XYZ Lab

Master Thesis

xyz lab TUTOR | Valentina Auricchio CO-TUTOR | Alessandro Masserdotti STUDENT | Federica Ranieri 833385

POLITECNICO DI MILANO DESIGN SCHOOL PRODUCT SERVICE SYSTEM DESIGN A.Y. 2015/2016

«School trains children to be employees and consumers; teach your own to be leaders and adventurers.

School trains children to obey reflexively; teach your own to think critically and independently.

Well-schooled kids have a low threshold for boredom; help your own to develop an inner life so that they’ll never be bored.

Urge them to take on the serious material, the grown-up material, in history, literature, philosophy, music, art, economics, theology - all the stuff schoolteachers know well enough to avoid. Challenge your kids with plenty of solitude so that they can learn to enjoy their own company, to conduct inner dialogues.

Well-schooled people are conditioned to dread being alone; they seek constant companionship through the TV; the computer, the cell phone, and through shallow friendships quickly acquired, quickly abandoned.

Your children should have a more important life, and they can.»

- John Taylor Gatto

Contents

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Abstract Eng + Ita

1. Introductory research Design for Education 12 The times of technological breakthrough 16 A shift of paradigm in education 22 Reframing the education system 24 Design Thinking for educators 28 Case Studies

2. Exploring the context Generation Z 50 Talking about generations 52 Who is Gen Z? 54 Gen Z’s values, aspirations, expectations 56 Differences and analogies

with previous generations 57 Designing for Gen Z 60 Meet: The Generation Z Craftsmanship & Made in Italy 66 Intangible cultural heritage 70 Craftsmanship in times of globalization 74 Made in Italy 77 Manufacture renaissance 78 Meet: The Artisans

Digital Fabrication 30 The Origin 35 What is a fablab?

38 Not only fablabs 40 The Italian scenario 42 Meet: Opendot Lab

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3. Defining the solution 86 High Schoolers 88 Artisans 90 Design Brief 96 Case Studies

5. Workshop prototyping Prototyping XYZ LAB 138 The participants: Rude+CeAS 142 Co-Design Session 144 Ingredients 146 Agenda 148 Post Activity Analysis

4. Service development XYZ LAB 100 What is it?

102 Stakeholders Map 104 Personas 106 How it works 110 Artisans' offering map 112 Teenagers' offering map 114 FabLabs' offering map 116 The Workshop 120 Touchpoints 122 Business Model Canvas 130 Visual Identity

6. Extra materials 152 Workshop templates 156 Interviews protocols

Bibliography Sitography Videos Images Index Acknowledgments

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ABSTRACT | ENG Nowadays society is evolving quicker than ever before: we are witnessing a revolution in our society, led by the unrestrained technological advances. This transformation is affecting every generation, both the past, the present and the future. In fact, kids born after 1996, known as Generation Z, are deeply different from the generations born before them. They live in an era when Internet is given for granted, when the world is in your pocket - that is, your smartphone.

They will never remember a world without Facebook, iPhone or Amazon. They are constantly connected.

In this fast-forwarding scenario, there’s one fundamental thing, though, that is still stuck to 100 years ago: education. Indeed a cultural basis is essential, but the society is evolving and the power of digitalized and connected world is changing the way we live radically. Yet schools ignore it. Is school preparing today’s learners for the future or the past? Moreover, young learners are not given the freedom to express themselves, to unleash their creativity and imagination, to make errors and learn from them because they are constrained by a standardized grading system that classifies them based on their marks rather than their personal inclinations, passions or abilities. What is school's purpose, therefore? In order to deliver new values, to adopt a new approach and to create a more student-centered and personalized instruction, schools should totally rethink education as is today.

Talking about elder generations, there is another important actor who is suffering from the shift in nowadays society: craftspeople. Globalization is leading to the extinction of many small laboratories and to the impoverishment of the urban fabric. Not only, it is also making people less aware about the real value of craftsmanship. What's the role of artisanship nowadays? Small businesses need to be promoted and supported and the economy should start to put its roots back in local realities.

So, what is the common denominator between artisans and teenagers? How can teenagers, our future, help the tradition, our past, survive? Will they be able to rethink of craftsmanship and innovate the tradition together?

The challenges facing the two parts are real, complex, and varied and they need new answers soon. As such, they require new perspectives, new tools, and new approaches.

Design Thinking is one of these.

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ABSTRACT | ITA La società come la ricordiamo un tempo è ormai un ricordo. Siamo testimoni di uno dei più grandi cambiamenti degli ultimi decenni, guidato dall'incessante progresso tecnologico. Una (r)evoluzione che coinvolge nel cambiamento tutte le generazioni, passate, presenti e future. I ragazzi nati dopo il 1996, chiamati Generazione Z, sono profondamente diversi dai loro predecessori.

Essi vivono in un'era dove Internet è dato per scontato, dove tutto lo scibile umano è sempre comodamente a portata di mano, grazie al loro smartphone.

Questi ragazzi non ricorderanno mai un mondo senza Facebook, iPhone o Amazon. Un mondo dove non si è costantemente connessi.

In questo scenario in rapida evoluzione, tuttavia, c'è qualcosa che è rimasto fondamentalmente immutato da oltre cent'anni: l'istruzione. Non ci sono dubbi che una base culturale sia di primaria importanza, ma la nostra società si sta evolvendo, grazie al potere della digitalizzazione, e così il nostro modo di vivere.

Ciononostante, le scuole lo ignorano. Stiamo preparando gli studenti di oggi al futuro o al passato? Inoltre, i ragazzi non hanno la libertà di potersi esprimere, creare, immaginare e, soprattutto, sbagliare e imparare dai loro errori, perché sono limitati da un sistema scolastico basato meramente sui voti piuttosto che modellato sulle loro inclinazioni, passioni o abilità. Qual è. dunque, lo scopo della scuola? L'educazione come è oggi andrebbe ripensata radicalmente, adottando nuovi valori, nuovi metodi e un approccio più personalizzato che metta al centro lo studente.

Parlando delle generazioni passate, invece, c'è un altro gruppo di persone che non riesce più a stare al passo col cambiamento: gli artigiani. La globalizzazione sta portando all'estinzione di molti piccoli laboratori e al conseguente impoverimento del tessuto urbano, oltre al favorire una dilagante diseducazione sul vero valore del lavoro di bottega. Qual è il suo ruolo dunque? Le piccole imprese artigiane andrebbero promosse e supportate adeguatamente e l'economia dovrebbe tornare a vivere di realtà locali.

Qual è allora il comune denominatore tra artigiani e ragazzi? Come possono i giovani, il nostro futuro, aiutare il nostro passato, la tradizione. a non scomparire?

Riusciranno insieme a ripensare all'artigianato, a innovare la tradizione?

Le sfide che aspettano i due sono reali, complesse e variegate e necessitano di nuove risposte, al più presto. In quanto tali, richiedono nuove prospettive, nuovi metodi e nuovi approcci.

Il Design Thinking è uno di questi.

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1. introductory research TWO REALITIES ONLY APPARENTLY CONTRASTING. ON THE ONE HAND, THE DEEPLY-ROOTED EDUCATION SYSTEM. ON THE OTHER HAND, BOTTOM-UP PHENOMENON OF FABLABS

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DESIGN FOR EDUCATION IN A WORLD LEAD BY TECHNOLOGY AND CONSTANT INNOVATION, SCHOOL IS STILL ANCHORED TO A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. WHY IS THAT? NOWADAYS CHILDREN ARE PROFOUNDLY DIFFERENT FROM GENERATIONS BEFORE, THEREFORE A CHANGE IN PARADIGM IS NECESSARY IN ORDER TO EDUCATE AND MOLD TOMORROW’S KIDS.

THE TIMES OF TECHNOLOGICAL BREAKTHROUGH «If we were sent back with a time machine, even 20 years, and reported to people what we have right now and describe what we were going to get in this device in our pocket — we’d have this free encyclopedia, and we’d have street maps to most of the cities of the world, and we’d have box scores in real time and stock quotes and weather reports, PDFs for every manual in the world ... You would simply be declared insane» - Kevin Kelly, Wired founding executive editor The world as we remember it before 2000 is increasingly changing and evolving due to the unrestrained technological advances and will soon become just a distant memory on history books. Futurists have been making forecasts on what we’ll accomplish in the not-so-distant future and their bets are not so wild as it seem. Futurist Ray Kurzweil, for example, believes that by 2040 Artificial Intelligence will be so good that humans will be fully immersed in virtual reality and that something known as the Singularity - when technology becomes so advanced that it changes the human race irreversibly - will occur.

In 2014, during an interview with Edge, Kevin Kelly, founding executive editor of Wired magazine, affirmed that the next 20 years in technology will be radical. He believes our technological advances will make the

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Photo Pexels - CC0

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previous 20 years «pale» in comparison.

«We’re just at the beginning of the beginning of all these kind of changes.

There’s a sense that all the big things have happened, but relatively speaking, nothing big has happened yet. In 20 years from now we’ll look back and say, ‘Well, nothing really happened in the last 20 years.»

Kelly declared. Over the next ten years, we’ll see significant advances in technology, many of epic proportions.

Advances in robotics and 3D printing have opened up new ways of manufacturing sophisticated products and their implementation in medicine, surgery and biotechnologies is thinning more and more the line between humans and machines. For example, from this conversation and the open-source designs, emerged Cyborg Beast, a project whose mission is to create customized low-cost prosthetic and orthotic solutions for disadvantaged populations.

Virtual reality, while in its infancy, allows for immersive gaming and movie watching, but its range of applications is already going beyond entertainment. VR can be used as a training for high risk jobs, such as medical and aerospace; for instance, NASA uses VR to train astronauts to perform complicated tasks in zero gravity. But in the next few years, virtual reality will likely grow into a platform for virtual communication, where distance and space are absent. With developer access, the future of VR introduces endless untapped possibilities. Augmented reality appears to be the next likely evolution.

From watches to health monitors, wearable technology has taken off over the past few years. According to Statistica, “The global wearables market is expected to reach a value of 19 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, more than ten times its value five years prior.” The wearable technology space has witnessed an exponential increase in consumer spending thanks to health and fitness digital product manufacturers like Fitbit and smart watch products like Apple’s Watch.

Finally, after decades of development AI and Machine Learning are starting to enter more and more into our daily lives. In fact, current Artificial Intelligence techniques supplies some functions that improve our lives. They are used to combat spam and fraud with credit cards, to operate economic and financial forecasts, for voice recognition (Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon) and typewriting, for automatic classification of images (Google, Apple) to understand our tastes and make

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recommendations (Amazon, Spotify, Netflix, Pinterest), to improve the newsfeed (Facebook) and help us taking decisions (Chatbots). In general, any problem that requires analysis and correlation of Big Data, even in critical fields such as medical and scientific, will require the application of Artificial Intelligence techniques. Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft: all the big players are convinced that talking to an AI will soon become the dominant way we interact with our computers. The process might be slow to become fully operational, but this kind of technology are already changing our habits both in our daily life and in our purchase experience.

“Looking to the future, the next big step will be for the very concept of the ‘device’ to fade away. Over time, the computer itself — whatever its form factor — will be an intelligent assistant helping you through your day. We will move from mobile-first to an AI-first world” – Sundar Pichai, CEO at Google The reason for this brief premise about technological progress is simply to create the scenario of today’s - and tomorrow’s -world and to spark a reflection: how different are our lives compared to the way our grandparents used to live? And how different are we from the next generation’s kids that are born today? Who is closer to us and where is the biggest gap? Every generation brings with it an array of innovations, discoveries, new values, new lifestyles, new trends. But thinking of the difference between the life in the 70’s, the ‘80s or the 90’s and the life after 2000, it becomes pretty evident that humanity has undergone a dramatic change in the decade after 2000 more than it had in the previous 50 years. And that is because the 2000’s not only brought a new cultural movement, new values, new trends. They brought new possibilities.

Technology is entering our lives so much we are actually starting to merge with it. What is happening is that we are offloading some of our tasks to machines, we are using them to interact with other humans, we are asking them to teach us and even to take decisions for us. We rely on our smart devices to the point that we almost have feelings for them. And it’s just a matter of time before the utopian scenario represented in 2013 by the director Spike Jonze in his film «Her» becomes true.

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A SHIFT OF PARADIGM IN EDUCATION Given that we are living in times of overwhelming progress powered up by an exponential advancement in technology - that is even causing Moore’s law to sound obsolete; in times where the outlook of the immediate future is looking more and more alike to science fiction; times when everything is changing, from human interactions to mobility, from purchase experience to lifestyle, from telecommunication to production.

There is only on exception to this rule and it’s the foundation upon which individual knowledge, character, aspiration and intellect grow: Education.

The educational model employed today is more than ever outdated, conventionalized and inadequate.

Our world is changing so fast, we all feel it. To prepare today’s learners for tomorrow’s world, our systems need to evolve. Innovation in education requires the courage and creativity to take leaps at some of the most entrenched ‘truths’ we hold — the very premise of how our institutions are designed. The curriculum, spaces, tools, roles, infrastructure all offer an immense opportunity for design to make a difference”.

- Sandy Speicher, IDEO The reasons why the education system as is nowadays shows flaws have been discussed thoroughly by educators, pedagogists, reformists and teachers.

Ken Robinson is one of the world’s most influential voices in education and became world-known after his 2006 TED Talk «Do schools kill creativity?», one of the 25 most viewed in the organization’s history.

After that, in 2015 he collected his research and developed educational guidelines in his book «Creative Schools». According to Robinson’s thought, «We are educating people out of their creativity, because we’ve been educated to become good workers, rather than creative thinkers».

Students with restless minds and bodies, far from being cultivated for their energy and curiosity, are ignored or even stigmatized, with terrible consequences. «Education should be about creating people who know what to do when they don’t know what to do».

He argues for an end to the already obsolete industrial educational system. In fact, he outlines that the problem in our current education system is that it was conceived and structured for a different age, that is

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Photo H-Campus ©

the Intellectual culture of Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution.

Therefore, schooling was driven by both an economic imperative of the time and the intellectual model of the mind, that is Enlightenment view of intelligence: academic ability. According to the author, people were either academic, smart, successful, therefore able to get a respectable job; or non-academic, that is not intelligent and bound to get humble jobs. This view is also shared by John Taylor Gatto, former school teacher who taught in the classroom for nearly 30 years and author of several books on modern education, who stated: «Do we really need school? I don’t mean education, just forced schooling: six classes a day, five days a week, nine months a year, for twelve years. Is this deadly routine really necessary? And if so, for what? [...] We have been taught (that is, schooled) in this country to think “success” is synonymous with, or at least dependent upon, “schooling,” but historically that isn’t true in either an intellectual or a financial sense» («Weapons of Mass Instruction», 2008) Robinson also affirms that, in fact, every education system worldwide shares the same hierarchy of subjects: at the top there are mathematics and languages, then the humanities, and at the bottom there are the arts.

