwill be modified for ever; moreover, it means

to contribute to that transformation that is

life itself of the city. How much cure, just to

devise the proper placement of a bridge or

a mountain, to give to a mountain road the

cheapest bend, that is, at the same time,

the purest...

I have rebuilt a lot: and to rebuild means to col-

laborate with time in its aspect of past, to catch

its spirit and to modify it, to lean it out towards,

almost, a long future; it means to discover un-

der the stones the secret of the springs."

(M. Yourcenar, Memoires d'Hadrien)


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Student Reections

AFRAA ALI (United Kingdom)

The city of Euphemia project was a highly thought pro-voking experience as it exposed me to a different reality.Understanding ways in which the city was being openedup by hosting refugees and immigrants but also the chal-

lenge of transforming social perceptions of refugees fromproblems to resources. The question of space and terri-tory was important as the logic behind hosting is that itshould not be conned to a particular part of the city but

instead hosting them in different locations using disper-sion as a means to open the city and relinquish the prob-lem of territory. Accepting that their presence transformsopen space as refugees and immigrants do change theurban fabric of a city, however it is not possible to con-ceive the city as a xed apparatus but that it is constantly

changing and revived with different cultures and prac-tices.

My initial impression of the area as we departed thecoach was the prominence of multicultural shops, suchas Punjab travels. Had it not been for the architectureit felt as if this could be a part of London in terms ofthe diversity of people passing by. However When wereceived our initial brieng regarding the plight of the

refugees and immigrants in Italy with regard to jobs andhousing as well as the awareness being raised regardingthe production and transaction of weapons to conict

areas, which makes refugees seek refuge in countriessuch as this in the rst place it highlighted the perverse

mechanism of war. With this regard it conrmed to me

the importance of citizens to be made more aware andbe actively involved in international relation and how themacro relations and tensions inuence the local scale.

Being welcomed by the Refugee women association putus at the receiving end of that hospitality and made itmore tangible the importance of the practices of hosting.On the second day, we were given a more in depth his-torical timeline by Dr Nicola Montagna of the Italian socialmovements, conict, sociology and the international and

scaled migration.Following our site analysis of Quarter del Carmine andthe discussion with various residents raised many ques-tions. It made me question the notion of citizenship,rights and resistance; in particular the spatial manifesta-tions of these topics and conicts. When working toward

our interventions on the site, we attempted to explorethe complex meanings of Euphemia and what that couldmean on the site. We focused this on three aspects rstly

memories and aspirations, learning from the past histori-cal occurrences whilst looking at the present day indi-

viduals and their aspirations, secondly creating wires ofactivities for networks and rotating embassies for rotat-ing communities to exchange and create new culturesand memories and nally reinforcing a shared identity

and collective relationship to the space.

My thinking and analysis shifted throughout this charrettefrom statistics to observations of the urban fabric howev-er the one of the important conclusions I drew from this isthat solutions or interventions to the issues we identied

need not always be physical, they could be more onametaphysical level.

AMRITA KOONAR (United Kingdom)

We arrived at our lodging - the Movimento NonviolentoHeadquarters (MNH) - and the immediate impressiongiven by the faade of the building was the portrayal ofpeace and love values synonymous with the 60s and70s. The building was concealed behind a courtyard anda muddle of other buildings, which appeared to be con-nected and disconnected at the same time. As with anytrip to a new area, I looked for hints and clues to theculture and identity of the place.

We were welcomed by the Embassy for The Embassy ofLocal Democracy (LDE) provided an introduction to theircause and aim of facilitating the integration of refugeesand immigrants into the transforming city of Brescia. Lis-tening to our hosts stories it became clear that, having


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devoted their adult lives to the pacist movement and

having witnessed its decline, they now lacked a way for-ward.

Our quick and dirty design charrette began with a sur-vey of the map of the local area. It was decided in orderget a feel for the place that we would map the immedi-ate area on foot. As these areas housed a high level ofthe immigrant population, we were optimistic this wouldreveal whether there were any tensions or underlying is-sues between the host community and the immigrantswhich could be addressed by our proposed intervention.Interviews were held with several people from a crosssection of society.

The interviews were successful in terms of the usefulinformation gathered from the responses. However, inhindsight, perhaps more careful consideration shouldhave been paid to the specic questions asked as well as

the direction and structure of the interviews. Efforts weremade to ask similar questions to each person, howeverthe full reasoning behind each question and whether thequestions were leading the interviewee in a specic di-rection were not fully considered. Speaking with peoplefrom outside of the immediate area would have also beenuseful, as a very different set of answers may have beenrevealed.

The group mapped the area together, and while thismay seem to be an inefcient use of resources, in our

case it worked well as we had diverse language abilitiesin our group, and therefore were able to communicatewith both Italian and non-Italian speaking immigrants.Opportunities may have been missed if we had been atdifferent sites. Where one team member was speakingin Italian, another was able to translate to the third whodocumented the interviews as we went along, allowingfor a smooth conversation and efcient use of time, while

other group members were photographing areas of in-terest. Day two revealed a more directed exploration ofthe industrial areas and nalising of the points of entry forinterventions. Further interviews were conducted withmembers of the LDE for clarication on points.

Our nal presentation identied a need to develop a

deeper thinking about the terminology used and theconnotations it may have for the host community. Theintervention should look at what has been done before,and if something obvious has not been tried then furtherquestions should be asked as to why this has not hap-pened. The reason for that will in itself be a possiblepoint of intervention.

The limited time allowance for this design charrette, high-lighted the necessity for good organisation, directed andpurposeful information gathering. Preparation before go-ing out on site is crucial toensure that time is not wastedand resources are efciently applied.

AMY LEAMAN (Canada)

3 Things I Learned in Brescia

1. Use your eyes & ears.

In my thesis year of my undergrad, I undertook a projectwhich was contentious in our faculty. We were meant todesign a mixed-use 25,00 square foot building in Torontoand I was interested more at studying informal settle-

ments in Guatemala. My advisors were accommodating,but the issue I had was that it was nearly impossible forme to make the leap from context to design without be-ing in the eld and working specically with people in

the eld. I wrestled for the entire rst term at the DPU

with the same problem, working remotely on the caseof Dharavi. In our term 1 feedback on Dharavi, Camilloanswered this question of moving from context to designwhich was that you have to make assumptions and sup-positions based on what you know. Then, when in theeld, and when new information comes up, you have to

be ready to adapt to it. This made sense to me as westarted to work on Bangkok, but the problem in Bresciawas that: when you are in the eld, its time to stop mak-ing assumptions and start adapting. I really enjoyed thepresentations we had from our hosts in Italy about thehistory of social movements and the political history ofBrescia, but I thought maybe we had learned to rely tooheavily on this kind of information and we hadnt beenproperly ready to have to use our eyes and ears in theeld. As a result, a lot of our suggestions and interven-tions had more to do with what we had learned thanwhat we saw.

2. Dont take the same photo twice.

I think theres certainly something to be said for tak-ing ownership of information when working in a group.I found that often in the eld everyone was taking the

same photos (of a window, a street, a poster). In retro-spect, because we all had access to the same informa-tion, no one could take ownership of a single aspect of


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the project, whereas the people who had gone on in-terviews were very outspoken about having their ideascount in our nal interventions. Maybe if we had all been

doing something entirely different (one person takingphotos, one person writing notes, one person sketching,one person doing street interviews) when it came time toput things together everyone would feel much more asthough they had something to contribute rather than thestrongest voices in the group winning out.

