The Portsmouth School of Architecture contributed to a building workshop aimed at redefining and enhancing the quality and vibrancy of the public space in front of a primary school in Palermo.
The Portsmouth School of Architecture contributed to a building workshop aimed at redefining and enhancing the quality and vibrancy of the public space in front of a primary school in Palermo.
The University of Portsmouth (UoP) joined this initiative as part of a longer-term participatory process named 'Sport Popolare in Spazio Pubblico,' led by a partnership of local actors and institutions. This collaboration successfully pedestrianized the space in front of the school, following the enactment of a new law that designates 'school zones' as urban areas requiring special protection for pedestrians and the environment.
In early March, a group of 25 students from the Portsmouth School of Architecture joined children from Amari School for a two-day construction workshop. This initiative transformed a section of the street into a distinct and visible pedestrian area by adding new drawings to the asphalt and assembling a series of timber cubes for playful seating, thus creating a more welcoming and vibrant landscape. The intervention aimed to enhance environmental conditions, promote non-polluting modes of travel, ensure the safety of children, and encourage the use of streets and public spaces for recreational, playful, and social activities.
Before the field trip, as a key activity of the Architecture Project Office, UoP students participated in a design competition, won by DA students Charles Beckwith and James Ronnenbergh, to contribute their ideas to the project led by local architects. This allowed all students to be included in the process and learn extensively from this activity.
The Head Teacher of ICS Rita Borsellino said: I have been working in this school since 2007 and I have always had the dream of transforming this stretch of road, until a few months ago, full of cars, traffic, buses, disorder and smog. It was very dangerous when children entered and left school as the traffic rules were not respected. We reflected for a long time on these behaviours with parents and residents to change the paradigm and imagine a different, safe, playful, sustainable, participatory space, without cars and smog. The dream will be completed when we have the trees planted and the area connects with the nearby Botanical Garden.
Flora La Sita, local architect at the BooQ association said: The value of the small intervention carried out is extraordinary, creating public space together helps to infuse energy into the territory and confidence in the regeneration process. Giving people direct responsibility for modifying some portions of the city changes the intervention model towards a participatory, flexible project and above all capable of reactivating the community-building process.
Vivian Celestino, said: This point of view on the city slowly brings us closer to experiences that have been ongoing for some time in other Italian and European cities, it helps us to overcome the norms and barrier behaviours of collective life, to experiment with a new sociality in places, to activate a different perception of space to imagine a different city, to create and keep alive a community of inhabitants around a place. Finding tools every time to interpret places, load them with meanings, and suggest possible paths, is our way of being inside things, in neighbourhoods as in schools, carrying out a continuous operation of mediation between all these new meanings proposed and the 'attempts' of interpretation of public administration.
Guido Robazza, Senior Lecturer at Portsmouth, said: I am always delighted to see how this type of tactical urbanism workshop steers incredibly positive energy among all those involved, through collaboration, hands-on making, and in this case by providing such an intense opportunity for international cultural exchange.
This project served as an educational tool, engaging children to creative processes in design and construction. By participating in the creation of the space, children and students gained practical experience in creativity, teamwork, and problem-solving. This experiential learning opportunity was designed not only to improve the spaces, but also to inspire creativity, international cultural exchange, and collaboration, and to empower the young participants by providing them with valuable skills and insights into transforming their built environment.