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And in almost every system too, there’s a hierarchy within the arts. Art and music are normally given a higher status in schools than drama and dance. There isn’t an education system in the world that teaches dance everyday to children the way they teach them mathematics. The reason is because our education system is based both on the idea of academic ability and on meeting the needs of industrialism.

«So the hierarchy is rooted on two ideas. Number one, that the most useful subjects for work are at the top. So you were probably steered benignly away from things at school when you were a kid, things you liked, on the grounds that you would never get a job doing that. Is that right? Don’t do music, you’re not going to be a musician; don’t do art, you won’t be an artist. Benign advice — now, profoundly mistaken. And the second is academic ability, which has really come to dominate our view of intelligence, because the universities designed the system in their image. If you think of it, the whole system of public education around the world is a protracted process of university entrance. And the consequence is that many highly-talented, brilliant, creative people think they’re not, because the thing they were good at school wasn’t valued, or was actually stigmatized. And I think we can’t afford to go on that way.

Robinson adds another major point to his observations on education and systems highlighting how, in the next 30 years, according to UNESCO, more people worldwide will be graduating through education than since the beginning of history, because of technology and its transformation effect on work, and demography and the huge explosion in population.

«Suddenly, degrees aren’t worth anything. Isn’t that true? When I was a student, if you had a degree, you had a job. If you didn’t have a job, it’s because you didn’t want one. [...] But now kids with degrees are often heading home to carry on playing video games, because you need an MA where the previous job required a BA, and now you need a PhD for the other. It’s a process of academic inflation.

And it indicates the whole structure of education is shifting beneath our feet. We need to radically rethink our view of intelligence.»

- Sir Ken Robinson

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In her book “I Love Learning; I Hate School” (2016), American professor of anthropology Susan Blums tries to understand the mismatch between learning, “which students may love“, and schooling, “which many students hate“. She believes that many students find their time at college or university to be a very difficult, dissatisfying experience, something they endure and go through as a means to an end. But it shouldn’t to be like that. Because school isn’t about pleasing the teacher; it doesn’t mean fulfilling the minimum or doing the safe thing to get the A; it is not all about satisfying the requirements. The reason why this happens is because there is a concerning discrepancy between the goals of the institutions and the needs of students. Drawing on her anthropological capacities, cognitive science, affective neuroscience, child psychology, and human development, Blums shows how these practices are misaligned with the way humans are and actually learn.

In order to test it, she conducted her own original research and classroom experimentations, explaining how she tried to "ungrade" her college classes: «I emphasized that I wanted my students to learn, to focus on what we were doing. I also encouraged them to try new forms of presentation -blog posts, podcasts, infographics, movies, photo essays.

I wanted them to make their learning their own. I wanted them to figure out how to present their ideas in ways that made sense for what they had to communicate. And they did it. In one class I got first-time-ever podcasts. [...] I got movies. I got Prezis and PowerPoints and PictoCharts, Public Service Announcements and blog posts and diaries. Students who considered themselves «uncreative» started to understand that there were options available to them that they had never considered.»

As a result, she maintains that the institution of school has outlived its usefulness, that there is chaos in discussing its aims, implementation, measures «As a system of educating, its returns on genuine learning are shameful. As a signaling game and credential competition, it is incredibly wasteful. As a way of trying to squeeze all individuals into a tight mold, it is abusive and creates suffering. This system began, basically, with the Common School movement. We can’t significantly improve a conceptually flawed system; we can only replace it» says Blum. The anthropologist also argues about the one-size-fit-all schooling logic, claiming that it’s something that kills individualism and self-expression.

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“Students growing up in a two-professional household with a taste for classical music and organic food will not be the same as adolescents raising their younger siblings while Mom is in jail. If these last get a chance to go to college, they will have a different perspective on the whole experience.”

- Susan D. Blum Moreover, Blum affirms that the worst aspect of today’s education is the grading system. Grades allows students to keep moving up through the system, no matter if you really understand anything. Tests are carried out with the skewed mindset of doing the bare minimum to keep advancing until finishing one level to get accepted to the next one, to finally entering the work world and get a respectful job – possibly never learning much of any great use in your career at all. As Sal Khan, CEO and founder of Khan Academy, maintains grades don’t always mirror a student’s true knowledge about a subject and, even so, they don’t require a hundred percent of success in order to pass, with the result of leaving behind knowledge gaps that sooner or later will emerge.

Grades are the reward for ticking the right boxes, but many studies show that rewards are counter-productive. While researching cases about its Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985, 1991), Edward Deci conducted a study with a result so amazing that nobody believed it: college students were divided into two groups. All were given a challenging puzzle to work on, but half earned money for solving it.

Researchers left the room and observed the students. The ones who had been paid showed less interest in the puzzle than the other group. This finding has been replicated again and again and again.

Not only researchers have been confronting on the issue, though: the argument is so heated it has generated a huge response on the Internet, especially among YouTubers. It’s interesting the resonance some of them had by becoming spokespeople of the cause, even receiving millions of views and thousands of comments, becoming viral.

Prince EA, American spoken word artist, rapper and filmmaker, got more than 5 million views for his touching video "I just sued the school system"(2016). His video was part of Neste’s «Educycle» project, an augmented reality game for school children teaching how to reduce their personal carbon footprint, interacting with a boardgame and an app.

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Don’t go to school - YouTube Video frame

In the video he talks about the problems and the bias in the education system, tackling issues such as the inability of kids to feel up to the challenges, the lack of change in the institution in more than a century, the paradox of teaching as one of the most important jobs, but still underestimated and underpaid, the one-size-fit-all schooling logics.

«If a doctor prescribed the exact same medicine to all of his patients the results would be tragic, so many people would get sick. Yet, when it come to school this is exactly what happens. This educational malpractice, where one teacher stands in front of 20 kids each one having different strengths, different needs, different gifts, different dreams. And you teach the same thing the same way? That’s horrific» raps Prince EA. Boyinaband’s - also known as David Brown - #dontstayinschool video (2015) received more than 15 million views. During the video he uses rap to express his dislike of current education system. How this is an ancient system, completely disconnected from student’s every day’s struggles, how there is a lack of practical over theoretical knowledge, and how pointless is going to school to be taught things you don’t really care about or that you can learn in other ways. «I wasn’t taught how to get a job, but I can remember dissecting a frog; I wasn’t taught how to pay tax, but I know loads about Shakespeare’s classics» (Boyinaband, 2015)

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REFRAMING THE EDUCATION SYSTEM In response to the numerous flaws of current education system, school should evolve into a highly customized experience, adopting an organic approach that draws on today’s evolving technological and professional resources to engage all students, develop their love of learning, and enable them to face the real problems of every day’s life, trying to focus on the their real needs: self-confidence, curiosity, respect, creativity, sociability. Education should abandon the old onesize-fit-all logic and adapt to student’s own personal inclination and pace, not vice versa. Professor Ken Robinson puts particular emphasis on the teacher/educator role as someone who should facilitate learning by trying to provide each student with the customized experience and environment he or she needs, based on their interests and capacities.

Specifically, teachers should: - Motivate study - Help students find their true interests - Facilitate study (provide the means and resources) - Have and communicate expectations - Capacitate students to have confidence in themselves By implementing this guidelines, students will finally feel empowered and responsible for their own education. Doing the homeworks or listening to a lesson will be something they do for the sake of knowledge, not for getting good grades or making the parents happy. As reported by E. Deci in the Self-Determination Theory «Intrinsically motivated behaviors are engaged in for their own sake- for the pleasure and satisfaction derived from their performance. When intrinsically motivated, people engage in activities that interest them, and they do so freely, with a full sense of volition and without the necessity of material rewards or constraints. The child who reads a book for the inherent pleasure of doing so is intrinsically motivated for that activity. Intrinsically motivated behaviors represent the prototype of self determination -they emanate from the self and are fully endorsed». (Deci & Ryan, 1985, 1991) About this point, in fact, Blum said that if she could make only one change to conventional schooling, it would be to stop giving grades.

So she did an experiment: «I have begun to give my students, in smaller classes, rubrics without grades. I tell them that if this causes too much

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anxiety, I’ll be happy to tell them what grade the rubric would translate to. (Nobody has requested this, so far.)»

Eliminating grades would also mean knocking out the fear of being wrong. Making mistakes represents a way of seeing things differently and is a natural step of the learning process and creative thinking.

As we can read in the MIT Media Lab Manifesto: «We live in a world that is changing more rapidly than ever before. Much of what we learn today will be obsolete tomorrow. Success depends on our ability to think and act creatively. To thrive, we must learn to imagine creatively, reason systematically, work collaboratively and learn continuously. This is true not just for individuals, but for companies, communities, and even nations as a whole».

Learn to take risks. Creative thinking is only one of the competences a new education system should foster. As stated in his book «Creative Schools», Robinson identifies the key competences for learning that school should stimulate in its students: creativity and innovative thinking; critical thinking and problem solving; communication and collaboration.

«I don’t mean to say that being wrong is the same thing as being creative.

What we do know is, if you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original. If you’re not prepared to be wrong. And by the time they get to be adults, most kids have lost that capacity. They have become frightened of being wrong. And we run our companies like this, by the way, we stigmatize mistakes. And we’re now running national education systems where mistakes are the worst thing you can make. And the result is, we are educating people out of their creative capacities».

- Sir Ken Robinson In order to deliver this new values, to adopt a new approach and to create a more student-centered and personalized instruction, schools should totally rethink education as is today. The challenges facing teachers and educators are real, complex, and varied. And they need new answers. As such, they require new perspectives, new tools, and new approaches.

Design Thinking is one of these approaches.

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DESIGN THINKING FOR EDUCATORS The fundamental actors capable of delivering a new education paradigm could not be anyone but the teachers. They are the innovators education has been waiting for. Every teacher has an inner designer, and we can use design thinking to make it come to light. Teachers and educators have the ability to observe their pupils below the surface, to understand what they are thinking or feeling - even if they are telling a lie. Thanks to their experience but also to their natural aptitude, they can connect with their students in a way that neither families can do. A great teacher can affect and improve the life of a young learner, so far as to change it completely, sometimes. Unfortunately, so does a bad teacher. The problem between students and teachers is often a lack of empathy, that is the ability to really feel what the other is feeling. Due to constant pressure exerted by the institution, demanding grades and reports and the fulfillment of the curriculum, teachers don’t have enough time to stop for a while and to speak to their class. Or maybe they don’t have the right tools to do it.

Design Thinking, thanks to his collaborative, open, optimistic, creative nature, can help teachers and students to create a two-way conversation and to improve together the quality of teaching and school time, both in class and outside. Teachers could act as facilitator, making learning and exploration a necessity for everybody.

With this purpose in mind, The Design Thinking Toolkit for Educators by IDEO, award-winning global design firm that creates human-centered products, services, spaces, and organizations, was born in 2011. It was created in collaboration with the teachers at Riverdale Country School of New York City. The toolkit reflects the Design Thinking processes, methods and tools IDEO, it’s been using for years and applies them to the world of education. It includes a quickstart guide, methods, worksheets, examples of teachers using Design Thinking. Educators across the nation have been using Design Thinking to solve challenges in their work. Projects range in scope and scale including design solutions- from curriculum, to space, to processes and to systems— addressing problems in the classroom and across entire districts. For example, Michael Schurr, a 2nd grade teacher in New York, realized that he never asked his students what would make them comfortable in the classroom. He decided to talk directly with his students to figure out the best design for

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their environment. Michael is using design to re-imagine his classroom through the lens of his students’ needs. Another example is the faculty at Ormondale Elementary School in California. They decided it was time to re-design the approach to teaching and learning that they felt was outdated in the 21st century. Therefore, collectively, they embarked on a design journey and came to an approach they call “Investigative Learning”, which addresses students not as receivers of information, but as shapers of knowledge. The faculty continues to evolve and share this approach with new teachers through the creation of a Manual of Investigative Learning to keep track of their philosophy and methods.

They have gained support from their school board, and have become recognized as a California Distinguished School.

Design Thinking is the confidence that everyone can be part of creating a more desirable future, and a process to take action when faced with a difficult challenge. That kind of optimism is well needed in education.

- Design Thinking for Educators The toolkit became a global phenomenon as educators discovered a process that enabled them to be more human-centered, optimistic, collaborative, and experimental in their practice. And that’s exactly how The Teachers Guild journey began: in 2011 with the Design Thinking for Educators Toolkit. The Teachers Guild is a member-led community funded in 2015, where teachers can create systemic change for and from their classroom. Their aim is to allow educators to collaborate and create solutions answering their students’ needs, transforming their profession of teachers into a creative force. As the project launched, it focused on connecting a nationwide community of creative and collaborative teachers - both online and in person. On the website, teachers can find the toolkit and get in contact with other teachers in order to collaborate, ask for help and share ideas. Ate the moment, the community includes 6,500+ teacher members from all 50 American states. Within the community there are also some special roles: coaches are teacher-designers at the heart of The Guild. They are bold and optimistic educators here to make your ideas awesome. They guide the development of ideas, run in-person events, and lead our community towards designing innovative solutions for education’s toughest challenges.

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SOLE session - photo School in the Cloud

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Salman Khan - photo Khan Academy©

Finnish class - photo Andreas Meichsner©

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SCHOOL IN THE CLOUD - funded by Sugata Mitra, 2014. TED prize winner ‘13 In 1999, Sugata Mitra’s pioneering “Hole in the Wall” experiments helped bring the potential of self-organized learning to the public’s attention. Research since then has continued to support his startling conclusion that groups of children, with access to the Internet, can learn almost anything by themselves. A Self-Organized Learning Environment, or SOLE, can exist anywhere there is a computer, Internet connection, and students who are ready to learn. Within a SOLE students are given the freedom to learn collaboratively using the Internet. An educator poses a Big Question and students form small groups to find an answer. During a SOLE session students are free to move around, change groups and share information at any time. Towards the end of a session they have the opportunity to share what they learned with the whole group. SOLE sessions are characterized by discovery, sharing, spontaneity and limited teacher intervention. The School in the Cloud platform was originally launched at the 2014 TED conference to help accelerate the research on SOLEs by helping educators — be they teachers, parents or community leaders — to run their own education and to contribute to the global experiment by sharing their experiences with others.