3. Ask smart people dumb questions.

There were 3 moments in Brescia when I asked dumbquestions to great results (well, 2 questions and a state-ment). The rst two I asked Camillo, which were what is

the political situation in Italy and what happened after

the fall of the Roman empire that all the ruins are, well,in ruins?. Both times I expected to get an answer thatwould make me feel like I was hearing something I shouldknow already. But, it could just be because Camillo isparticularly gracious, but I felt that he had a lot more tosay on both subjects than I would have assumed. Thenal statement I made to Anna which was during our

tour of Brescia from that lovely, very well-educated archi-tect whose name escapes me. When we got to the endof the tour I said Ive never seen a fascist building be-fore! and she recoiled in shock. Anna, I said, Ive onlybeen in the Americas and England. When would I have

seen a fascist building? Although I felt stupid saying it atrst, Anna and I learned a lot from each other in that onestatement. There is the value in asking dumb questionsand saying stupid things.

ANNA VON DER SCHULENBURG (Germany)

IN BRESCIA 193,752 Brescians + 31 BUDDs =

164,497 Italians + 29,286 Foreigners

(Figures adapted from talk by Nicola Montagna: Brescia

1974-2010)

The City of Euphemia / Quartiere del Carmine

Our visit needed a set of more critically investigativeeyes than when I previously explored a new place. Stra-tegic planning, time constraints, critical distance andfocussed questioning were replacing more intuitive ap-proaches. Built form became an investigative visualisa-tion tool to reveal initially invisible relationships beyond,instead of being the main focus. The interest was look-ing for contradictions, clashes and tensions, rather thanfor coherence, harmony and beauty of the place. Thebenches arent only benches, so are shops, blue park-

ing lines, temporary construction fences, gatherings orthe famous Italian city-charm as only one layer of manyto tell the story of the place and the inuence of identi-ties on its space. It started to make sense together withthe talks and to give an indication of where to contributeas practitioner.

The built form of Quartiere del Carmine seemed to talkin the voice of one part of Brescias population, maybethe more ofcial one. Other voices we observed more

easily in the openings, balconies, more hidden placesand the calm in the back of the CCTV cameras. Thesewere more diverse, personal and seemingly less coor-dinated (maybe because our workshop started for mewith a full day of organized interviews giving the indi-vidual stories more presence than the city fabric) andobservations started to form a pattern, a little more sothan the personal voices behind the city administration,Inland Revenue and people who arent ready to em-brace Carmines form of multi ethnicity.

It is the rst time I have started a project in a guided

parachute-style without a brief in the sense of a requestor plan for a program to be fullled. The question for me

as practitioner is how to formulate a response to con-tribute to transformative change including all Bresciansaspirations and taking a stand at the same time while anall-encompassing investigation isnt often possible dueto time/situation/language barriers/cultural misunder-standings. With some distance to the weekend, I wouldbe interested to focus on education if there was a nextstage of the project. It could have been very valuable totalk to the schools of the area and their teachers.

With regards to timeline and methodology of the workI guess we had 26 varied structures of days and work,all connecting in the end. In my case the strongest fo-cus of the weekend was in the interviews, leaving muchless time to actually observe, draw and map the area.Because the interviews were prearranged for us and wedidnt necesarily know who we were meeting until a fewminutes beforehand, we agreed on a minimal structure:1 sketcher, 1 photographer, 1 writer, 1 speaker andadapted this to suit us best in the course of the day. Themost important point for me was having at least onequestion that we asked all 5 interviewees: What do youthink about the protest de la gru? This allowed us to

connect the very personal stories and also qualify someof the remarks of each towards a bigger picture. Onepoint was to listen and allow for surprises and anotherto learn how to structure and end a conversation politelyin order not to loose track of what we were looking for.

AZZURRA MUZZONIGRO (Italy)

City of Euphemia is a project led by Ambasciata del-la Democrazia Locale (ADL) di Zavidovici with the aimof welcoming refuges in Brescia and provide them a

house, a job but mainly to focus their interaction withthe territory. The vision of ADL is to shift the role of therefugees: from problem to resource. The other very in-teresting approach they have is the understanding thatthe presence of refugees performs a transformation ofurban spaces.


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Starting from these assumptions after a welcoming din-ner prepared by the women refugees and a very inter-esting talk by Nicola Montagna on the history of Bres-cias movements from 1974 to 2010 the Budd groupstarted to explore the urban spaces. We were dividedinto two groups: one dedicated to the area around viaMilano where the headquarters of the Movement ofNon-Violence of Brescia, that was hosting us, is located-and the other focusing on the Carmine neighborhood,in the centre of the city. Both places share a strong im-migrants and refugees presence: a good starting point

to challenge the assumption of the potential of transfor-mation that their presence exerts on the urban environ-ment. How does the city interact with them? Are theyrecognised or marginalised, welcomed or rejected by thenatives? What visible and invisible traces do they im-press over the territory and how and to what extent theycontribute to shape the local urban identity?

With this range of questions in mind we started the ex-ploration. After a day of observation and interviews dedi-cated to a general understanding of the local dynam-ics we started an active engagement and interaction

with people. We wanted to investigate the relationshipbetween the inhabitants of Brescia and their territory considering inhabitant anyone that lives on the territoryregardless of their legal status- so we run across peoplewith multiple foreign proveniences Africans, Roma-nians, Tunisians, Pakistanis and so on- alongside with

native Italians. We asked them to take us to a place theyfelt a sense of belonging to in Brescia and to be photo-graphed in front of that place with the idea of then expos-ing all the pictures in a public space of the city. The ideafor the project that we later called I Love Brescia- camefrom our long talks with Mamadou- a Senegalese manliving in Brescia since 1990 that used to have the legalPermit to Stay for 17 years which in 2007 was no longerrenewed because of the change of national law on im-migration and is now considered clandestine thereforesocially invisible and legally prosecutable. His message

was that the most important value besides legal recog-nition is communication among people: it makes youforget your troubles. We wanted to build on that notionby trying to create a mechanism of interaction to bringpeople together capable to overcome isolation and cre-ate the exchange among equals that is at the basis ofreciprocal recognition.

Out our brief visit to Brescia I would consider this under-standing the most valuable achievement we matured ofsuch a complex issue as contemporary migration andthe notions of identity and sense of belonging.

DESIRE DUROUSSEAU (USA)

BUDD Camp 2011 was an intensive three day designcharrette where students were assigned between two


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sites within Brescia, Italy: Quartiere Del Carmine or Movi-mento Nonviolento Headquarters via Milano; with thetask to observe, document and report the urban and so-cial phenomena within the assigned area.

A journey through the later twentieth century in Brescia,Italy depicts social discourse and evolution through poli-tics, intimidation and protest. Struggle and the inherentobstacles in life are not particularly unique to Brescia andthe Lombardy region of Italy as I have discovered. How-ever, the experiences and the perseverance of MNH andLDE organizations have dened the country and its soci-ety in similar ways. Flash forward; the MNH depicts thehardships endured by immigrants to this country as wellas those who are in a lower socio-economic class at vari-

ous points in life. In my observations, historically socialclass as with citizenship is a right of birth or in the caseof immigrants a wrong; in contrast since I come fromthe United States this right is easily more challengeablesince Americans other than the indigenous inhabitantsare all immigrants. So questions formed for me while inBrescia; how can the history and efforts of social move-ments through Movimento Non-Violento Headquaters(MNH) and Local Democracy Embassy (LDE) be reincor-porated to open the city to receive the diverse make-upof incoming people; making resources and opportunitiesavailable?

