Design as enabler of anticipatory systems: The MakeinProgress case study

Abstract

In this paper we investigated the relationship between anticipation and design. Through a case study, we analysed the role Design plays among the anticipation processes in regards to the development of a territory. The functional structure of anticipation is based on a three-part scheme: a normal part, a model of the normal part, a steering device able to steer the normal part according to the outcomes of the model. The case study represented the model whereby the possible evolution of the normal part is experienced. The aim was to test whether design could enable anticipatory systems by operating as steering device and by supporting its action through processes of prefiguration, vision and realization. The case study 'MakeinProgress' (MiP) was born from an opportunity in the territory -the architectural recovery of a former "Filanda", funded by local authorities with public financing. The MiP project started as an incubator and then converted with the intervention of design. To convert MiP we applied an action-research approach. In the case of MiP, the local community could be seen as an autopoietic system, whereas the tools, belonging to the Service Design and to the Design for Social Innovation, acted as steering device. The paper presents the process whereby people were enabled to define new job opportunities out of their passions, to exploit the available space to the best of its potential, linking the territory to the national and international circuits. MiP is a concrete demonstration of the possible role of Design among anticipation mechanisms, thanks to the application of Service Design tools. MiP also acts as support for the creation of models to be used to support the public system and governments and to support the community. Keywords Theoretical introduction Futures studiesWhen man discovered that there could be yesterday and tomorrow, he had discovered the two Kantian categories of temporal and spatial. These became the tools with which he shaped images of the future, both in another time and in another space (Polak, 1973, p. 3).Pondering about the future has always been a prerogative of humankind, however a systemic thinking of the future came about between the First and Second World War in response to the need to develop programmes for the war-oriented planning. The purpose of systemic thinking was to analyze the initial conditions to inform decisions for planning a better future for social and economic life.Further structuring of systemic thinking led to Futures Studies, with the goal of exploring "alternative futures -the possible, the probable, and the preferable" (Bell, 1997, p. 42).In other words, analyzing various possible futures rather than focusing on a single, inevitable future. Understanding how these scenarios lead to different actions in the present is the purpose that moves this discipline. Below, we will briefly go through the anticipation concept and how it overlaps with design.

Designing new spaces of know-how Ex-Filanda: a creative hub for the meeting between next generations and entrepreneurship

“…The following analysis refers to Ex-Filanda of Sulbiate, where the regeneration of an industrial building led to a design-driven project built on an anticipatory model where design played a key role in development (Arquilla & Barbieri, 2017). The project, which started with an action called "Distretti Culturali Evoluti di Monza e Brianza", was born thanks to a funding from the Cariplo Foundation which covered around 50% of the restructuring costs.…”