The Granny Cloud is a team of e-mediators, young and old, both male and female from all over the globe. They reach out via Skype to children in SOLEs in locations as diverse as the Indian jungle to the far north of Greenland.

Currently, The Granny Cloud consists of over 100 active volunteers. Their main role is to interact with groups of children in regular or one off sessions. This could involve stories, craft activities, songs, exploring the Internet together, quizzes and discussions. https://www.theschoolinthecloud.org/

case studies THREE OUTSTANDING EXAMPLES OF DIFFERENT EDUCATING SYSTEMS, DRAWING ON TECHNOLOGY, THAT RADICALLY OVERHAUL THE CONCEPT OF SCHOOL, THE TEACHING, THE CURRICULUM, THE RELATIONSHIP WITH THE STUDENTS AND THE WAY LEARNING IS CARRIED OUT.

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KHAN ACADEMY - funded by Sal Khan, 2012 A free world-class education for anyone, anywhere

FINNISH EDUCATION SYSTEM World leader education according to OECD’s

It all started in 2007, when Kahn Academy’s founder Sal Khan was working as an analyst at a hedge fund. He was in Boston and was tutoring his cousins in New Orleans, remotely. So he started putting the first YouTube videos up, just as a kind of a supplement for his cousins. But right after that, something interesting happened. «The first was the feedback from my cousins. They told me that they preferred me on YouTube than in person. And when you think about it from their point of view, it makes a ton of sense. You have this situation where now they can pause and repeat their cousin, without feeling like they’re wasting my time. If they have to review something that they should have learned a couple of weeks ago, they don’t have to be embarrassed and ask their cousin. They can just watch those videos; if they’re bored, they can go ahead. They can watch at their own time and pace». The other thing were the enthusiastic reactions from normal people. Then he started getting letters from teachers, saying, «We’ve used your videos to flip the classroom.

You’ve given the lectures, so now what we do is I assign the lectures for homework, and what used to be homework, I now have the students doing in the classroom» Today, Khan Academy offers practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalized learning dashboard that empowers both learners, to study at their own pace in and outside of the classroom, and educators to better understand what their or students are up to and how best to help them. Classes include math, science, computer programming, history, art history, economics, and more.

They partnered with institutions like NASA, MoMa, The California Academy of Sciences, and MIT https://www.khanacademy.org/

Finland does many sensible things that promote student wellbeing. For instance: - Students typically receive a 15-minute unstructured break for every 45 minutes of instruction - Every school day, all students in Finland – regardless of socioeconomic background – are provided with free, nutritious meals - 90 percent of Finnish comprehensive schools are implementing an effective, research-informed program for countering bullying called KiVa - 70 percent of Finland’s comprehensive schools have adopted a nationwide initiative to boost the physical activity of children, called Finnish Schools on the Move.

Inside Finnish classrooms, teachers are comfortable providing students with ample freedom, such as assigning open-ended projects. This practice encourages creativity, but it also nudges students to develop stronger critical thinking skills. What’s most important, Finland suggests, is a well-balanced curriculum taught by proficient educators in a learning environment that promotes student wellbeing. Besides, in Finland, there’s a widespread belief that young children need lots of time to play on a regular basis.

In fact, children in Finland don’t begin first grade until they’re seven years old, and before then, they spend most of their days learning through play. All schools in Finland are public and teachers are requires a very high education; in exchange of a good salary. In Finland no kid is left behind: they have free access to good schools with skilled teachers, a balanced curriculum, healthy lunches and high-quality learning materials. https://finland.fi/tag/education/

Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)

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DIGITAL FABRICATION IN ORDER TO ANSWER TO THE QUESTION «WHAT IS A FAB LAB?» A STEP BACK IS NECESSARY. FAB LABS, MAKER SPACES, HACKER SPACES’ ORIGIN CAN BE TRACED BACK TO ALMOST ONE DECADE AGO. IT ALL STARTED FROM THE EVOLUTION OF DIGITAL FABRICATION TECHNIQUES, OPEN DATA AND CROWDSOURCING.

DIGITAL FABRICATION: THE ORIGIN In order to understand what is a FabLab, a step back is needed. The basis and the origin can be traced back to digital fabrication, an easy and direct digital manufacturing system to build solid and three-dimensional objects from digital designs, with innovative manufacturing techniques. The intuition to combine high-end fabrication tools and open collaboration to create endless possibilities grew out of MIT’s popular class «How to make almost anything» taught by Professor Neil Gershenfeld in 2001.

The professor will then open the Centre for Bits and Atoms: a place where physical objects are born from their digital representations through machines that can transform bits into matter; it will be later recognized as the first FabLab. Literally, it refers to a way of making that uses digital data to control a fabrication process. It relies on numerical control machines to build, transform, or cut materials. Most common examples of digital fabrication machines are the laser cutter, 3d printer and CNC milling machine. As these machines are computer controlled, they are generally much faster and way more accurate than traditional hand-based alternatives. The digital input - a 3d model, a vector or a CAD - allows not only a great flexibility but also a broad range of new possibilities of creation, in terms of shapes, materials, textures, dimension. Machines can bend, cut, weld, mill, print and more, on a scale that goes from the Nano scale to complete

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Photo Opendot LabŠ

Neil Gershenfeld - photo Oliviero ToscaniŠ

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Rep Rap Medel Prusa i3 - photo Bitfluser

Photo FabFoundation CC0

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buildings. Digital fabrication is mostly used to create prototypes during the design process, called Rapid Prototyping (RP). Rapid Manufacturing (RM) is an extension of rapid prototyping in which the digitally fabricated can be directly used as fully functional end products. The price of this machines has decreased in the latest years, making them more affordable for everyone: 3D printers can range from 100 euros to several thousands. Assembling a few of today’s digital fabrication tools creates a fully functioning factory – a Fabrication Lab (FabLab) - for the price of an average car.

«When the cost of high-quality resources for design and prototyping becomes very low, these resources can be diffused very widely, and the allocation problem diminishes in significance. The net result is and will be to democratize the opportunity to create» - Hippel, 2005 As it is already emerging, eventually everyone will have the ability to create (almost) anything. Some recently invented open source devices for digital fabrication are rapidly making this prediction a reality. The desktop versions of professional digital fabrication machines bring highend fabrication techniques, previously only a prerogative of big factories, to everyone’s desktop. A well-known case is RepRap - replicating rapid prototyper - the 3D printer that prints itself. It was founded in 2005

by Adrian Bowyer, a Senior Lecturer in mechanical engineering at the University of Bath, in England. The aim was to develop a low-cost 3D printer that can print most of its own components, as an open source project. For its very nature of its design, both open and cheap, RepRap has been reproduced in many variations world wide. A successful evolution of RepRap is Makerbot, one of the first low-cost 3D printers; it has sold over 100,000 desktop 3D printers worldwide (Yahoo Finance, 2016) Not only 3D printers, but the whole spectrum of professional digital fabrication equipment is now currently undergoing a democratization process in order to make it available for non-professionals. The price of these semi-professional machines are only a fraction of that of their professional predecessors. Often, these machines are shipped as DIY kits, containing mostly digitally fabricated parts.

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Digital fabrication is a process that connects the digital world to the physical world. Only through the integration of these two worlds a high new potential will develop: the next industrial revolution is not merely about new ways of producing physical objects, but also about new ways of collaborating, sharing, marketing and financing.

WHAT IS A FABLAB? «You can think of a FabLab such a library, a key element for knowledge sharing, where instead of books you can borrow machines that would be inaccessible otherwise. A FabLab is a meeting point between people with diverse backgrounds, who are extraordinarily complementary to the creation of innovative projects: traditional craftsmen, experts in electronics, graphics, computer» - Make in Italy cdb Foundation After the first FabLab was started by MIT, there wasn’t a goal of establishing a global network, but the idea was to democratize the access and the education of the digital fabrication technologies under development at the Center for Bits and Atoms. With this exact goal in mind, the Fab Foundation was formed in 2009, facilitating and supporting the growth of the international FabLab network as well as the development of regional capacity-building organizations. The Fab Foundation is a US non-profit organization that emerged from MIT’s Center for Bits & Atoms Fab Lab Program, whose mission is «to provide access to the tools, the knowledge and the financial means to educate, innovate and invent using technology and digital fabrication to allow anyone to make (almost) anything, and thereby creating opportunities to improve lives and livelihoods around the world» (fabfoundation.org).

In order to support and globally share the project from MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms, in 2009 the Fab Academy was developed to teach people hands-on skills on how to work for and establish a FabLab. Fab Academy offers a distributed rather than distance educational model: students learn in local workgroups, with peers, mentors, and machines, which are then connected globally by content sharing and video for interactive classes. The individual labs are supported and supervised regionally by supernodes globally coordinated and accredited by Fab Foundation.

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In order to deep dive into the concept of FabLab, I refer to the article ÂŤWhat is a FabLabÂť (September 2014) written by the designer Massimo Menichinelli, professor of Digital Fabrication and Open Design at Aalto University (Helsinki, Finland), Open Design at SUPSI (Lugano, Switzerland) and Digital Fabrication for the Fab Academy (WeMake - Opendot, Milan); he was also consultant for various FabLabs in Italy and abroad ans codirector of Make Foundation in Italy CDB. Currently plays the role of project manager within the IAAC | Fab Lab Barcelona.

According to Menichelli, a FabLab is a space for experimentation where people can find tools, processes and knowledge for developing physical representations of digital data (prototypes), and exporting digital data from physical contexts (models). Being a FabLab means being part of a global network of local nodes, sharing the same set of tools and processes in order to potentially recreate any project in any center worldwide. For this reason, they belong both to a global community, but also to a local community. FabLab builds a local community of people interested in many different goals and purposes, fostering the collaboration among them and between them and the people working in the FabLab. The key elements for every community are exchange of information and collaboration among everybody. Each FabLab has got a set of tools and machines that are well defined in the inventory maintained by the Center for Bits and Atoms: it is a Google Drive document where all the tools, components and machines are listed. People could also test new machines, adopt machines that aren’t on the list or from a different brand, but should at least keep the same typologies, for a matter of homogeneity with the other nodes of the network; for the same reason, the should also share most of the processes.

FabLab also means offering a set of knowledge that is very varied: how to operate the machines, the space and have knowledge of design (product, graphic, webdesign, ...) mechanical design and engineering, electronics and electrical engineering, computer science and programming, business development and intellectual property strategies, and finally project management. That is why normally there are more people working in a FabLab. Thanks to the huge array of knowledge and tools, FabLabs are also services to the community, designed using service design tools, methodologies and processes. Offering access to machines is a service,

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as well as education, consultancy, fixing old objects, and so on.

Concerning administrative and business issues, FabLabs are not a franchising: the inventory is freely and publicly accessible as well as the logo, there are no brand book or guidelines to follow in order to set a new FabLab; that is also the reason why each FabLab is slightly different from the all the other ones. It also means that there are many different formats and business models: being a FabLab does not mean adopting a strict organization and business model, but rather adapting lo local needs. In this sense, there is space to improvements. FabLab can spin-off from existing institution (be it public or private) that funds it functioning or start independently; it is always a business, though, since there are rents, expenses, wages to pay, fees to be collected, external suppliers and partners to be paid, partnership to be developed, and everything has to be developed at least to reach the break-even. Whether it takes money directly or indirectly through the institution, the FabLab must be financially sustainable in order to last.

The reason why there are no books, guidelines or strict models to adopt is because FabLabs have been emerging over the years spontaneously rather than out of a design. There are many different local formats and many details are still under development, such as a stable business model, improved processes and tools. Coherently with their very collaborative and open identity, the enabler for the improvement is and will always be the community.

Another key factor in the maker movement is Arduino, the electronic prototyping board developed in Italy by a team led by Massimo Banzi, whose aim was to make the electronics approachable by many people making simple. Arduino, in addition to being a key technology for many projects, is an international community and the evidence of the ease with which you can now translate an idea into an interactive product. Arduino is aligned with open source and open hardware philosophy.

Over the years, the Center for Bits and Atoms, then the Fab Foundation and later the community of FabLab, laid down the characteristics that define a FabLab, so that not every place just because it owns some machines becomes one automatically. According to Make in Italy, there are therefore four conditions to be met so that the laboratory can be really called a FabLab:

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1. Access to the laboratory should be public, at least in one part of the week. There may be different business models (e.g. free or paid access), but access must be public (not private laboratory), preferably free at certain times, to provide access to all.

2. The laboratory shall subscribe and show the Fab Charter, the manifesto of FabLab, inside its space 3. The laboratory must have a set of tools and processes shared with all of FabLab network. The idea is that a project in Rome can be easily reproduced in all other laboratories, whatever their countries and continents. There is a list that defines the types of machinery, tools and components, but you can also buy machinery and tools from other manufacturers. Other equipment may be added to, since the list only defines minimum instrumentation types.

4. The laboratory must be active and involved in the global network of FabLab, it can not isolate itself.

NOT ONLY FABLABS In order to clarify what a FabLab is, I focused on this mind map created

by Alessandro Ranellucci, co-director at Make in Italy Foundation, explaining in detail the different typologies of laboratories, their identity, origins and their main activities. The Hackerspaces come from a culturaltechnological relatively old tradition, that of the hacker movement, and are very much related to information technology, telecom, open source and digital. By the time the hackerspace have also embraced the CNC technology and have come close to physical objects; however the hardware activities of a hackerspace are historically related to the recycling of old computers or electronic equipment or the realization of electronic circuits.

The Makerspace was originated by the maker movement and indicates a space that is more oriented to the creation of objects (make) and not only to their modification (hack), and especially involving technologies being not necessarily electronic or IT. The workshop is shared, equipped with workspaces, equipment, digital machines and analogical ones. This is the environment which hosts courses for adults and children.

The FabLabs are a special category of Makerspace: with the latter, they share all aspects of the activities and the equipment, but add to them certain values that reflect their academic origin: FabLab presents

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HACKERSPACE computer hacking

networking hardware recycling

MAKERSPACE programming robotics

community

shared machines kids&schools courses

educations bits&atoms

FABLAB

electronics

CNC laser cutting 3D printing

research network open access

woodworking metalworking

pro consulting production techshop

SERVICE Source: Alessandro Ranellucci - Makerinitaly Foundation, 2015

digital technologies over handicraft manual techniques, standing at the borderline between bits and atoms, between digital representation and manufacture of a complex object. Unlike Makerspaces, which are individual laboratories unrelated to each other, often owning a commercial nature in the form of Company, the FabLab are a linked together into a network, sharing a set of tools and processes. Moreover, FabLabs are bound to guarantee free entrance to the public at least for part of the week, according to the FabLab Charter.