The challenge of an intervention is that it be a lastingchange to promote a more equitable social structure inBrescian society. An intervention in the area should en-hance the freedom to cross social boundaries, promotethe idea of achievement and success at multiple levels,and not be constrained but enriched by the heritage androots from which it began. In the site area of MovimentoNon-Violento Headquarter via Milano, remnants of in-dustrial plants, warehouses and unused railroad tracksll the urban landscape; most succumbing to the adver-sities of a changing work market and declining weaponsindustry. My group's intervention on a more metaphoric

context sought to address the underlying social changeand reconnect the cultural shift from an independent orsegregated way of life, to a more collectively cohesivesociety.

From this our group decided on a phased interventionconsidering the capital needed, the desired impact onthe community, as well as the possible donating andvolunteering capacity the two organizations need forcontinued vitality. Knowing that one organization has theland and building space to use for certain programs, andthe other organization has the ability to work with social

vulnerability. By organizing and combining forces and in-corporating achievable strategic intervention(s) such ascivic art projects and mobile advocacy; people not bornin Italy or the ones born there having rights that revert tothat of an immigrant class, as well as people of lower so-cial classes with no money, possessions, or power can

collectively become a force that as a whole are a com-munity unto themselves where their needs and demandscan be realized. This journey must begin with a desire toovercome and the willingness to cope with the singularexperiences and challenges each group has been facedwith whether it is the locals, immigrants, institutions orsocial organizations.

I end with a quote from the protest song We Shall Over-come, (Tindley, 1947), a key anthem of the U.S. civilrights movement:

We shall overcomeWell walk hand in hand

We shall all be free

We are not afraidWe are not alone

We shall overcome someday

DHRIN ANANTAMONGKOLCHAI (Thailand)

In the city of industrial, where castle, churches, and cen-turies-old houses are surrounded by mills and factories.The strong atmosphere of this old city still attractive to itsresidents, tourists and workers, especially immigrates.Even though industrial part of the city is declining, Bres-

cia is still one of the richest cities in Italy with the highestGDP. And not only its industry that has been declining,Its Italian citizen is also on decrease, while legal and il-legal foreign resident have been increasing since 1980s.

Immigrates have been coming to Brescia from manyplaces: Pakistan, Romania, Egypt, China, Ukraine, Phil-ippines, etc. These people came here with different rea-sons, but one thing that they have in common is thestruggle to live as an equal citizen of Brescia. This strug-gle has become part of the long history of movements inthis old city. From anti-war movement and worker move-ment to migration movement, they have been ghting

against discrimination and preventing conicts.

However, These migration movements were perceiveddifferently from different groups. Similarly, there were dif-ferent interpretations of the Piazza Della Loggia bombingin 1974 by institutions, unions and left wing, and far leftdepend on which story suit them the most. From the in-terview with many people (formal and informal), the Hun-ger strike on top of the crane in 2010 was interpreted byItalians who support the immigrants as a bad move. Allthe interviewed Italians agree that bring the subject intopolitic will only create more conict. However, the immi-

grants believed that it was a right and successful strike.Due to this information we as an international studentbelieve that any movement in the future have to includeboth sides in order to prevent more conict.

Moreover, interviewing many people in their own envi-


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The fundamental feature of inhabiting is this

take care of. Taking care of everything in

its own essence means to pay attention to

every gesture and every consequence com-

ing down from it, and, first of all, to reflect

about the essence of building up, so that

inhabiting is essentially worthy of thinking."

(Maurizio Vito. Philosophy of no citizenship)


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ronment brought a lot of interesting and surprising sto-ries. It became our key tools and was developed into theintervention itself.

I BRESCIA - Space of interaction

Euphemia, the city where memory is traded at everysolstice and at every equinox. (Calvino, 1972) Fromone of the interview with the person who lived in thearea called Quartiere Del Carmine, his daughter is theonly Italian in the class of 21. The others came from 16different nationalities. The notion about integration wasquestion here that who and how the integration shouldbe when the majority has become the minority, so webelieved that the focus should be shift from integrationto interaction by sharing their stories both Italians and

immigrants.

Similar to the traders of the city of Euphemia, we intro-duced the way that people of Quartiere Del Carmine canshare their tails of wolves, sister and treasures. Showingtheir face, telling their stories and letting them interactwith each other in the public space will help reduce thesense of the word stranger and penetrate the barrierbetween groups. Using art event to promote this willalso bring join and create neutral ground for everyone.Old individual stories will be share and new communitymemory will be create with the hope that it will result

conicts and people can sit with strangers. However,this was done by knowing that we made many assump-tions due to the time we have, but we believed that thiscan really be done.

FARIDA FARAG (Egypt)

Our rst walk around Brescia was very interesting after

the lecture we had presenting key information about thecity and its demographics, as well as political shifts thathave greatly affected the urban fabric. Brescia is a smallcity with a population of 200,000, 16% of which are for-

eigners. There was a huge increase in foreign migrationfrom 1990 2008 that was due to the nature of the cityas an industrial town with a low education status with69% manual and unskilled workers, which attractedmany foreigners. Getting lost in that part of the city bythe headquarters and the industrial site that we were al-located for our exercise, we have observed the differenttypologies around as well as the industrial buildings thathad a distinct narrative characteristic to them. Some ofthe high walls securing a certain site were still there andincorporated with new structures, or had grafti draw-ings throughout.

It was evident that the city had a heavy industrial feel,where many sites and plots were abandoned, probablydue to the high cost of demolition versus the value ofland. Some of these sites were huge, completely aban-doned, and a bit scary. The urban feel of that area reso-

nated the story of the struggle between civil society andthe city in the 1970s, where Piazza Della Loggia becamea space of resistance and protests against poor and un-just work and living conditions. Years after these occur-rences the city was left with that memory embedded inthe urban structure, however I kept wondering: Shouldthey or do they want to destroy them as painful symbolsof political turmoil, or gure out ways to recongure and

transform them?It was quite interesting to explore these issues of politi-cal transformation and its effects on the urban fabric 30years after the fact, where citizens are in search of anew cultural shift integrating the population, includingmigrants, into the city by having it reect their new col-lective identity. It was even more interesting because Icouldnt help but compare our ndings and analysis to

the current Middle East situation, where protestors haveexpressed more than 30 years of oppression, as manymunicipal buildings were burnt down by people ex-pressing their suffering. For many years people have felt

disconnected from their city, which led to a decrease inthe sense of citizenship: People have felt like foreignersin their own country. There are many similarities betweenthose two cases as it made me realize how identity andcitizenship are two important components and drivers ofsocial change and urban transformation.

The question of what is to become of the ancient sym-bols of struggle still remains. Can a distressing associ-ated meaning to the urban structure be the vehicle ofsocial change acting as an empowering link betweencivil society and city? After conducting our analysis and

engaging with the community, we concluded that powerfor mobilization within the people is based on self-iden-tity and awareness, which is a precondition for action.Therefore the basis of an effective intervention is the en-hancement of that link connecting the people to the city,which has become the center of solidarity.


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IVANA NADY (Slovenia)

BUDD CAMP 2011 took place in Brescia, Italy. It wasa three day charrette where we were asked to observeurban and social phenomena within a selected area andpropose a design intervention that would highlight, mobil-ise or as act as a catalyst for transforming existing socialactivity. The exercise was implemented in collaborationwith the local association Local Democracy Embassy ofZavidovici.

The charrette

On the day of our arrival we were greeted by our hostand people involved in the association. The brief over-view of the associations history and activity points were

a good way to evoke an interest and curiosity about theexercise ahead. For me, the most important aspect wasbeing introduced to the topic rst hand, by the people

who established and run association, as their enthusi-asm was admirable.On the following day we were given a presentation byNicola Mongtana, who gave us a background over Bres-cias development in last 40 years. It was interesting tosee how the social and economic development relatedto the social movements and activities of LDE.

After the presentation all groups were given a specicarea to observe and document. My group focused onMovimento Nonviolento Headquarter via Milano, a build-ing which was a part of unused factory set in a neigh-bourhood where working class and marginalised prevail. The group had a brief discussion on where to go andexplore the surroundings. Having had the experience ofthe exercise, I now think it would be better if we have

spent that time reecting on what information we were

given by Nicola and Adriano to help us form a time ef-cient strategy for gathering the information we needed

to make an appropriate proposal. While we exploredthe area we interviewed people asking them about theirviews on refugees and immigration issues.

We tried to get an opinion from people of different agesand backgrounds. It was interesting to see there werenot many negative views on the issue; perhaps we wouldget different answers if our approach was different. Wecould possibly have formed a simple questionnaire thatwould be exible enough to allow some space for ma-noeuvre but would give us a framework to assess theanswers against each other.

Although I feel we could have structured our interviewsbetter, I think being on the street and interviewing peoplewas a very important experience. It gave me the con-dence and knowledge on how to approach and speakto different people. Even if I wasnt directly interviewingpeople due to language barrier, my task was to takenotes and help form the questions which meant beingpart of the interview.

The outcome

For me, the most important part of the exercise was be-

ing put into unknown location andhaving a specic time-frame to make a proposal. It highlighted the importanceof having a structured framework and working efciently

and sharing tasks among the team members. Comingup with the proposal in response to our brief was a lot offun but I can see a missed opportunity as we disregard-ed a lot of what was presented to us in the rst two days.

In addition, our proposal could have been grounded intheories we have learned during our course.

JENNIFER CIRNE (Canada)

The trip to Brescia was very worthwhile on many fronts.It worked very well to allow the class to adjust and ex-perience working in the eld; learning to better analysis

the spatial context, experimenting with interview tech-niques, and working as a large group with limited time; allof which will be invaluable skills for our time in Bangkok.

Politics

For me, the most important development gained fromthis trip was the realization of the strong inuence that

regional politics plays on daily life in civil society. In thepast I have tried to stay clear of polit ics, but am more and

more realising that for transformation to be sustainable,there needs also to be support within political discourseand reinforced through policy.

During our short stay, we recognised that the situationin Carmine has been strongly entrenched within the


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area for many decades. Because of this we felt our en-try point would need to be through soft interventionswhich would help to build networks within and betweenthe many local individuals and groups in Carmine. Thepurpose for our interventions (the Citizen & Space Net-work, regular Neighbourhood Party, and the 10-Year Re-ection/Projection stickers) was to reinforce/build a bot-tom up strength which would:

now help to counter the municipalities crack down/

restriction on use of public space,

soon help to improve local business, exchange of

knowledge/skills and employment,

and with time enable the collective people of Car-mine to exert more inuence within polit ics, and therefore

helping to securing sustainable improvements within thearea.

Our three interventions intentionally covered a range offorms strengthening social networks, physical occupa-tion of space & a new platform for vocal expression.

An additional benet of these interventions is that they

have the potential to demonstrate to the local authoritythat regeneration within Carmine needs to be approached

from multiple perspectives, not purely through improvedhousing (one of their most recent strategic approachesto regeneration within Carmine). From our observationsand interviews, the recent improvement strategy has hada negative impact for some, as inated housing rental

prices have pushed some into further deprivation/difcult

living situations within and outside of Carmine.

Interviews

A second personal development gained through theBrescia trip was the experience with interviews andtranslating an individuals narrative into usable informa-tion. We had the benet of interviewing a range of peo-

ple, which gave a wide perspective of the situation inCarmine. What lacked (due to limited preparation time)was the opportunity to properly prepare in advance forthe interviews.

As discussed in Brescia, I agree that there needs to besome degree of set questions to ask all interviewees,but I fear with this systematic approach that we will missthe anomalies and/or the special knowledge that eachinterviewee can bring to the conversation. This I feelwould be a missed opportunity, and may also have thefundamental aw of generalising and further marginalis-

ing some individuals/groups. I believe that there needs tobe a balance between structured questions and ques-tions which builds on the conversation to maximise thequality of the data captured. Before going to Bangkok, Iwould like to develop a strategy for interviewing that willstrike this balance.

JOS DI GIROLAMO (Chile)

From Brescia to Euphemia: the language as an op-

portunity to produce spaces for integration

In the last decades, Brescia has experienced the viciouscircle of the conicts. On the one hand, the province has

been famous as one of the main producers of light weap-ons, which has been exported to the regions in conict

like the Balkans and most recently Libya. On the otherhand, the city has become the shelter for thousands ofpeople displaced from the same conicts that indirectly

they facilitated. Mostly young population from countrieslike Pakistan, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Romania and Egyptarrive to Brescia looking for job opportunit ies as unskilled

workers taking advantage of the industrial character ofthe city. In a new form of contradictory "voluntary-but-forced" colonialism, the pressure of the conicts and the

dynamic of the market make the immigrants move fromtheir countries to nd new livelihoods outside.

The city is divided. While the right-side local governmenthas been opposed to the immigration phenomenon, civilorganizations like the Local Democracy Embassy of Za-vidovici have been working with the objective to rebuiltBrescia as a centre of solidarity. They are ghting for "the

right to the city" not only at the level of the most evi-

dent needs like work, housing and market, but also forits essence, building opposition to the war conicts asthe causes of the phenomenon and nding spaces for

interaction.

Going around the city is possible to notice that slowlythe city has been able to provide spaces for the immi-grants to work, live and trade. Like Euphemia where themerchants of seven nations gather at every solstice andequinox1, many streets and corners in Brescia havebecome points of exchange of foreign goods under theform of markets, restaurants and stores of clothes andtextile. The refugees have demonstrated that more than

a problem for the city, they have become resources forit, keeping the local economy alive. This can be consid-ered as a rst step for Brescia to reach the paradigm of

Euphemia.

Nonetheless, you do not come to Euphemia only tobuy and sell, but also because at night, by the res all

around the market () at each word that one man says() the others tell, each one, his tale of ()1, and thisrepresents the highest challenge for Brescia. Despite thelocals and the immigrant share the same city and thesame built environment, there is an invisible barrier which

blocks the possibility of effective integration and interac-tion: the language. It is a paradox that a non-spatial ele-ment is the one that still divides the city between Italiansand foreigners. Consequently, the language represents alimitation but also an opportunity as the key tool towardsa more integrated Brescia. Actually, for the youngest


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generations this barrier has been successfully dissolvedby the schools in where local and immigrant studentslearn and coexist under the same codes.

Language can be considered as the new struggle for in-stitutions that are ghting for "the right to the city" for the

refugees in Brescia like the Local Democracy Embassyof Zavidovici. It is the key element to reach a city in wherealso the memory is traded at every solstice and at everyequinox1 like in Euphemia.