There is one final category, which is TechShops. They are laboratories

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offering prototyping services on behalf of users: they are real businesses, often organized in franchise - very popular in America - equipped with high quality machines and staff helping users in the realization of their projects . These service share the same technologies of the previous spaces, but lacks of the concepts of sharing, community, research.

Nevertheless, often some laboratories recognize themselves in more than one category because of the fast growth and spread this places are having in the last years.

THE ITALIAN SCENARIO As told in the previous paragraphs, the origin of Fablabs and maker movement is mainly American. After a few years, though, these concepts arrived in Europe too, spreading fast even in our continent. The FabLab and hackerspace have taken root first where the technological culture was already rooted among young people - Germany and the Netherlands; in Barcelona one of the first FabLabs and most active in Europe, becoming a reference worldwide.

The growth of the maker movement and the opening of FabLabs in Italy had a late start, compared to other European countries, but once triggered proved to be very active, even positioning itself as the third nation in the world by number of FabLab, according to the official portal of the data fablabs.io managed by FabFoundation. Italy, in fact, has the third highest number of lab with 131 FabLabs, behind France with 144 labs and USA 149 labs; so it’s surprising to think Italy presents more than 10% of all the FabLabs in the world, a total of 1118 (updated March 2017).

The first important basis for the development of Fablabs and hacker culture in Italy were laid at the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea (IDII), founded as a joint initiative of Olivetti and Telecom Italy. The institute has been involved in many projects that represented the birth of open source and open hardware technology revolution: among them, Processing programming language for prototyping (started at MIT’s MediaLab) and Arduino. Arduino is an open source hardware project and software, composed by micro-controller kits for building digital devices and interactive objects that can sense and control objects in the physical world, at a low cost and easy to use. Since then, anyone with very little money and without special technical knowledge, can create electronic

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projects, such as simple robots, wearables, and motion detectors.

The school operated from 2001to 2005, finally merging its teaching program with Domus Academy and subsequently ceasing operating as an independent entity when its initial 5-year endowment ran out and the new Telecom Italia ownership decided not to renew the funding.

The first prototype of a FabLab in Italy was created in Turin in 2011, on the occasion of the exhibition Stazioni Future curated by Riccardo Luna for the sesquicentennial of the Unification of Italy: a temporary laboratory consisting of an installation with a small 3D printer and a laser cutting machine. After this first attempt to bring this culture to a wider audience, numerous events and initiatives took place. A remarkable success is that of high-impact events as WorldWideRome and then the two editions of MakerFaire Rome - The European Edition, that have spread this reality and generated interest (and expectations) by the economic and productive world and by the institutions.

In 2013 the FabLab movement finally started to become an affirmed reality. The Italian FabLab and Makers Foundation Make in Italy cdb, was created at the beginning of 2014 by Massimo Banzi, Carlo De Benedetti, and Riccardo Luna in Turin, at the headquarters of Officine Arduino: the place where the first FabLab in Italy was created two years earlier.

«When in January of 2014 we decided to create a foundation for concretely supporting innovation, seizing the extraordinary bottom-up push coming from the makers movement, we called it «Make in Italy.»

It was not the misprint of one of the most beloved and respected brand in the world. This name was already the foundation of the essence of the mission we have set ourselves: to contribute to the emergence of a new «made in Italy», which is a manufacturing system that is able to endorse not only the new digital technologies, but also, more generally, the culture that digital provides.»

- Carlo De Benedetti, Massimo Banzi

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meet OPENDOT LAB FOUNDED BY DOTDOTDOT TOGETHER WITH A HETEROGENEOUS NETWORK OF PROFESSIONALS, OPENDOT IS A FABLAB WHERE DESIGN, DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES AND CRAFTSMANSHIP, ARE MERGED AND WHERE ALTERNATIVE INNOVATION MODELS GENERATE SOLUTIONS THAT MEET THE NEEDS OF COMPANIES, INSTITUTIONS AND FREELANCE.

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All photos - Opendot LabŠ

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INTRODUCING OPENDOT LAB Opendot Lab is a FabLab founded in 2014 in Southern-East area of Milan, located in the neighborhood of Porta Romana. Seated in what at a first glimpse may look like construction site, there is this wide, yellow, bright studio. Working there you can find a team of people having different backgrounds an skills: interaction designers, architects, lab technician, project managers. One of the founding members is, in fact, the multidisciplinary design studio dotdotdot, founded in 2004.

Its activity is focused on innovation and experimentation, aimed at looking for new models of development and design, based on digital technologies and rapid prototyping. Opendot’s offer is addressed both to the community of makers and businesses. In fact, it provides research, development and education for companies, professionals, artisans, as well as schools, universities and broader public wishing to improve their products and know-how through innovative processes identifying the culture of making and open source as their own foundations. It believes in learning by doing education, as a way to give everyone the opportunity to gain autonomy to carry out their projects, unleashing their creativity.

Opendot organizes Hackathon, Contests, Design table, Workshops and Courses, User groups, Educational Programs and Camp, Seminars and Presentations.

The makerspace is divided into work areas: carpentry, rapid prototyping, electronics, textiles, kitchen. You can find different types of machines: cnc milling machine, laser cut, vinyl cutters, 3D printers, just like in any Fablab; however these are professional machines, such as those used in companies. To access the makerspace, to take part in the basic training and to use of equipment is required to be part of the community, choosing the membership that best suits your needs.

Despite it’s still in its initial years, Opendot has already developed several projects, teaming up with numerous associations, and foundations involved in social rehabilitation and design for all, such as Tog, Fondazione Montessori, Munaria, Ikea, Domus Academy, using co-creation as enabler for the design of highly personalized solutions.

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All photos - Opendot LabŠ

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UNICO – THE OTHER DESIGN Co-designed objects by makers, therapists, children with disabilities and their families UNICO is the brand of a collection of products and a new platform created by FabLab Opendot and TOG Foundation. They are customized products and design aids that allow effective rehabilitation and improvement in the quality of life of children with disabilities. For children with complex neurological diseases, many with severe motor deficits, it is often necessary to find customized solutions that can help to improve the quality of life, achieving greater autonomy. These solutions result in aids and objects that, for being really useful for these purposes, need in-depth expertise on a technical and design level, as well as in rehabilitation. From these elements comes the first series of tailored products, codesigned by Opendot’s makers and designers together with TOG therapists, children with disabilities and their families. The result is a unique product, defined by its utility, specificity, sustainability and beauty, where the design quality and aesthetic component becomes the vehicle ​​to promote social inclusion. UNICO is not just a collection of objects: it is a project that aims to provide products and services for the construction and sale of beautifully designed medical and orthopedic aids, produced locally and tailored made to fulfill the real needs of the individual. From DIY bicycle for children with motor difficulties, until the creation of parametric software to create 3D printed postural showers. From Design for All to Design For Each, where digital fabrication, co-design, and digital fabrication become enablers for shortening the distance between the designer and end user. www.uni.co.it

projects by opendot lab A GLIMPSE OF THE MOST REPRESENTATIVE PROJECTS MADE BY OPENDOT LAB IN COLLABORATION WITH EXTERNAL ORGANIZATIONS

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LIFT-BIT The world’s first digitally-transformable sofa

USER GROUP Sharing knowledge & sharing experience

Lift-Bit is a project by Carlo Ratti Associati, developed with Vitra’s support for the exhibition «Stanze. Altre filosofie dell’abitare» organized by Salone del Mobile, for the XXI Triennial of Milan. Engineering and interaction design is curated by Opendot. The project consists of a padded seat, modular and reconfigurable, which uses the Internet-of-Things technologies (IoT) bringing them for the first time in the world of furniture,defining a new living experience.

The prototype of Lift-Bit is created by the combination of a series of stools, each of which contains an internal linear actuator that allows the seats to go up or down.

The furniture system can be controlled either in person, by moving a hand in the air above the stools, or digitally, through an app. In both cases, the movements of the individual basic elements, each of which can double or halve its height, reconfigure the space in a potentially infinite number of combinations. The challenge of the interaction design project was given by two factors related to the complexity of the engineering: the high costs and times. Thanks to digital fabrication, know-how and prototyping skills of Opendot team, it was possible to achieve 50 modules in less than a month with reduced expenses. The innovation of the process resides in the mix of technologies and skills, but more specifically for the «improper» use of an existing and reliable technology: linear actuators and controlled by Arduino. This intuition has allowed a totally «in-house» prototyping, saving resources, time and costs, otherwise impossible.

User groups are moments of encounter where you can experience and share knowledge with a group of people who have common interests on a specific theme. There are nightly and monthly appointments, born spontaneously from Opendot community. The user groups active since January 2015 are: MakEat - food design, Visual making - visual communication, Maptime - contemporary cartography.

MakEat is a User Group dedicated to experimentation in food, design and digital fabrication. It is a collaboration between Opendot and TourDeFork, with the aim of investigating new relationships between food, product and experience. In collaboration with Francesco Bombardi and starting from the request Acetaia San Giacomo di Reggio Emilia, the User Group has explored the relationship between gesture, shape and taste generated from the combination of two gourmet products: balsamic vinegar and chocolate.

The design approach pays particular attention to the experiential aspect: each of the projects presented reexamine and introduces new gestures and interactions between tool and user. These new and exciting culinary interactivity scenarios are realized thanks to the rapid prototyping technologies and the participatory design approach. The outcome of the User Group was exhibited in «New Craft» at Fabbrica del Vapore in May 2016. http://www.opendotlab.it/it/content/makeat-la-mostra

www.lift-bit.com

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2. exploring the context WHO IS GENERATION Z? WHICH ARE THEIR VALUES? AND HOT TO APPROACH THEM? WHAT IS MADE IN ITALY? WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF CRAFTSMANSHIP?

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GENERATION Z MORE THAN FOUR GENERATIONS OF PEOPLE WALK THE PLANET TODAY. WHAT ARE THE UNIQUE ASPECTS OF GEN Z, WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCE WITH THE OTHER GENERATIONAL COHORTS, WHAT ARE THEIR VALUES, ASPIRATION AND DREAMS, WHERE ARE THEY HEADED, AND WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR THE DESIGN OF EXPERIENCES, PRODUCTS AND SERVICES?

TALKING ABOUT GENERATIONS William Strauss and Neil Howe are both American historians authors of the Strauss–Howe generational theory which defines generations as the aggregate of all people born over a span of roughly twenty years or about the length of one phase of life: childhood, young adulthood, midlife, and old age. They affirm that generations are clustered in cohort groups based on the sharing of three criteria. First, members of a generation share «age location in history»: they encounter key historical events and social trends while occupying the same phase of life. As a result of experiencing the same situations, they share certain common beliefs and behaviors with their peers. Lastly, they feel a sense of common belonging in that generation, identifying themselves as members of it.

Demographers and researchers, as well as sociologists and marketers, don’t all agree on the year of birth and end of the different cohorts, nor on their labeling. So they may not be very accurate, anyway it is important to consider these years, names and geography as a framework; what is really relevant are behaviors, recurring patterns and predictability by scenarios, because that is how a generation is defined.

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Photo Pexels - CC0

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Nowadays, more than four generations coexist in the world: the Silent Generation, those who were born after 1925 during the harsh times of economic crises (1929) and II World War (1939-45); the Baby Boomers, born after 1946, an era of wealth demographic growth and who redefined cultural and social values; the Gen X, born after 1965 in Cold War times, depicted as cynic and unaffectionate, though developing entrepreneurial tendencies; the Gen Y or Millennials, born after the 1980 an era marked by the break down of Berlin Wall (1989), the Gulf War (1990), the birth of the Internet (1991) and the spread of the first personal computers in civil homes, resulting as an increased use of communications, media and digital technologies.

Eventually, the younger cohort is now Gen Z, also know as Digital Natives, Centennials, Plurals or iGen, is the generation born after 1996. Rarely if ever, has the world experienced so much change as has happened in the last 20 years. Politically, socially, technologically and economically, we are moving at warp speed. These changes are inextricably linked to the reason why this generation has been shaped so differently than any known before. In fact, Gen Z is not only our future, but is remarkably reframing it. Gen Z is now coming of age and are ready to enter the workforce. They are going to predict our future, so we need to understand them, in order to anticipate their needs and shape future experiences, products and services tailored on their aspirations.

WHO IS GEN Z? Generation Z, the generation born after the Millennials, range from the mid-1990s to early 2000s. Sociologists, marketers, demographers and researchers still don’t agree on the exact year the cohort originated. In my research I set this year at 1996, follow the stream of thoughts that define September 11, 2001 as the most important breaking point. Those born from 1996 onward do not remember September 11, 2001, it’s already history for them. This means a whole new generation is born.

They have always known insecurity and instability. Apart from 9/11, they also experienced the biggest recession and worst employment rates since the 1930s. The war on terror, and America at war, have always been their norm. That sparked in them a coping mechanism and a fair resourcefulness, outlining them as pragmatists and realists.

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BABY BOOMERS

Post-War Boom Vietnam War Civil Rights Movement Drug Experimentation Women’s protests Woodstock Beatlemania ----------------1946 ENIAC First General-Purpose digital electronic computer 1951 Color TV introduced

GENERATION X

man on the moon Women enter the workforce Watergate Scandal Tatcherism Live Aid ----------------1975 Microsoft funded 1982 1984 CD-roms were invented 1984 Powerpoint 1989 World Wide Web was invented

GENERATION Y MILLENNIALS

GENERATION Z DIGITAL NATIVES

Collapse of the URSS End of Cold War Fall of Berlin Wall President Clinton is impeached Glastonbury 9-11 Terrorist Attack Invasion of Iraq ----------------1992 The Browser made the Internet accessible 1995 Ebay is funded 1996 Nintendo is launched 1998 Google is funded

Economic Downturn Global Warming Mobile devices Haiti Earthquake Ebola Outbreak Obama USA President Gay rights ----------------2001 Apple launches the iPod 2004 Facebook is launched 2007 Apple debuts iPhone + YouTube rise 2013 Release of Google Glass

Graph 0: Timeline of generations' main inventions and events

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According to Jason Dorsey, pioneering Gen Z and Millennials researcher and co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at The Center for Generational Kinetics, there are three trends coming with this new generation. First is diversity: Gen Z is the most diverse generation in US history, in fact they are so diverse they don’t perceive it unless is absent. Explaining this point, Jason stated «My daughter who is 4 years old will never remember a time before there was an African American president. She will never remember a time before gay marriage, it will be the past. ‘Cause diversity is what’s normal to you». Second trend is technology: the only world they know is a digital one — where they can connect anytime, anywhere, and to anyone, often via multiple devices. Unlike Millennials, technology is a commodity for them, not a status quo to crave: they surf the Internet everyday, post on social networks, start owning a smart device from a very early age. Third trend is parenting: Gen Zs are the sons of Gen X and Millenials. Normally, a generation starts at the top with the oldest and goes down to the youngest; with Gen Z the trend has changed and become the opposite, because it starts with the youngest and spreading up to the oldest. Older generations are finally starting to look like younger generations (grandparents joining Facebook) and as we look at this trends, in particular technology, we can affirm that the greatest predictor of the future of older generations is what the younger generations are doing today.