JOSUE ROBLES CARABALLO (Puerto Rico)

The Ripple Effect

We have studied, explored and analyzed a great numberof scenarios to develop an awareness to utilize in poten-tial engagements within development. This exercise forthe rst time allowed the students to generate a face to

the given condition. The Local Democracy Embassy ofZavidovici (LDE) and Peace Anti Militarism Association(MIR) as institutions and their members were a resource-ful and an evolving scope within the development of the

exercise. The course of the research and proposal wasconstantly shaped by the daily feedback and interactionwith the members of the MIR and LDE. Whether the in-teraction took place through conversations or observingthe passion behind the members work translated into acontextually rich intervention.

The Value of a Casual Interview

From the initial scenario briefs to the development ofthe proposal we discovered the value of the face to faceengagement with members of both institution, MIR andLDE. This also occurred during our interviews with thecity residents. The face to face engagement provided notonly answers to potential questions from the interviewerbut a forum that allowed residents to expressed potentialconcerns or information not previously considered. Theexchange of information of a face to face dialog trans-lates in to a rich collection of anecdotes, information,

perspectives and social stands on the individual recol-lection of the city as a phenomenon. Thus, informing thedevelopment of the proposal or intervention according tothe interaction with the engaged individuals.

Quartiere Del Carmine

During the eld visits and elaboration of a proposal, we

had the opportunity to engage not only the built formand its users, thus, catching a limited glimpse of the so-cio-cultural behavior and perception of the city. As theteam focused on the Quartiere Del Carmine, we wereable to complement previously experienced mapping

techniques with live information from interviews while atthe eld, to further enrich the research and survey com-ponent of the exercise. In contrast with other studio ex-ercises, this illustrated the benet of the collection and

use of live data. As the perspective as practitioner can beshaped resulting in collaborative delivery of ideas.


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The Apparent Deception

After discussing all briefs and all interviewing had beenperformed, the idea of the city of Brescia was perceivedcompletely different through members of the differentsocial strata. This posed a contrast to the perceptionof the urban fabric as outsiders, in fact the behavior ofthe socio-cultural fabric of the city seemed of one ofmany different but interwoven social conditions and notof an accentuated division as described by the differentmembers of the institution and residents. This perceivedcohesion in the social fabric is in such nature that as adevelopment practitioner has to be identied, thus, ac-centuating the necessity to complements eld observa-tions and interviews.

Conclusion Apart from the experience created by developing ourteam proposal for the community awareness of the Lo-cal Democracy Embassy of Zavidovici (LDE) and Peace Anti Militarism Association (MIR), the greatest value ofthis exercise was to acknowledge the amount of the allways changing information that the eld has to offer and

the potential contribution that it can generate for futureintervention.

KATJA STARC (Slovenia)

The immigrants in Italy, the Italy in me

After graduation in 2010 I couldnt nd a job in Koper,

Slovenia so I tried my luck across the border - as manyothers coming from this multi-ethnic, multi-lingual regionof Slovenians, Italians and Croats did for generations be-fore me. It was about this time of the year on my rst day

of work in Trieste, Italy and I didnt know how long the busride from Koper would take me so I nervously took theearly bus. Arriving there way too early, of course, I wentfor a coffee. So there I was, a freshly graduated Slovenianstudent, hoping to move to London in September, having

a croissant, watching cars and motorini driving by thiscaf run by a Chinese family, thinking about my futureand contemplating about my past, while smiling at themultiplicity of the present situation.

I cannot think about Italy in general without feeling some-how connected to it and I cannot write about Bresciawithout relating it to my internalized conception of Italy.Living in its close proximity, just across its eastern border,it has inuenced me since I was a kid. Indirectly, through

its popular culture and experienced rst hand through the

city of Trieste. Before the proliferation of shopping malls

in Slovenia, we would regularly go cez (literally across,meaning across the border) to buy scarpe andjeans. Onour way back we would get stopped at the border cross-ing and be asked the usual Qualcosa da dichiarare?(Goods to declare?). And as usual, with our car trunksfull, we would nod our heads saying 'no, no' and based

on an informal agreement, where lies were tolerated formutual benet, the customs ofcer would let us through.

Trieste was the place where I rst experienced seeing

something different. It is here that as a child I rst saw

a black person, one of the African immigrants called vu-compra (coming from vuoi comprare?, meaning want tobuy?), selling their bracelets, fake Rolex watches and Gu-cci bags on the pavements. But it is also where I felt beingdifferent myself. I would speak the same language, watchthe same TV shows, listen to the same music, drink thesame coffee. But no matter how frequently I would usethe same urban spaces as the Triestini, in that city I wouldalways feel a stranger, an outsider, never a part of it. Notreally bothered by this, however feeling that I was some-

how related to this environment, I kept observing this im-penetrable society, seeing it change quickly over time.

Like in Brescia, where the tabaccaio said the inux ofimmigrants in the past 15 years has been huge, Triestehas transformed drastically too. The shops around PonteRosso where we used to go to buy Levis are now takenover by the Chinese. Old Italian shops could not com-pete with the cheap goods and this led to new resent-ments towards a community that is otherwise completelyinvisible in its parallel life. Recently, a Slovenian journalistErvin Hladnik Milharcic who worked extensively in The

Middle East, compared Trieste to Jerusalem because ofits multiple identity and where one doesnt know when tospeak Italian or when to speak Slovenian in order not tooffend anybody. In this now peaceful city with a troubledpast new micro-lesions and new invisibilities are arising,reecting global trends that are changing our societies

forever. There is a long way to go in creating new bondsand mending old ones.

After nishing that caffe e cornetto I still had time to killso I took a stroll along the Riva towards the famous Pi-azza Unita, so special because of its architecture with anAustro Hungarian inuence on three sides of the square

and the whole northern side opening up towards theMediterranean Sea. As I was wandering around, it sud-denly struck me. Something that didnt happen duringhigh school history classes and not even when read-ing Boris Pahor, a Slovenian minority writer from Triesteand concentration camp survivor, who spent all his 97years struggling with and ghting against nationalist and

totalitarian ideologies. It was walking those streets thatnally and undeniably made me realize that this ambigu-ous place, this contested city and this shared history ofconict and cooperation were all living inside me. There is

something unclear about this part of me, something not

completely familiar and still a bit alien, but so inextricablywoven into my identity.

It took me 27 years to acknowledge and feel this simplefact. By then the city was completely awake and I wasalready late.


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Once their fundamental referent becomes

bare life, traditional political distinctions (such

as those between Right and Left, liberalism

and totalitarianism, private and public) lose

their clarity and intelligibility and enter into a

zone of indistinction."

(G. Agamben, Homo Sacer)


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in a developing country. After day of lecture, the siteof Quartiere del Carmine was appointed to our groupwhere the task was unpacking certain phenomena onthe site resulting to a design intervention. The charrettestarted by mapping the visible and physical attributescombined with informal and formal interviews in order tounderstand the site and arrived at a stage where it re-sulted into mapping the unrealised which inuenced our

nal design intervention.

After some hours of discussing in our group of six, our in-tervention formed as an enabling transformative processboth at spatial level as well as accommodating and chal-lenging the dynamics of social change between peopleof Brescia. This design intervention aimed at voicing the

marginalized individuals as well as the residents towarda programme that engages and promotes identity withthe surroundings that demands viewers to consciousquesting of current appropriation of the social problemsexperienced; on top of breaking the prejudices amongthe residents of Brescia toward a collective sense of be-longing and memory and interaction.