GEN Z’S VALUES, ASPIRATIONS AND EXPECTATIONS As Gen Z members are still largely kids and adolescents, many of their adult characteristics are yet to be evaluated. Anyways, Sparks and Honey’s report «Meet Generation Z» (2014), Ernst & Young’s «Rise of Gen Z» (2015) and «iGen Tech Disruption» paper by the Center for Generational Kinetics (2016) explore and foresee the characteristics of Gen Z, giving one of the first complete overview on this young people and unveiling the guidelines on how to effectively communicate with and influence this young generation.

They are naturally born entrepreneurs. GenZ was born into a culture of active leisure, where productivity in every moment and every activity

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is the expectation. Due to their naturally creative and ambitious nature, their goal is to succeed early by building their own path through education and work, seeking for independence both on a social and economical point of view. In fact, they give great value to education: 1 on 2 Gen Zs will be university educated, compared to 1 on 3 Millennials (JWT Intelligence, 2012). This will pave their way to gaining professional experience early and fulfill their dream of self-entrepreneurship: in fact, 62% would actually like to start their own companies rather than work for an established business (High School Careers Study, Millennial Branding, 2014).

They embrace diversity. Gender roles and norms are stereotypes belonging to the past, they believe parenting should be more selfdirected. Same-sex marriage is a right they didn’t fight for but found already in progress. Their education system is focused on inclusive classrooms and multi ethnicity, resulting from an increase of multiracial marriages and youth population (Census, 2010) They are always on-line. They are true digital natives, the first to grow up on-line, connected to vast amounts of instant, global information and always in touch with friends, businesses, other organizations and even celebrities. They have never known a world where they couldn’t instantly connect and look up the answer to any question that crossed their mind - and for this reason, their long-time memory has shortened and their attention span as decreased to 8 seconds. A life without Google, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, and iPhones is not imaginable. Thanks to smartphones and social media, technology is their birthright and their way to self-expression, entertainment, research, shopping, sharing, and connecting. Gen Zs aren’t just glued to their phones, they rely on them: according to the research conducted in America in 2016 by 4fini, on average, they spend 9 hours per day consuming media and content.

«This is the first generation where kids have to figure it out for themselves, kids can’t be monitored by their parents any more, because they live on 20 different social media sites, they could have four different personalities» - Kevin Lyman (4fini Agency president)

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They make friends at the time of social medias. More than half say it’s easier to chat digitally, or more convenient. They talk through symbols with emoticons and emoji, stickers, GIF, transforming the text into pictures. The language have become more visual, fast and sometimes more inaccurate. They are also used to live-streaming videos, using Facetime, Skype, Facebook, Instagram. Moreover, thanks to social medias, but also the increase of low fare airlines, their social circle is global - 26% of Gen Z would need to fly to visit most of their social network friends.

Unfortunately, there’s a dark side of this. As well as friendsip, also bullying has gone online via social media and followed them everywhere on their mobiledevices. The constant perceived threat of personal harm has become a defining characteristic for this generation. Over half of youth today report being cyberbullied (“Gen Z: A World Gone Cyber,” Huffington Post, 2014). While it’s difficult to trace suicide rates back to specific causes, bullying is a known factor in many young suicides.

DIFFERENCES AND ANALOGIES WITH PREVIOUS GENERATIONS The key differences from Millennials are that most members of Gen Z don’t remember a time before smartphones and social media. As a result, they tend to live much more of their entire lives, from interacting with friends and family to making major purchases, digitally. Moreover, Millennials were heavily protected by their helicopter parents, who guarded and were constantly involved, sheltering them from the evils of the world. This protection continued as they grew, often returning home after college and expecting ongoing support: 24% of 25- to 34-year-olds live with their parents (Pew Research Center, 2014). But it was much easier to shelter kids before social media and smartphones. As an effect, GenZ’s parents moved toward educating and preparing their kids to avoid, plan for or deal with life’s difficulties — internet bullies and predators, school violence, economic and career challenges, tending to have a more open and adult-like treatment with their children.

Some researchers claim that surprising similarity appears, instead, with the so-called Silent Generation, that is modern Gen Z’s grand-grandparents: people who are hard-working, security oriented, optimistic and realists.

It may seem strange, but according to the Generational Theory, we find

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Tech savvy: 2 screens Think in 3D Radical transparency (share all) Slacktivists Multicultural Tolerance Imature Communicate with text Share stuff Have low confidence Now focused Optimists Want to be discovered Team orientation

that cohorts actually cycle. First point, both their childhoods were marked by crisis. The Silents came of age in the aftermath of World War II and Gen Z grew up right after 9/11. Besides, they’ve experienced economic and environmental crisis. As a result, Gen Z has become, like the Silents before them, risk-adverse, «playing it safe». Second point, Gen Zs grew up during the Great Recession just like Silents and Great Depression; Zs watched unemployed older siblings (Millennials) move back home. They learned about tight family budgets early, and they became notorious savers. Other point are they give much value to family bonds, they like to make stuff - Gen Zs tinker like their grands did, only they call it hacking or Maker Movement; Finally, there’s optimism: although they’d both seen depression and war, they survived through it, making them less cynical and more positive.

DESIGNING FOR GEN Z These young people are now entering the workforce and their purchasing power is increasing, so companies can’t afford to act within conventional assumptions or generational frameworks anymore. Gen Z is highly educated, technologically savvy and naturally creative and innovative. They look for solutions and want to make things on their

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Source: Sparks & Honey, 2014

Tech Innate: 5 screens Think in 4D Judiciously Share (Geo-loco Off) Active volunteers Blended (race & gender) Togetherness Mature Communicate with images Make stuff Have humility Future focused Realists Want to work for success Collective conscious

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own, even creating their own offer with companies, reaching a level beyond customization. They prefer realistic to idealistic, and they like to be engaged by real people. This comes rather naturally if you consider that their main channels of communication and information are social medias, like Instagram or YouTube - 85% say YouTube is their favorite site (Cassandra Report: Gen Z, 2015). On Instagram and YouTube their time is largely spent watching young “YouTubers” and influencers — ordinary people who, on their own initiative, have become online personalities, commentators or video bloggers — rather than commercially produced content. So it’s not surprising that they are less loyal to brands and retailers. An evidence of this is reported by EY research (2016) showing that trying to gain the loyalty of Gen Z via traditional loyalty programs, cards and promotions is a losing battle. For instance, the percentage who say a loyalty program makes a store special to them drops from 45% for Millennials to 30% for Gen Zs. The drop-offs are even more dramatic for interest in shopper cards and special events.

Another important point to take into consideration is that during the Great Recession the oldest members of Gen Z were attending the middle school and were perfectly able to discern the value of money.

The increased wallet watching of this period influenced their perception of money, spending and shopping. This difficult period dramatically affected Gen Z’s parents, who likely adopted new saving or spending habits and thus passed those on to their children.

Last take on this matter is that more than in-store, the shopping experience of these teens happens mostly on-line and fast delivery is extremely important to them. The web is where stores are always open, inventory is always available somewhere and Amazon just might deliver within hours of you placing your order. Brands should rush to rethink a whole new customer experience worth their attention, if they want to keep them engaged. «iGen has always known Amazon as an on-line retailer and not a river in South America. iGen has always gone to YouTube for makeup and fashion advice. And iGen has always thought that carrying cash or checks was outdated—and so might be that credit card in your wallet» -Jason Dorsey (Center for Generational Kinetics co-founder)

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Tutorial by YouTuber Bethany Mota - YouTube Video frame

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VIVIANA, 18 Y.O. SCIENTIFIC HIGH SCHOOL, NAPOLI Use of digital devices: pc for homework and tv series, smartphone for social High school year: 5th year Leisure time: watching movies Would like to learn: playing the piano Job Expectations: being competent and good in what she does Job Fears: not finding a job Knows Fablabs: no, but wants to know more

meet the generation z

•∞ Viviana is struggling her way through the high school, but it’s motivated to do better •∞ In Italy the opportunities for the future are different, depending if you live in the North or the South •∞ Her school organized an orientation event at Economy University; she understood that that it’s the right faculty for her, but in Milan University •∞ The teaching method is not fair, it depends completely on the competence of a teacher. There should be tests for them as well!

•∞ School suppresses creativity, because they teach you there’s only one right way •∞ I’ve never done a team work at school and my class was so competitive it was impossible to collaborate •∞ Original craftsmanship is disappearing; it’s a pity, because craftsmanship brings out local traditions and promotes tourism •∞ I’d love to learn more about traditions, techniques and, most of all, to try them to enrich my personal culture

PRIMARY RESEARCH CONDUCTED

BY INTERVIEWING FIVE TEENAGERS (16-19 Y.O.) COMING FROM SEVERAL ITALIAN CITIES AND ATTENDING HIGH SCHOOL. THE AIM IS TO UNDERSTAND THEIR INTERESTS, EXPECTATIONS, AND THEIR POINT OF VIEW ABOUT ITALIAN EDUCATION AND CRAFTSMANSHIP.

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FEDERICO, 16 Y.O. SCIENTIFIC HIGH SCHOOL, CATANIA

PAOLA, 19 Y.O. SCIENTIFIC HIGH SCHOOL AND CONSERVATORY, AREZZO

Use of digital devices: pc for homework and video games, smartphone for social High school year: 3rd year Leisure time: video games, gym Would like to learn: video editing, Photoshop and robotics Job Expectations: doing something that he really loves Job Fears: finding out that what he studied was useless Knows Fablabs: no, but wants to know more

Use of digital devices: pc for homework and music exercises, smartphone for social High school year: 5th year Leisure time: playing the piano Would like to learn: wood working Job Expectations: finding it soon!

Job Fears: having a job that doesn’t enhance her knowledge and competences Knows Fablabs: no, but wants to know more

•∞ Federico still doesn’t know how his future will look like, yet he knows really well how his present does •∞ He participated to Alternanza Scuola-Lavoro and is quite happy about it because it gave him the chance to understand how a company is made and to collaborate with his classmate to the creation of a product for the company (https://www.facebook.com/incaseofcase/) •∞ School should help young middle school students to find the right high school curriculum •∞ School should finish earlier in the afternoon and homeworks should be done at school, so after that, you’re free to do and learn other personal activities •∞ Italian school is old and traditional, trying to imitate European models (Germany, Finland) but failing it •∞ Collaboration is an important skill to learn: cooperation instead of fighting for your own idea •∞ Doesn’t really know much about craftsmanship, but recognizes his value for Italy. Would like to learn about its history and traditions

•∞ Paola is a super motivated girl, pursuing her passion for piano and music; she’s studying for the piano diploma so she goes to conservatory in Cesena 3 times a week.

•∞ It’s been - and will be - a great effort to combine school and music study, but it’s totally worth it because “if you have a passion and the determination to do it, then you succeed even if it’s hard” •∞ Those of her class having high grades had the chance to participate to Alternanza Scuola-Lavoro, including her. She found the experience stimulating because she observed how a medium company works and learned a bit of Java coding •∞ There are too many subjects at school and you don’t have enough time to absorb the knowledge. Moreover, school lasts too long: there should be more free time during the weekend to give space to your passions •∞ What I like the most about craftsmanship is the possibility to find unique pieces, typical of that place •∞ She’s fascinated by wood working because for pianos too the manufacturing of the wood is very important

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VALERIA, 18 Y.O. ACCOUNTING SPECIALIZED IN INFORMATICS, NAPOLI

ALBERTO, 17 Y.O. ACCOUNTING SPECIALIZED IN INFORMATICS, CUNEO

Use of digital devices: pc for everything, smartphone just occasionally High school year: 5th year Leisure time: working as a children’s entertainer with 5-10 y.o. Kids 1-2 times a week Would like to learn: Spanish and belly dancing Job Expectations: if a person is good, they’ll find something!

Job Fears: doing something that doesn’t enhance her Knows Fablabs: no, but wants to know more

Use of digital devices: smartphone for everything, pc just occasionally High school year: 4th year Leisure time: soccer referee Would like to learn: Photography, inventing things Job Expectations: prove myself, find a guidance Job Fears: none Knows Fablabs: no, but wants to know more

•∞ Valeria is a very tough, confident and determined girl, who’s working since she was 15 to earn a little money and be independent from her parents •∞ School’s most important teachings are life teachings: how to evaluate situations, understand people and manage pressure •∞ Classes are wrong: some people work hard and others do the minimum to pass; this mean that the first ones are slowed down while the second continue being mediocre; classes continue at a slow pace and no one really shines •∞ Creativity can be applied in every field, but in school is underestimated •∞ It’s crucial to give more value to craftsmanship and arts: today everything is produced in series; it’s sad to see a house full of Ikea furniture, all identical and without personality •∞ I would love to learn artisan pastry-making •∞ Fablabs sounds so cool! Why don’t they make some courses in High schools?

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•∞ Alberto is a very pragmatic boy, willing to make new experiences in order to find out what he really wants to do with his future, and he’s very optimistic about it.

•∞ I still don’t know what is my dream job; I just know it has to be active, outside the office, in touch with people. I will take my time to make experiences and then I’ll decide.

•∞ School could last one year less: it only gives you the basics on an abstract level, but only with the practice, the laboratories, you can acquire competence •∞ School should be more organized, giving a good balance between free time and tests. Now, there is too much pressure on students about marks, that are indeed more of a number rather then the evidence of knowledge •∞ Teamwork means being 5 and working as 1. When it’s successful, it satisfies you more than a 10 in a test, because you put yourself into it completely •∞ Nowadays, life is “disposable”, people don’t really appreciate the value of craftsmanship, the quality of raw materials. An ancient piece of furniture will never be outof-date, Ikea furniture in 10 year time will be garbage.