The Brescia eld trip was an academic experience that

had a strong connection with the concepts that welearned and researched during the year and resulted ina more in-depth hand on experience as an individual on

concepts of exclusion, identity, housing, informal circum-stances, resistance, right to the city, citizenship and evenliteratures from Foucault, Lefebvre and which we havebeen bathed with during the past 6 months combinedwith the notion of Urban Design tool for transformation inBUDD. The exercise was about transforming the publicspace by provoking the sense of identity of Brescians asa catalyst for moments of solidarity and bonding in theireveryday life paths.

Although it was a three day process of intense work andstaying up the night for our presentation the next day,it was a rewarding experience based on sharing new

knowledge, skills and organizing the group based on theskills and resources that each group member had for abetter result in the limited time we encompassed. Theexperience strengthens our role and capacity as practi-tioners based on the constraints we had on the trip andalso our mediating role between designing and informaltensions perceived during the investigations. Moreoveras an individual I got more aware of the amount of sub-merged resources and information that needs to be col-lected as well as co-operation among the practitionersfor changing a situation in a strategic way especiallyworking in a poor and developing area later during our

trip in May. The dynamic of the group which I was work-ing with and their openness and exibility toward eachothers opinion by putting away their presumption of ex-pertise and being imaginative and free spirit within thelimited time was a truly enjoyable and satisfying chance.(I my group).

MAIRA ANDRADE (Mozambique)

Choosing People over arms

The 3-day Brescia eldtrip, in Italy, resulted from an in-vitation made by the Association Embassy of Local De-mocracy challenging the BUDD students to engage ina project that began in 2010, entitled The City of Eu-phemia. This project was born from the increasing needto integrate refugees (mainly from Pakistan, Romania,Egypt, China and Ukraine) coming into the city, repre-senting a considerable 15.1% (Montagna, 2011) of thetotal Brescian population of almost 194,800 (census2008) (Montagna, 2011). Here, integration is not sim-ply about hosting people, but making sure the city stays

open to refugees/immigrants, and that the spatial envi-ronment is transformed so to make them feel welcomedand safe.

Unfortunately, from testimonials and personal observa-tions, some degree of gentrication is noticeable and

mainly not favorable to those without an Italian back-ground/heritage. Ironically it is believed that the localarms factory (specialized in Beretta rearms) supplying

weapons to various countries is (in)directly to blame forthe increase of refugees owing into the region, which

according to Montagna (2011) ts to the slogan you

wanted arms, you have people.For centuries, human presence has transformed the ur-ban space in this city; this is evident now, more than ever.Under this light, BUDD students interacted with Bresciasinhabitants seeking transformation of the urban space.Our exercise focused in transforming the area accordingto our experience, observation and imagination, sincethe local municipality allows for the operation of the armsfactory and lacks responsive action to attend the needsof the (international) community. In other words our ob-jective was to make The City of Euphemia more visible.


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Coming myself from a civil engineering backgroundwhere the premise is to build, the Brescia eldtrip eluci-dated me, once again, in how building does not neces-sarily mean engaging in a hard intervention approach, interms of urban design decisions. In the past, it had beenvery challenging to adopt and embrace non-building in-terventions, in the theoretical studio environment; how-ever, upon facing this real case-study and having expe-rienced both hard and soft spatial environments of thecity, this realization seems to have been easier to attain.

This live exercise was rich in the sense we were exposedto a complex situation comprised by clashes of values,interests and objectives, driven by different levels andforms of power, domination and oppression. Upon the

challenge posed by this context (and as a strategy tak-ing into account limitations in both time and informationfor a more detailed analysis and proposal), there was analmost immediate and general consensus, within andamong working groups, that our approach had to bemore social (soft) oriented. Deciding on the approach,on the other hand, brought to the surface a set of per-sonal questions:

1. How to engage without losing oneself in the righ-teousness trap of social justice? After all, the case hadeverything to do with needs and power relations;

2. Who is our client and to which degree are we, aspractitioners, obligated to cater to its desires?3. Even though we are practitioners we are, above any-thing else, rational Human beings with a sense of judg-ment and so, how does one draw the line separatingright and wrong and keep aside personal feelings thatmay put in jeopardy possible lucid results (in the bestinterest of the client)?

Although I am sure these are questions that still remain,as obtaining answers is a work-in-progress, the processand collective working experience undergone during theeldtrip, was an eye-opener regarding eldwork dynam-

ics, challenges and dilemmas faced in practice, that arenot truly perceptible under the rather controlled environ-ment of the, yet, theoretical BUDD Studio.

MCKENZIE ONEILL (USA)

In the long journey ahead of you... you start summon-ing up your memories one by one...on your return fromEuphemia, the city where memory is traded at every sol-stice and at every equinox. from Calvinos Invisible Cities

Many times we forget the physical representations wedraw or construct are connected to people and liveli-hoods at their very core. As designers and people of thebuilt realm it is our weakness and constant challengeto connect the social and physical phenomena together.

The trip to Brescia, Italy was an opportunity to step out-side of academia for a moment and insert ourselves in ourrole as design practitioners to propose socially-rooted-spatial-strategies to the Embassy for Local Democracy,a local organization working with the large immigrant andrefugee populations in the city. Profoundly, while at rst it

was difcult to remember that the rapidness of the exer-cise required us to utilize our resources to the best of ourability, in this case we found we relied heavily within ourteams on each other to produce and share knowledgein making our proposal. The group was divided into twosites, the Carmine neighborhood and the MovimentoNonviolento Headquarters on Via Milano, our site in thisexercise. We were tasked with walking the neighbor-hood and accessing the local extremities of our sites

complex, a challenge easier said than done, in order tomake a proposal to the LDE.In our investigation one of the most enjoyable experi-ences was recognizing how language as a skill set wasone of our kit items. As we walked the vicinity andmet locals and passersby, one team member wouldask the questions in Italian, another would stand to theside and translate, a Spanish speaker, to another teammember who took notes, while the others would listento the translation and focus on documenting the inter-views and surroundings. Occasionally on meeting people

who recently moved to the city and were still learning thelanguage, other team members, speaking Punjabi andSpanish, would be placed in the role of interviewer andextract the information we sought making the exercisequite dynamic as we adjusted according to each condi-tion. While our strengths were working to our advantagehere, this was more of a display of the place and the citythan solely of us, and we tried to acknowledge this asone of our most crucial ndings in our proposal.

The Brescia trip provided a great opportunity to explorecreative solutions for an organization that encounterscontestation on every surface of its site. The struggle

is not limited to the LDE but to the city itself as a placethat seeks to renew itself and struggles with the damageinicted by the previous events of the city, specically in

the industrial quarter. Our proposals sought realistic andprovocative approaches in order to expose the physicallimitations of our site but also emphasis the mission im-bedded in the organization.

Taking this experience, Brescia reminded me that explor-ing the social dimension of urban life is important to un-derstanding the complexities of a site. In this case, thephysical site was more difcult to explore than the social,

constantly nding barriers and walls preventing us fromseeing all we wanted to, both physically and metaphori-cally. Looking for solutions, though, forces one to look be-yond these contingencies as an opportunity to exploit thequestion of why these boundaries exist and how to openthem to better connect fragmented urban conditions.


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NOOR AL GHAFARI (Canada)

Communicating Acceptance

My personal journey in the MSc in Building and UrbanDesign in Development began the on the 13th of Sep-tember 2010, the day I was accepted into UCL. Alreadybeing honoured to attend this school and being part of

Department Planning Unit is an experience on its own.Going to Brescia in the middle of all the hustle and bus-tle of the end of semester rush seemed like the worstidea. However, a few hours into the BUDD camp, I feltso fortunate and privileged to nally put into practice all

the skills I had acquired during the past two hectic, butbeautiful, semesters. Coming into this program, the ma-jority of us expected to be going to Wales in the spring. The previous years attended a workshop in Wales,which gave them the opportunity to experiment with dif-ferent building materials on the eld. The workshop in

Brescia was styled as a Design Charrette. Based on the

experiences Ive had in this workshop, I would say thatits nature suits the basis of our course much more thanthe previous years.

The day we arrived in Brescia we were greeted by theMovimento Non Violento (the non violent movement).

Augustino and Adriano, the ones running the branch inBrescia, kicked off the night with a welcome speech,which described to us the motives of the movementand introduced us to the City of Euphemia. The basisof the project was to welcome refugees from differentcountries to the city. The interesting part of this projectwas that these individual were not to be put into refugeevillages, but rather to be incorporated into the city and

to be seen as resources rather than a problem. Theirpresence in Brescia transforms the urban space, whichshould be seen as an apparatus for change, rather thana burden to the city.

The struggle remains in the way the people of the cityreact to this project. Our aim was to come up with anintervention, which would stimulate the people of Quar-tiere del Carmene to think differently towards the highimmigration population. Our group was split up in two,some to do interviews and some to observe and analysethe neighbourhood. I went to conduct interviews, and

Im glad I did, because I truly enjoy interacting with peo-ple and learning rst hand from their experiences. Therst set of interviews, we met people from a variety of

background; Italian, Moroccan, Ethiopian. Each of thesepeople gave us a different insight about how people per-ceived the immigrant population living in Quartiere Del


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Carmene. Combining it with the observations, it wasclear that there was a distinction between the Italiansand Immigrant populations. People mostly stuck by theirown ethnic backgrounds rather than integrated with oneanother. After a day of xed interviews, we were trying

to identify ways in which we could intervene in the spaceand introduce a project which would unite the peoplerather than create further discrimination.

Our project, I (heart) Brescia, aimed to do just that- Find-ing a common ground for all the people of Brescia torelate to. We decided to ask them what part of Carminethey loved the most and to take us there. As we walkedwith them we really got to know a bit more about themthrough a casual conversation. At rst I thought that

these interviews were better than the previous ones,until I realized that without the arranged interviews, weprobably wouldnt have known what type of questionsto ask to ll in the gaps. Once we reached their destina-tion, we took their photograph in hopes to one day havea photo exhibition in the heart of Carmene. Also perhapshave these photographs on the shutters of the apart-ments to reect that persons favourite place.

The second intervention was sitting with strangers, abench in which people could go and write their stories.A lot of benches have been removed from public spac-

es, since the ofcials want to prevent clustering aroundpublic squares. This is why the bench would be a tem-porary exhibition, but would still act as a vessel to putthe message across.

If I were to do anything different, I would have liked totake the interviews further, especially the ones conduct-ed on the second day. Walking with someone to a place,which is personal to him or her, allows them to some-how open up to you. The dynamics and enthusiasm inour group also added to this wonderful experience. Itruly enjoyed Brescia, and I hope this is only the begin-ning of a set of beautiful experiences that I will have in

my career.

PARVATHI NAIR (India)

The intensive 3 days in Brescia was rather a refreshingexperience in terms of a change from the rush of Londonand more importantly to gain a fresh perspective on thepractical side of eld we have been exposed to. Though

the journey was rather quick, the amount of informationassimilated in such a short while made us realize thevalue of being in the eld and gaining rst-hand experi-

ence. We uncovered the case through the lens of theMovimento Non-Violento Headquaters (MNH) and Lo-cal Democracy Embassy (LDE) who were our kind hostsduring this process. While the history of these organiza-tions and the glorious past of the city itself depicted thesocial revolution, struggles and protests of the people

of the Lombardy region, what caught my interest wasthe current social scenario. Brescias present demogra-phy is constituted by immigrants from various Asian andAfrican countries who are mainly refugees or who arrivein search of a livelihood. This trend is very unique whencompared to the other Italian cities. For me, the chal-lenge for any intervention in this locale was to integratethe immigrant community with the local Italians who area minority in order to enable a harmonious living. Fromour observation most of the immigrant communitieskept to their own clan whether it be for religious, com-munal or occupational activities. It was hence importantto understand how socially inclusive these people werein the city and what their rights to the city were.

Some of the other considerations of my group were toemphasize the past and celebrate the rich heritage. Ourarea of study Via Milano consisted of a mix of resi-dential and industrial buildings. Most of the industrialbuildings were just unused with trails of old rail tracksthat catered to the weapon industry that existed here.The residential buildings were old, under maintained anduninviting. This was a contrast to the city centre whereopen plazas exhibited the splendor of the Italian city.

In my group, our main objective for proposing an inter-vention was to improve social integration and connec-

tivity. This we realized had to be a step wise procedure.We also considered the ow and management of capi-tal to carry out such a long term process. A phasing ofthe process was done and the rst catalytic interven-tion was identied as our proposal. The proposed steps

were also in consideration with the MNH and LDE andafter the understanding of the available resources. Ourproposal thus had to be a trigger for opening up the cityto its rich heritage and enhancing a sense of connectiv-ity and oneness between different communities.

Hence our intervention was one of a catalyst in nature;one which involved community participation under the

guidance of organization and one that will be self gen-erative in terms of income and activities. This process ofarriving at an intervention was more complex to comeup with than the intervention itself as in involved theconsiderations of various aspects of the society. Thusdealing with such a reality with direct interaction with thepeople involved was the enriching part of the trip for me.

SADIQA JABBAR (United Kingdom)

Italian, migrant, or immigrant I Brescia

The weekend in Brescia promised to be intensive andfast paced and was likely to be over before we knewit. BUDD members were divided into four groups andassigned two areas for observation; the city centre,Quartiere del Carmine, and Movimento Nonviolento


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Liquid life and liquid modernity are deeplylinked between each other. Liquid is that

kind of life that a person tends to live in the

liquid modern society. A society can be de-

fined liquid modern if the situations in which

human beings act modify before their ways

of acting are able to strengthen in habits and

procedures. The liquid feature of life and the

society one feed and strengthen each other

mutually. Liquid life, as liquid modern soci-

ety, is not able to keep its own shape or to

be on rout for long."

(Zygmunt Bauman, Liquid life)


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Headquarter Via Milano. Groups 1 and 3 went to the citycentre while groups 2 and 4 remained in the latter area.

The issues raised concerned the immigrant communitysinability to integrate into Italian society through citizen-ship and acknowledgement of their diverse cultures. Thisis due to the Italian Governments immigration policies. Ifound this contentious especially in a country regardedas part of the developed world whereby freedom anddemocracy are highly prized realities that distinguishthem from countries in the developing world. A city iscomposed by different kinds of men [and women]; simi-lar people cannot bring a city into existence (Aristotle).Through the introductory session, lecture and historicaltour of Brescia, I realised just how lucky I am to live and

study in the UK. The issues raised in Brescia were quiteoverwhelmingly depressing and frustrating. It enabled meto value my British identity with fresh pride and respect.

As a trial-run of the Bangkok eld trip many forms of

data collection were used through both detailed andwithout looking sketching techniques, photographyand the note taking and diagramming of observationsand key ndings. We used various forms of interview-ing techniques; formal pre-planned interviews took placein peoples homes or neutral places, informal conversa-tions with people on the streets, to the unplanned ones

whereby citizens approached us directly. The unplannedconversations were sometimes the most interesting aspeople would often speak to us in Italian, not too muchof a problem as somehow we managed to get the gistof what they were saying through the odd word or handgesture!