•∞ Creativity means creating something that already exists while putting your own signature.

alberto, 17 cuneo

paola, 19 arezzo

viviana, 18 napoli

valeria, 18

federico, 16 catania

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Graph: Map of the interviewees

napoli

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PAINS AND GAINS The teenagers I interviewed come from different regions of Italy (Piemonte, Toscana, Campania, Sicilia), therefore live in quite different contexts. Some teaching conditions are better than others, in fact as they perceived the quality of the education depends a hundred percent on the teacher: in some occasions, teachers were present, proactive and competent, able to transmit to students the passion for the subject; on other ones, teachers wouldn’t come to class regularly and their teaching was unsatisfactory. Teenagers feel education in Italy is not equal for everyone and that the quality of education is left to the initiative of the single teacher. Moreover, they all agree education in Italy is very traditional and outdated and it should take other European models (German, Finnish) as an example. Their main pain is the deep unbalance between their private life and study time: very often, students finish school around 2 to 4 p.m., go home, rest for a while and continue doing their homework until dinner time. This goes on everyday, from Monday to Saturday. Their wish is to have more time for themselves, for chasing their passions, for learning new things and making different experiences - also working ones. Despite everything, this young people are very motivated and believe that “if you really want to do it, you can do it”, so they manage to accomplish their plans, often making sacrifices.

One other thing they seek in school is guidance towards the future.

Teens enjoy educational orientation days, where they can talk to professors, university students, follow lectures and even spend some weeks in a company. This latter, in particular, is what Alternanza ScuolaLavoro provides. It is a program sponsored by Ministry of Education that promotes students involvement in the working world through a series of curricular stages, from the 3 to the 5th year of High School. Interviewees agree that it is an interesting opportunity because they can finally touch with their own hands what working in a company implies. Moreover, this initiative allows school to be less “abstract”, that is giving knowledge only on a theoretical level, precluding the real life application. Joining this program with a program about craftsmanship could be of great value, both culturally and economically for Italy.

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In fact, teenagers don’t give much value to craftsmanship because they, fundamentally, ignore it. They heard of Made in Italy, they saw some products in small fairs or souvenir shops, but they don’t really imagine the job of an artisan, the effort they put in every product, from the designing, the manufacturing, the raw materials selection, to the sale.

The common bias is to visualize the craftsman as the old man working in his small laboratory. This is just a romantic imagination, reality is rather far from there. Anyway, they all agree craftsmanship is deeply rooted in Italian culture - and the highest evidence is Made in Italy, synonym of best quality for many - and it should be promoted in a more effective way, especially in our country, starting from the younger population.

INSIGHTS Life/study unbalance: frenzied rhythms accompany the teens in their school life: a great deal of subjects, tests and long hours of school and home studying. The outcome is a very small time to develop themselves and to cultivate their own passions Working as a team: students agree this is a very important skill to acquire, but in school they almost never apply it. In class often students compete rather than co-operate.

No self-expression: most of the study is carried out on books, theoretical over practical, structured and strict rather than open to different ways of doing things. Eventually, this leads to inhibit creativity and spontaneity.

It’s all about the teacher: all the young people agree that the quality of teaching is completely dependent on the skillfulness of their teacher.

Unfortunately, not every teacher is up to their role and often leave the students with small or few guidance in dealing with the subject.

Craftsmanship means local: artisan products are perceived as strictly related to their context and to tourism. Teenagers believe it is disappearing due to mass production, that is impersonal and of poor quality Made in Italy is something to be proud of: but it’s not well promoted.

Neither in school or outside. Made in Italy means high quality and high price and it’s appreciated especially by foreigners.

Taking care of myself: teenagers want to be independent and to be free to make their own decisions

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CRAFTSMANSHIP & MADE IN ITALY ITALIAN HANDMADE IS WORLD FAMOUS FOR ITS SUPERIOR QUALITY, ITS TASTE AND FLAWLESS MANUFACTURING. JUST THINK OF FLORENCE’S LEATHER BAGS AND SHOES, BRIANZA’S WOODWORKING, NAPLES’ NATIVITIES, MURANO’ S GLASS AND ITALIAN FOOD AND WINE CULTURE. OUR LEGACY IS NOW ENDANGERED BECAUSE THIS ANCIENT CRAFTS ARE DISAPPEARING AND YOUNG PEOPLE ARE NOT TAKING OVER.

INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE «There are things that we regard as important to preserve for future generations. They may be significant due to their present or possible economic value, but also because they create a certain emotion within us, or because they make us feel as though we belong to something – a country, a tradition, a way of life. They might be objects that can be held and buildings that can be explored, or songs that can be sung and stories that can be told. Whatever shape they take, these things form part of a heritage, and this heritage requires active effort on our part in order to safeguard it.»

- UNESCO 2003 Intangible Cultural Heritage convention This paragraph contains an excerpt from the «Kit on intangible cultural heritage», published in September 2009 on the occasion of the fourth session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The term «Cultural Heritage» coined by UNESCO does not end at monuments and collections of objects. It also includes traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants, such as oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe of the knowledge and skills to produce traditional crafts.

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Woodworking - Photo Pexels - CC0

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Traditional craftsmanship is perhaps the most tangible manifestation of intangible cultural heritage. Rather than focusing on preserving craft objects, safeguarding attempts should instead concentrate on encouraging artisans to continue to produce craft and to pass their skills and knowledge onto others, particularly within their own communities.

There are numerous expressions of traditional craftsmanship: tools; clothing and jewellery; costumes and props for festivals and performing arts; storage containers, objects used for storage, transport and shelter; decorative art and ritual objects; musical instruments and household utensils, and toys, both for amusement and education. Like other forms of intangible cultural heritage, globalization poses significant challenges to the survival of traditional forms of craftsmanship. Mass production, whether on the level of large multinational corporations or local cottage industries, can often supply goods needed for daily life at a lower cost, both in terms of cost and time, than hand production. Many craftspeople struggle to adapt to this competition.

Other causes of the risk of endangerment of craftsmanship are: Cultural tastes and social conditions change. Festivals and celebrations that once required elaborate craft production may become more basic, resulting in fewer opportunities for artisans to express themselves.

Young people are discouraged to take over. Young people may find the sometimes lengthy apprenticeship, necessary to learn many traditional forms of craft, too demanding and instead seek work in factories or service industry where the work is less exacting and the pay often better.

Crafts secrets are only shared with the inner circle. Many craft traditions involve ‘trade secrets’ that should not be taught to outsiders but if family members or community members are not interested in learning it, the knowledge may disappear because sharing it with strangers violates tradition.

The goal of safeguarding, as with other forms of intangible cultural heritage, is to ensure that the knowledge and skills associated with traditional artisanry are passed on to future generations so that crafts can continue to be produced within their communities, providing livelihoods to their makers and reflecting creativity. Some solutions to preserve and strengthen local artisanry suggested by UNESCO include: Offer financial incentives to students and teachers to make knowledge

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Kalagayi, Azerbaijan's national dress - Chaikhana.org

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transfer more attractive to both.

Local, traditional markets for craft products can also be reinforced, while at the same time creating new ones.

Intellectual property protections and patent or copyright registrations, can help a community to benefit from its traditional motifs and crafts.

Being aware of new opportunities. Legal measures intended for other purposes can encourage craft production; for example, a local ban on wasteful plastic bags can stimulate a market for handmade paper bags and containers woven from grass, allowing traditional craft skills and knowledge to thrive.

CRAFTSMANSHIP IN TIMES OF GLOBALIZATION Globalization is the most powerful force for change in the world today.

It refers to the growing socio-economic interdependence of countries worldwide through the huge amount and variety of transactions of goods and services, workforces, capital flows, widespread diffusion of technology across border and moreover the interaction and interdependence of people and culture throughout the world. Its main effect is promoting consumer culture, especially in the largest urban centers. The very logic of globalization requires that goods travel ever longer distances from producer to consumer, depleting local economies.

On the one hand, globalization has some positive responses, allowing the spread of products and services, customs and traditions, trends, culture and knowledge originating from the another side of the world, that we would otherwise be unknown to the majority of the population. On the other hand, though, globalization pushes to a non-stop growth, ignoring the ecological destruction and spiritual poverty it causes and, most of all, producing a huge shift in culture that is unregulated consumerism.

So the challenge of contemporary society is how to bond the relationship within a community and how to preserve the uniqueness of local culture and values, without closing the world out?

Ezio Manzini, world’s leading expert on sustainable design, professor and coordinator of DESIS, an international network of schools of design, at Politecnico di Milano, in his essay Small, Local, Open and Connected: Resilient Systems and Sustainable Qualities (June, 2013) tries to give an

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answer to this challenge, explaining the guidelines to build a resilient and sustainable socio-technical system.

Nowadays society is pulled by two forces: the mainstream process of modernization, enduring from the last century, and a new, emerging generation of distributed systems. On the one hand, mainstream globalization is putting in danger traditional agriculture and craftsmanship and pushing toward global agro-industrial and industrial production, aiming at standardizing the process in order to increase the revenues.

These interests are therefore pushing to the reduction of biodiversity and socio-technical diversity and, consequently, to increase the overall fragility of the system. On the other hand, though, we are witnessing the growth of a network of autonomous but integrated systems, challenging mainstream globalized production and consumption systems.

«These production systems include initiatives ranging from the rediscovery of traditional craftsmanship and local farming, to the search for hyper-light and lean production, to the hypothesis of networked production systems based on the potentialities of new forms of microfactories such as fab labs and by the makers movement. While this trend is still in its initial phase, the whole production and use system must be re-shaped following a new localization principle; products must be designed so that their production can be as near as possible to where they will be used (point of use production). This principle can be implemented by mixing traditional technology, craftsmanship and hightech solutions» (Manzini, 2013).

The solution to extended globalization and relocation of resources is building social innovative systems characterized by being localized, small, connected and open (to others’ ideas, culture and physical presence).

This type of resilient and sustainable systems should aim at using local resources and reducing distances between production and use, creating products specifically for whoever needs them, when they need them, where they use them. An added value to this is the so-called “quality of proximity”: a perceived quality deriving from the direct experience of the place where a product comes from and of the people who produce it, (for example, new local food networks in which citizens and farmers are linked at the local level). The qualities that this framework generates

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radically diverge from the ones that mainstream models have spread worldwide in the last century. For this reason, we can refer to them, as a whole, as «disruptive qualities». People involved in these innovation of system benefit from new qualities associated to their physical and social environments: the recognition of complexity as a value; the search for dense, deep, and lasting relationships; the redefinition of work and collaboration as central human expressions. Eventually resulting in human-centered, sustainable and resilient societies characterized by four adjectives: small, local, open, and connected, that is SLOC Scenario (Manzini, 2010; Manzini 2011). According to Manzini’s thought, in order to be implemented the SLOC Scenario requires a large number of design research programs focusing on: Creation of collaborative solutions, empowering people and communities to solve everyday life problems together Updated craftsmanship. The development of traditional and high-tech craftsmanship within the framework of the network society Territorial ecology. The sustainable valorisation of the physical and social resources of a given place or region Sustainable qualities. The widening and deepening of emerging qualities that are driving people’s choices toward more sustainable ways of being «Today, the small can be influential on a large scale, as it acts as a node in a global network. The local can break its isolation by being open to the global flow of people, ideas and information. In other words, we can say that today, in the networked society, the small is no longer small and the local is no longer local. The small and the local, when they are open and connected, can therefore become a design guideline for creating resilient systems and sustainable qualities, and a positive feedback loop between these systems».

-Ezio Manzini Connected to the scenario Manzini framed in his research, the awardwinning documentary film, «The Economics of Happiness», outlines the social, spiritual, and ecological costs of today’s global economy. As a solution, the film highlights the many benefits of a shift towards the local.

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In order to understand in a direct way the effect of globalization it starts by asking people to reflect on how food from the other side of the world could cost less than the food from a mile away. It is the result of national subsides and convenient regulations especially issued for multinationals, in order to reduce costs relocating the manufacturing to lower wage countries and making the business increase faster. The whole process includes incredible quantities of waste - causing a rising of CO2 emissionsthreatening the livelihood of all of us. Moreover, big multinationals often take advantage of the poverty of their country, exploiting and underpaying local workers. Meanwhile, at the national level there is even more bureaucracy falling on artisan businesses and obstructing their growth. Some regulations are just unfair, disproportionate burden on small and medium sized businesses.

The answer they provide is changing the economy by localizing it, alternative to corporate capitalism. Localization means making something restricted to a particular place, shortening the distance between producer and consumer and reducing the dependence on export markets in favor of production for local needs. In fact, when the economy is operating on a more human scale the business turns into something much more accountable. It becomes easier for people to see the impact of their choices: if the environment has been polluted or if the workers have been exploited. When we localize we give our children a role model, a standard they can live by. Re-discovering the values of community and mutual caring that’s where real happiness and well-being lies.

- The Economics of Happiness

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MADE IN ITALY: AN ENDANGERED EXCELLENCE «La Repubblica riconosce la funzione sociale della cooperazione a carattere di mutualità e senza fini di speculazione privata. La legge ne promuove e favorisce l’incremento con i mezzi più idonei e ne assicura, con gli opportuni controlli, il carattere e le finalità.

La legge provvede alla tutela e allo sviluppo dell’artigianato».

- Art. 45 Costituzione Italiana Made in Italy is a world-famous mark proving that a product is 100% produced in Italy: planned, manufactured and packaged. However, it does not only indicate its origin, it means the marriage of masterful design and artisan technique. It means superior quality, unequivocal style and originality. Italy expresses its superior level in different sectors, ranging from woodworking, furniture, fashion, food and wine, automotive, jewelery, eye wear to many others. The deep knowledge of the traditions and the territory, combined with processes based on high quality and talent of human resources, ensures a production focused on the end customer, matching a great sense of beauty and customized products.

Artistic-creative craftsmanship is one of the symbols of Italian heritage and is deeply rooted in its tradition. In fact, Italy is EU leader for employment in micro and small manufacturing businesses (less than 20 employees), counting 1.453.729 employees, 971.689 of whom are craftspeople (Confartigianato, 2016). Made in Italy lies in the heart of the workshop, the place where the «know-how» origins, grows and is handed down from a generation to another. The artisans first establish the business and then often involve their partner or their sons, in order to pass over passion, secrets and guidelines. Many are the cases of brands that started as family businesses and became successful major enterprise (Divella, Beretta, Tod’s, Prada, Luxottica - Osservatorio AUB, 2015) Nevertheless, for decades now, artistic-creative craftsmanship is been declining slowly and progressively; according to a survey presented by Cgia (small artisan business association) during 2015 active businesses decreased by 21.780 units, whereas from the beginning of the recession (2009) the total number has dropped by 116.000 activities.

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Shoemaking - Photo Pexels - CC0

The reasons for this fall is mostly caused by the decrease of family consumption, the increase of taxes and rentals; as well as the advent of new technologies and mass production relegated pushed out of the market many professions involving high manual skills. However, the issue is both economical and social. Nowadays, there is a huge difficulty in transmitting the knowledge to young people. First of all, high schools do not promote effectively this kind of occupation, unless they are specialized in fine arts, and generally don’t offer sufficient educational programs. Then, if students wish to enroll on Academies offering handicrafts courses, they would face the difficulty of pursuing their studies: academies accept only 10-20 students yearly, they are rather expensive and often not subsidized by the State, because of financing cuts. Finally, after the studies, the chances of being hired by small workshops are very low, because artisans are kept from accepting apprentices because of tax increase and strict bureaucracy rules.

Speaking of young people and craftsmanship, during VicenzaOro Fair, journalist Klaus Davi filmed a documentary named «L’Italia dal cuore d’oro», interviewing entrepreneurs, artisans and designers from highend jewelry and gold field and asking about the future of this craft in Italy. The answers he got all agree that there is a lack of generational

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turnover and the reason is not a generic absence of vocation, but the lack of education institute and promotion of artisan culture.

«How could the state help? In giving a hand to train the younger generation. Young people no longer believe, that after becoming a craftsman there will be a future for them. - says Bruno Crivelli (founder of Piedmont Crivelli Jewels of Alexandria), which points out the issue of generational change - A practical help could come from the institutions, changing young people’s mind about the potential of this work, as we thought we at their age.»

As a matter of fact the problem resonates on the entire society: when, unfortunately, a workshop closes down, the quality of life of a neighborhood deteriorates considerably. There is less security, more degradation and the risk of a real impoverishment of the social fabric.

«Remember that - points out the secretary of Cgia Renato Mason - in the last paragraph of Article 45 of our Constitution and is established that the law should provide for the safeguarding and promoting handicrafts.

In recent decades, however, this principle has often been disregarded, especially by tax-related regulations that have increased recklessly tax / social security burden on craftspeople» Many crafts are likely to disappear in the timespan of a dozen years. This is the warning from Cgia, claiming that between 2009 and 2015 the professions which have suffered the highest reduction in the number of subscribers were the knitters (-33.1 percent), furniture decorators (-28.6 percent), manufacturers of armchairs and sofas (-28.4 percent), furriers (-26 percent), the framers (-25.7 percent), the menders (-25.2 percent), producers of chairs (-25.1 percent) and carpenters (-23.2 percent).

«Some historic crafts and professions are now disappearing.

Myabe due to the profound changes that the respective sectors are undergoing or maybe for the fact that young people do not approach to these crafts anymore. The barbers, shoemakers, blacksmiths, photographers, opticians or framers, for example, are endangered and, in addition to the loss of knowledge and expertise, the closure of these activities is worsening urban face of our cities» - Renato Mason, Secretary of Cgia

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MANUFACTURE RENAISSANCE In his book «Fare è innovare. Il nuovo lavoro artigiano» Stefano Micelli, professor of Economics and Business Management at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, celebrates Digital Manufacturing, not only as a practice for possible contamination between craftsmanship and global economy, but as a potential response to the cultural crisis and as a key factor on which to rethink the competitive advantage of small and medium-sized Italian companies, in particular of Made in Italy, leading to a Manufacture Renaissance. Digital Fabrication offers of a greater added value, customizing products based on one’s need or end customer’s demand, with a high rate of productivity but at the same time keeping time and costs low, thanks to the use of technology in all the productive cycle. Its keywords are: speed, customization and innovation. Digital Manufacturing today represents a high potential activity thanks to the new organizational and business models. Fablabs are not just think 3d printing or robotics, but they are, most of all, the symbol of sharing as a form of collective value, through open source knowledge both off-line and on-line.

«Doing things well, respecting the rules of the “tailor-made”, customization, the obsessive attention to detail are values t​​ hat make Made in Italy appreciated all over the world. We must continue to express these values ​​with new tools» - Giorgio Merletti, Confartigianato president New business models based on open source, crowdsourcing and knowledge sharing can be implemented in nowadays digital manufacturing. One interesting case of how the sharing economy could be implemented is Airbnb Experiences. Florence, is the first Italian city where the service has been launched, followed by Rome. To do so, Airbnb has partnered with Artex, the Center for crafts and Tuscan Traditions which aims to accommodate about twenty workshops in his headquarters. At the moment, over 20 experiences throughout the city are already available for travelers from around the world, focused on the Florentine techniques: priceless local traditions that are the flagship of Made in Italy.

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ROBERTO, 56 Y.O. ART RESTORER, GENOVA Level of digitalization: 3/5 Business name: Roberto Malinverni Restauratore e Pittore Working space: laboratory Co-worker: none In business: from 30 years Products and services: restores paintings on canvas and boards, frescoes, decorations and sacred art Knows Fablabs: no, but wants to know more

meet the ARTISANS

•∞ Roberto is a professional Art restorer, but also expert in paintings •∞ Some years ago there were more interventions because clients such as churches, museums, public bodies would receive more financing from state, region or foundations.

Now, the funds have decreased and so the works.

•∞ Craftsmanship nowadays is less and less common but it’s appreciated by people because of the closer relationship with the responsible person •∞ Technology can be of great help because it can speed up some processes, but not all of them. Handmade should be made with hands.

•∞ Some young people are interested in doing this job, but the problem with craftsmanship is that it’s not properly promoted. Bureaucracy doesn’t permit young people to get closer to this work and schools are too few and expensive - they allow only 10 students per year and, given the enormous heritage we have in Italy, that’s ridiculous •∞ Young people should be given the possibility to contribute to this field with their knowledge and perspective, leading to an evolution •∞ The most important thing for me is curiosity: seeing how the other work, even if they’re younger, it’s something that inspires me. I think exchange of knowledge is fundamental

PRIMARY RESEARCH CONDUCTED

BY INTERVIEWING FIVE CRAFTSMEN RANGING FROM 24 TO 56 Y.O. EXPERTS IN DIFFERENT DISCIPLINES. UNDERSTANDING THEIR POINT OF VIEW ABOUT CRAFTSMANSHIP AND MADE IN ITALY TODAY AND IN THE FUTURE AND THEIR WILL TO HAND DOWN THEIR KNOWLEDGE

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MARCO, 56 Y.O. PICTURE FRAMER, FIRENZE

MARCO, 38 Y.O. LUTIST, PIEVE EMANUELE (MI)

Level of digitalization: 2/5 Business name: Pernigotti Dalla Valle Vittorio e Marco Working space: 2 shops and 1 laboratory (co-owner) Co-worker: his father In business: from more than 40 years Products and services: builds and repairs frames for pictures and mirrors Knows Fablabs: no, but wants to know more

Level of digitalization: 4/5 Business name: Loud guitars Working space: laboratory Co-worker: one associate In business: from 10 years Products and services: builds and repairs guitars and basses Knows Fablabs: no, but wants to know more

•∞ Marco started doing this job when he was 16 taught by his father •∞ It’s impossible to afford an apprentice nowadays: it’s too expensive because of tax and requires some kind of changes to laboratory’s layout due to safety laws •∞ Small craftsmanship is disappearing: “15 years ago, in 500m radius, there were 11 framers, maybe more; now there’s only two of us. When you cease to work, you close down to shop. If my children won’t take my place, I will close down too”.

•∞ It’s also a matter of culture,”disposable culture”: people buy stuff at Ikea, then it breaks down after a while and people just throw it away, because they are cheap and there are no emotional attached; •∞ Made in Italy means high quality and is perceived positively - even though there is also “fake” Made in Italy •∞ Young people don’t really appreciate craftsmanship: they like the fact that the piece is unique and customizable, but don’t understand its real value •∞ He doesn’t think technology could be used in his craft: “I need to have control with my hands, to touch the wood; with computer I wouldn’t know where to start”.

•∞ He commissioned a website externally but doesn’t take the effort to update it

•∞ Marco is really passionate about is work and it’s just because of that passion he can afford to make a living out of his job.

•∞ People appreciate craftsmanship but don’t understand its real value, what’s behind it: when customers see the price of an handmade instrument, often they end up buying a cheap industrial one.

•∞ Sometimes, even bad craftsmanship - low quality and technique - creates a negative competition on the market, because people can be easily tricked.

•∞ Craftsmanship is strictly related to nowadays culture: in the music field, there will be less guitarists in the future, affecting his job •∞ The great added value of craftsmanship is the possibility to create a unique piece, customizing it completely.

•∞ He’s never heard of fablabs but he does some laser-cut occasionally delegating it to an external company that makes engravings; he thinks that this machines could ease some parts his job, saving time and reducing effort •∞ He is keen on teaching his knowledge to young people only if they previously showed interest in this topic •∞ He would like to learn more about digital fabrication but he’s not sure it could be useful in its job http://www.loudguitars.it

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FEDERICO, 24 Y.O. TAILOR, ALBA (CN)

JEAN ALEXANDER, 31 Y.O. FASHION DESIGNER, VERCELLI

Level of digitalisation: 5/5 Business name: Rude - Facebook page Working space: laboratory Co-worker: one associate In business: from 8 months Products and services: design, manufacture and sale of jackets, t-shirts and accessories for men/women Knows Fablabs: no, but wants to know more

Level of digitalisation: 5/5 Business name: Mow Maison - Facebook page Working space: laboratory Co-worker: none In business: from 12 years Products and services: design, manufacture and sale of accessories recycling stock waste from high fashion Knows Fablabs: more or less, heard something

•∞ Federico launched his own brand 8 months ago, after graduating in Fashion Design at Cuneo’s Academy •∞ He collaborates with a startup of Miroglio’s firm •∞ He’s subscribed to Teeser, a platform for creative community that allows promote and sell t-shirts. He is very happy with it and thinks that the Internet gives great opportunities to get in touch with a lot of people •∞ He also sells his pieces through Instagram, the best platform for e-commerce according to his experience.

Social and advertising are very crucial nowadays.

•∞ What the audience wants is a high level of customization •∞ Craftsmanship is the job of the future, we are witnessing to a revival - for example barber shops are popping up •∞ Craftsmanship in 10 years will be a mix of traditional arts and crafts and “modern crafts”, technology and robotics •∞ It’s difficult to bring young people closer to craftsmanship and it’s artisan’s fault: they are not able to hand down their knowledge to younger generation,so their job just disappears; there is a lack of generational turnover.

•∞ People don’t understand the value of an artisan product, because they are used to “fast fashion”, responsible of lowering perceived quality standard as well as people’s taste •∞ Also, newer generation perceive artisan job as modest and humble, but this is a great value rather than something negative •∞ Artisans need to create awareness and communicate to people handmade’s real value - just like Slow Food did

•∞ Jean has worked for 12 years in high fashion industry (D&G, Yves Saint Laurent, Loro Piana) as fashion designer.

Then he decided to reinvent himself and created his own brand, bringing his job to a higher level and leveraging on his experience in the field.

•∞ High fashion brands throw away large amount of high quality textile after machines can’t work them anymore.

All this material is perfect for a small business, so why not recycling it, in order to create unique pieces trimmed in every detail?

•∞ Made in Italy is essential for me. It’s the only mark that guarantees a clear high standard of quality •∞ My mission is to bring high quality craftsmanship on a younger level, making it affordable for everybody •∞ Nowadays the real craftsmanship is on the streets, in the markets rather than in boutiques •∞ People don’t understand the value of craftsmanship because they are ignorant: they can’t even tell if a bag is true leather or not.

•∞ It’s impossible to find apprentice today because they don’t have the right attitude for this job. Young people don’t have commitment nor patience. In a job like this, you have to put all your passion, because if you’re doing this for money, you’ll be soon disappointed.

•∞ Fast fashion lower the standard of quality and, most of all, price. People are now used to buy cheap. In order to survive, craftsmen should move to an “elite market” •∞ Maker spaces are sparkling organizations that gather people with great ideas. This places would be good for prototyping, not for production

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PAINS AND GAINS The first thing I noticed while interviewing the sample of artisans is the deep difference between generations, in mindset and approach. Roberto (Art restorer) and Marco (Picture Framer) both are 56 and belong to the so-called generation X; Marco (Lutist) and Jean (Fashion Designer), 38 and 31 y.o. belong to generation Y; Federico (Tailor) 24 y.o. can be a representative of generation Z. The largest shift in opinions is that Federico perceive craftsmanship as the job of the future and highlights its revamping in the streets, while all the other ones are extremely negative and forecast the total disappearance of small craftsmanship. When asked about digital fabrication and new technologies connected with traditional crafts, Federico was confident that, in the future, the two aspects will merge and that tradition will mix up with technology; on the other hand, all the other interviewees were quite skeptical, acknowledging that some technologies are already or could be implemented in their current work, but maintaining that craftsmanship should be made by hands.

Nevertheless, both gen X and Y were inclined to learn more about it, led by curiosity for new techniques. No one, though, knew what a FabLab is and what its purpose and offer are. After being explained about it, some of them reckoned they could be places where to get inspiration and prototype ideas, though far from being relevant for production.

What everyone was agreeing on was people’s ignorance towards craftsmanship. There is a misconception of handmade nowadays due to the lack of education and the spread of the mass market culture: cheap, “disposable” products and fast trend turnover - movements like fast fashion, for example. People are becoming used to low prices and low standard quality, for this reason most of them can’t even recognize what kind of materials are used or whether a product is handmade or industrial. Moreover, many “hobbyist” are emerging as competitors against craftsmen; those people have limited skills and knowledge and don’t check materials’ quality or origin carefully, selling pieces at lower price and “stealing” customers from real artisans.

You can often see a person on a street market trying to negotiate the price of an artisan product. That’s a symptom of this culture, understanding

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the real value behind this kind of product is difficult to see - and I’m not only talking about young people.

Bureaucracy as well obstruct craftsmanship’s spread and culture, cutting financing to artisan schools, that have become few and expensive; not only, due to the high taxation and the strict regulations of workspaces it has become almost impossible to hire an apprentice. Without someone to hand down the crafts, the techniques and the trade secrets, many traditional professions are bound to die out. Craftsmanship needs to be promoted effectively, starting from schools; people need to be educated about its origins and local value - the same way Slow Food did in the 90’s with wine and food industry.