On reection I think my group (Azzura, Dhrin, Noor, Ma -hya, Serena and Su-Ann with our group leader Andrew)worked quite well together in our ability to work cohe-sively despite having different perspectives. Althoughwe had different ideas it all came together in the endas we somehow envisioned similar social and physical

interventions. It was important to test group dynamic andhow in such a short space of time we could assign tasksand work efciently to generate an urban analysis and an

evaluation of our ndings that would inspire our spatial

interventions.During our observations of Quartiere del Carmine, whichwe thought was highly multicultural with migrants fromvarious part of the world namely Bangladesh, Ethiopia,Philippines, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India, Romania and Al-bania, we decided that the problem within the societywas not necessarily to do with the lack of integration asmuch as the lack of interaction. Vehicular and pedes-

trian movements seemed to be quite uid and harmoni-ous regardless of the size of streets. The public realm inthe main thoroughfares was full of activity which changedduring the course of the day and weekend, yet we no-ticed that people tended to cluster according to ethnicity.

Our proposed intervention was to create interactive pub-lic memory walls. We came to this idea from the gen-eration of keywords such as interaction, communication,women, children, public space, home, hybrid, citizenshipand memories. The notion of home would be transposedinto the public realm through the name and photographof people in their loved place in Brescia promoting thehistoric welcoming nature of Brescia. It essentially wasabout people and places representing a sense of homeor belonging in Brescia, I Brescia. The memory wallcomprises photographs exhibited on window shutters

with an interactive map of Brescia placed on the ground. The places would be located using photo-ags withroutes simulated to direct people to the locations in thephotos. Waiting for them at the end would be a tempo-rary seat with a silhouette and basic information aboutthe person as a marker to engage with the public. ...cit-ies exist for processes of communication and exchangebetween people - that is the only reason for having themin the rst place - and public space is a key medium

through which these processes take place... (Ian Bent-ley, 1999, p14).

From the food, streetscapes, people and even publica-

tion of our visit in a local paper, the Brescia workshopwas an eye-opening and interesting experience that test-ed group dynamics within a short space of time, limitedresources and bundles of creativity. Bring on Bangkok.

SEPIDEH HAJISOLTANI (Iran)

Based on the Brief of the BUDD camp I was supposedto be stimulated by the richly evocative and symbolicimaginations of such multiple meanings (the city of Eu-phemia by Italo Calvino) adapted to the realm of spatial

reality in which they work. Actually I was stimulated bythinking about this richness sharing the story of wolves,sisters and treasures by merchants who share the sec-ond hand experiences of the world. I am thinking aboutthem sitting next to each other talking and sharing thisexperience; yes it sounds quite nice! I tell myself while I


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have just nished reading the brief once again while I am

ying to Brescia. Before the passport check in the airport

I feel the same feeling that any middle eastern would feelin that position and I wonder if those merchants had thesame feeling when they were crossing the borders, gatesor what so ever? Were all of them welcomed?

It is a few hours that I am in Brescia listening to Alirezasstory and I have forgotten everything about the mer-chants, res, sisters and wolves. His family immigrated

from Afghanistan like so many other families to Iran be-fore he was born. He was brought up in Iran. Now as anadult he has immigrated to Italy. Being an illegal refugeehe needed a fake passport to go to Turkey, he managedto do so. He stayed in Turkey for a while then went to

Greece and nally reached his destination in Rome. Ittook six month to travel all this way by road and he spentall his 13,000 Euro for his trip. He stayed in Rome for 4months in a camp and there he got an Italian Visa for 5years! He seems quite happy and content! Now he isin Brescia, He does not know how to speak Italian sohe does not have any chance tond a job in a very near

future.

On my way back to our place I think about his story;now I have doubts in the whole thing about sharing thetales.Those merchants were in the city of Euphemia to

do trading not for sharing tales, They shared these taleswhen they were done with their business. They enteredthe city with their goods and left the city with their prot.

Alireza came to stay, he had no goods and he cannotmake a prot for a while.

In our presentation for the BUDD Camp we talk about in-tegration between immigrants and Others. We talk aboutnetworks, cultural tolerance, etc. I am thinking if all thesethings are going to take place. These immigrants are in-teracting within their own communities. If we are talk-ing about integration we need a reason for integration aswell. In a city like London diversity is interwoven within all

your daily activities. You have people of other nationali-

ties at your school, work or even in the tube. In Bresciathere is no reason to interact with immigrants they selltheir own owers and people pass by.

May be they need a chance to gain more skills to dosomething else, something beyond selling owers. May

be they need to play a more serious role in this city to betaken seriously by others.

SERENA JARVIS (Hawaii)

The concept of home is a multidimensional subject rep-resenting spatial, virtual and imagined domains. The de-construction and forced displacement from ones home

can evoke some of the most powerful human emotions.Equally, real or imagined threats of foreign inltration can

activate hostile responses tied to notions of identity andrelations of power. Within the context of anti-migrationagendas and xenophobic communities of resistance, thecity of Brescia emerges as a unique place of rich diversityand multicultural acceptance.

During our welcome dinner at the Embassy for LocalDemocracy we were made aware of their longstandingsupport of antiwar movements, workers rights and asy-lum seekers. We learned of their current initiative to host

refugees and how they are welcoming them and assist-ing in their integration process in Brescia. The discussionover an exotic meal of Ethiopian food surrounded top-ics of how the refugees are changing the urban fabric ofBrescia, but even more importantly how the urban fabricmust shift and expand to acknowledge and accommo-date new identities of the city. The aim of our time spentin Brescia was to investigate a way to recover a senseof openness in the physicality of the place and producea design intervention that would represent a catalyst forchange. Our urban analysis of the neighborhood of Car-mine proved to be an inspired experience.

Our group split into clusters and investigated the com-munity through various mediums mapping, sketching,lming and formal and impromptu interviewing. After dis-cussing and analyzing our initial material we decided tofocus on the relationship between hybrid identity and theconcept of home (home being dened as a multilayered

concept relating to nostalgia of the past and transforma-tion for the future). We aimed to nd a way to represent

and give voice to the multiple identities of Brescia. Equal-ly, we hoped to express how Brescia represents homefor Italians and emigrants alike. The trip concluded witha presentation of our urban intervention at the LDE. We

proposed an interactive urban art installation that aimedto express the many faces/voices/identities of Bresciawithin the public space of the city.

Photos of various people taken in their most loved placein Brescia would be displayed as large images on the


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walls of the city. An installation of benches situated ineach favorite location would have the story of the personwho loved that space written on the bench. The instal-lation would aim to be interactive, encouraging any per-son who sat on the bench to also write their own storyand their feelings of Brescia for others to see. While werealized that encouraging people to be openly expres-sive could present some element of risk, we decided thatproviding a public platform of expression was important.And, we felt that it would reect the overwhelmingly posi-tive responses of the place that were gathered in our in-terviews.

The experience in Brescia helped me to begin develop-ing the appropriate tools of looking and listening that

will be essential for future experiences in the eld. How-ever, I remain uncertain that macro scale conclusionscan be made from a single weekend excursion. Build-ing trust as an outsider coming into a community is adelicate and complicated process, one that requires timeand sensitivity. Additionally, developing a comprehensiveunderstanding of the spatial forces, in addition to the lessobvious or invisible forces calls for a signicant study of

the place. While we felt passionate about our

BUDDlab Volume2, BUDDcamp 2011: The City of Euphemia, Brescia / Italy

Documents