INSIGHTS Craftsmen all have some characteristics in common: they are deeply passionate, hard-workers and curious. They never stop learning, getting inspiration from other’s people skills and working methods. Nonetheless, different generations of artisans bear different insights of possible application of digital tools and technology in their work: Elder generation X is still loyal to traditional ways of working and suffers the disappearance of artisan businesses. They are the least digitalized and, for this reason, are unable to take advantage of the Internet and social networks for promoting their business. They have surrendered to the current cultural trend forecasting the extinction of small craftsman’s workshop and therefore are the most inclined to hand down their knowledge to young people, pushed by nostalgia.

Generation Y is the most pragmatic and solution-oriented. Some of them already use some digital manufacturing techniques in their everyday job, but outsource the realization to other companies, completely ignoring the procedure Generation Z is made of very young people, passionate about craftsmanship and determined to make it shine again. They are fully aware of the power and the potential of technology, so they are completely willing to innovate and try new things, while experimenting with different materials or different processes.

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Photo Maison Mow

Photo Rude

3.

DEFINING THE SOLUTION ONCE COLLECTED ALL POSSIBLE INFORMATION, DATA, CASE STUDIES, INTERVIEWS USING PRIMARY AND SECONDARY RESEARCH, NOW IT’S TIME TO PUT ALL TOGETHER AND ELABORATE THE DESIGN BRIEF

Define

HIGH SCHOOLERS WHICH ARE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES THAT NOWADAYS HIGHSCHOOLERS HAVE TO FACE? WHAT’S THEIR OPINION ABOUT CONTEMPORARY EDUCATION SYSTEM? Cut-outs - http://skalgubbar.se/

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CLUSTERING THE INSIGHTS School should be inspirational. School does not just mean homeworks, tests and marks. As well as education is a broad concept that does not only mean schooling. Especially the High School, the last mooring before the end of the adolescence and the beginning of "grown-ups-life", should be more than this. It should be more of a "gym for young learners’ mind", a place able to inspire them daily, triggering their creativity and their imagination; pushing them to discover the world that surrounds them, lighting up their will to know more. A place that fosters self-expression, experimentation and freedom of failing.

More practical skills. Nowadays if you have a question, in less than a minute you can find an answer: just take your smartphone and Google it. In days when accessing to information is made extremely easy, what’s the use of knowing all the encyclopedia? Schools should teach more practical things, the one that the Internet can’t tell you. It should foster open dialogue between peers and teachers, collaboration, empathy.

And also offering new mindsets and methodologies that can help the students in their future.

Help me grow. Since school is not just studying, also self-development and support services should be offered, taking into consideration the struggles that today’s students have to undertake, such as aid to future orientation. Schools should support them explore their own gifts, the possible paths, discover new passions; eventually, helping them understand who they are and who they want to become in the future.

Digital + Traditional. The study of theoretical subjects - the humanities, mathematics, science - are essential to let students acquire a cultural basis. Nevertheless, the society is evolving and, with it a new important field of knowledge is arising, that is still ignored in schools: the power of digitalization and connected world. People are talking about it, using it, seeing its effects everyday, yet, students receive no support from the school about this new means. On the other hand, though, students should not lose the contact with local traditions, in order to preserve Italian intangible cultural legacy and understand their real identity.

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ARTISANS WHICH ARE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES THAT NOWADAYS CRAFTSPEOPLE HAVE TO FACE? HOW IS THEIR JOB CHANGING IN THE TIMES OF GLOBALIZATION? Cut-outs - http://skalgubbar.se/

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CLUSTERING THE INSIGHTS Craftsmanship = old man in a laboratory. The biggest problem nowadays is the ignorance of people towards craftsmanship. They don’t understand the real value of a handmade product - the quality of materials, the design, the manufacturing - and often prefer industrial ones due to price convenience. The lack of education about this topic is now rampant.

“Disposable” culture. Consumerism pushed by big multinationals - Ikea, H&M, Zara - lowered perceived price standards as well as materials and manufacturing quality, leading to a cultural shift: prices are so low and trends rotate so fast that products are bought and replaced in a brief timespan. Throwing away stuff is often cheaper than having it fixed.

No generational turnover. Finding an apprentice nowadays is not an easy job being new generation less interested in this craft; but, paradoxically, once find it, hiring one is even harder. Bureaucracy makes it almost impossible to hire an apprentice, pushing to extinction many crafts.

Moreover, numerous funding cuts to professional schools, have reduced drastically the number of students who access to those artisan subjects.

Fablab, this stranger. Generally, there’s a big unawareness about fablabs and what their offer is. Some services that fablabs offer are already implemented in some businesses, some others reckon technology might be useful to save time and money, but would never use it for production.

In general, there’s common skepticism and preconception. There is more adversity to technology than attempts of implementation.

The power of social networks. Elder craftspeople are unaware of the huge impact social can have on their work and often prefer outdated means like Pagine Gialle to promote themselves. Channels like Facebook and Instagram are believed to be only relational tools, but they are most of all advertising ones.

Customized offer to artisans: artisans are not all «old people». Generations of artisans ranges from X to Y and even to Z. Therefore, the offer created for them should be differentiated, aligned to their needs, digitalization level and degree of involvement they could offer

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DESIGN BRIEF

BY CLUSTERING ALL THE INSIGHTS IDENTIFIED IN PRIMARY AND SECONDARY RESEARCH, THE PROBLEM AREAS HAVE EMERGED, NOW, IT’S TIME TO REFRAME THE INSIGHT STATEMENTS AS HOW MIGHT WE QUESTIONS TO TURN THOSE CHALLENGES INTO OPPORTUNITIES FOR DESIGN.

PROBLEM AREAS Summing up, on the one hand we have the high schoolers who are compelled to an education system that is firm, obsolete and impersonal; on the other hand, we have the craftspeople, who have resigned themselves to the ignorance of people about the real value of craftsmanship and to the perspective of the extinction of their craft.

Learners must feel their learning their own. (Blum, 2016). Education should provide teenagers with more practical knowledge they may use in their future, and I don’t mean only hard skills, in fact soft skills such as collaboration, teamwork, problem solving, storytelling, as well as critical thinking and leadership are all essential abilities for a young adult (Robinson, 2015). Moreover, school should give them the possibility to explore future paths, to discover new jobs and experience them in first person. Education system should also start giving all subjects and, consequently, all jobs equal value. It should stop considering "intellectual" jobs versus "humble" ones, humanities versus arts, students who are worth more or less. Finally, education should enable students to develop a creative thinking: the freedom to have their own ideas, to try and make things their own way and, most of all, to make mistakes and improve.

While giving them their time to learn and master their knowledge, at their own pace (Khan, 2011). Grades don’t determine the value of a student.

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Babel Vessel #1, Michael Eden, 2010, nylon with mineral coating

The Artisans biggest wish is to make people understand the effort behind an handmade product, the time spent for it, the high quality of materials and manufacturing. They are all ignored by people, numbed by mass products. They would like to create awareness about craftsmanship and to educate people about it. Besides, their need is to find a new class of apprentice to whom hand down their knowledge, in order not to lose it.

Many traditional crafts risk to disappear because there is no one to take them over. Especially in Italy, the first country in Europe for number of artisans (Confartigianato, 2016) , world famous for its mark "Made in Italy", there should be more information about the importance of this sector.

Finally, artisans condemn the advent of technology and numerical control machines because they fear could replace some of their craft.

Nevertheless, almost all of them ignore what are the true possibilities it offers, exactly, in terms of processes, prototyping and manufacturing.

So, what is the common denominator between the two problem areas?

How to answer the needs of the two groups of people?

HOW MIGHT WE teach teenagers practical skills helpful for to their future?

HOW MIGHT WE empower teenagers to freely unleash their creativity?

HOW MIGHT WE enable the artisans to educate to craftsmanship values?

HOW MIGHT WE help the artisans to hand down their knowledge?

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FIXING THE IDEA After defining the HMW questions, the challenge is finally outlined. What comes after that, it’s realizing how the two worlds - high schoolers on one side and craftspeople on the other side - are not so distant as it might seem. In fact, there is a subtle line that joins their needs and aspirations. High schoolers need to develop a creative thinking, allowing to express themselves freely, and to get a more practical knowledge, learning both hard and soft skills that they will benefit throughout all their life. Craftspeople need younger generation to take on their business, in order to make it survive. Moreover, they want to create awareness and to educate people about the values of craftsmanship.

The two of them could create remarkable synergies together. So, why not combining them? Connecting craftspeople and high schooler could give life to an incredible cultural exchange and lay the foundations to a (r)evolution. Together, they can influence each other: artisans can teach their know-how to the teenagers, while educating them about the values of craftsmanship: good and thoughtful design, the quality of materials, the techniques of manufacturing and the meaning of Made in Italy; high schoolers, on the other hand, can experience in first person a practical job that will allow them to trigger their creativity and to acquire a set of hard and soft skills, essential for their futures and careers.

How to make this two worlds encounter? How to build this connection?

Design Thinking is the solution. By designing workshops where the two groups of people collaborate, exchange their know-how, experiment, and co-design. Craftspeople can tell their craft, their business, their outlook on artisanship and Made in Italy, revealing what’s behind an handmade product. Also, they can teach some techniques to young people, handing down their knowledge. High schoolers, on the other hand, can acquire new useful skills they would never imagine of, learn about local traditions and think and act creatively. And about this last point, an higher level of complexity needs to be added.

How to foster creative thinking?

I believe that it can be done by implementing Media Lab-style learning and Design Thinking tools and methods. Only by working on a project,

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HOW THE MIT MEDIA LAB LEARNS And How Everyone Else Can Learn This Way Too

Projects: We learn best when we are actively working on projects - generating new ideas, designing prototypes, making improvements and creating final products.

Peers: Learning flourishes as a social activity, with people sharing ideas, collaborating on projects, and building on one another’s work.

Passion: When we focus on things we care about, we work longer and harder, persist in the face of challenges, and learn more in the process.

Play: Learning involves playful experimentation - trying new things, tinkering with materials, testing boundaries, taking risks, iterating again and again.

Our goal: enable everyone everywhere to learn creatively, preparing ourselves and others for life in tomorrow’s rapidly-changing world.

collaborating with classmates, putting one’s effort, experimenting with things, prototyping and testing, teenagers could learn how to think and act creatively.

So, how to achieve this?

The designated places where to make this kind of things happen are the FabLabs. Their culture is exactly that of openness, experimentation, team working and rapid prototyping. Inside a FabLab people freely exchange their know-how and get contaminated by other thoughts, in turn. They can go there with an idea, develop it with the help of the community and prototype it at low cost and in short time by using digital fabrication.

Makers are, in fact, "2.0 Artisans", designing unique pieces and creating them with the aid of computers. FabLab not only represent a great opportunity for both the groups of people; it is indeed the missing link.

By learning how to use technology at their advantage, craftspeople will stop fearing it and probe possible ways to adopt it. High schoolers, on the other hand, will be able to learn a new emerging field that most of the schools still ignore - digital manufacturing - , acquiring skills of great value for their future such as 3D modeling, laser-cutting, milling, robotics, electronics and so on. And maybe, artisans, high schoolers and makers together will be able to re-invent the tradition developing a new 3.0 artisanship. We can only design interactions, not relationships.

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MIT Media Lab - Manifesto

At the MIT Media Lab, we are developing new technologies and strategies for cultivating creative learning. Our approach is based on four guiding principles:

Define

HIGH SCHOOLERS | BENEFITS Hands on: while handmade and artistic assignment are often given at the elementary school, they become rarer as children grow up, until disappearing almost completely in the High School. The misconception is that this kind of ability is judged as less "noble" - or merely intended for Artistic High School or Technical Institutes. It is indeed a cultural bias.

Unleashing creativity, imagination, making with hands, designing an artifact thinking of its purpose, telling its story, they all stimulate left side brain and foster creativity.

Team up: working as a team is another skill that high school puts aside, though it’s highly regarded in the working world. School encourages competition rather than collaboration between students, often leading to bad blood among class mates. Working together allows class mate to bond, to share ideas and to learn how to behave in a team.

Exploring future paths: often schoolers ending a study cycle - Middle School, High School - find themselves lost in the choice of their future path. Many of them don’t know what manufacturing, both digital and traditional, means. Getting to know and try them in first person allows teenagers to discover paths that they would never try otherwise, but that are both fundamental to our society: they represent our past and our future.

Freedom to act: teenagers in general, but especially those belonging to Gen Z, have a strong sense of self-management and self-initiative.

FabLabs encourage people to make things by themselves, to try materials, to experiment, without anyone judging. And, most of all, people are free to make mistakes.

Alternanza Scuola-Lavoro: is a compulsory apprenticeship model conceived for 15 to 18-year-old students introduced in Italy in 2015 by the decree law "La Buona Scuola". It that give students the possibility to spend some time (200 hours in 2 years) working in different realities - companies, associations, studios - in order to get a tangible idea of future paths. Subscribing the workshops to this kind of initiative could be a great opportunity to get the idea validated.

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ARTISANS | BENEFITS Education to craftsmanship: craftsmanship is not effectively promoted, neither by the State nor the schools. People, both young and elder, need to understand its real values, looking beyond a single product: handmade manufacturing, hard work, passion and sacrifice, 360° customization, obsession with quality raw materials, the real importance behind Made in Italy mark, the difference between hobbyist and artisans. An example can be Slow Food project, born in Italy in the 90’s with the aim of preserving food and wine industry and educating people to a better eating habits.

Surviving globalization: the biggest threat of craftsmanship is mass production. Big multinational risk to wipe out handmade production. But living in a connected world has its upside as well: social medias can affect positively small businesses, helping them to get in touch with the local fabric easily. As Ezio Manzini said1 Small Local Open and Connected.

A new class of apprentices: teaching their craft to the younger generation, would not only create awareness but also transmitting their profession to a younger class of potential apprentices, that would re-elaborate that knowledge in their own way, creating more value. This would also mean preserving the local traditions and avoiding the extinction of their craft.

Technology at their service: craftsmanship shouldn’t crash against technology, rather it should take advantage of it; craftspeople, especially the elderly, are convinced that technology it the antithesis of their work, but this is just a bias originating from ignorance. The younger generations should be engaged in the process of keeping alive the traditions because they will be the ones bringing it into the future. “New traditions” need to be defined together.

«The digital is not only about websites and applications; instead, it entered the world of physical objects and, in a way, it governs it. The bits decide the fate of atoms. And it is with this new paradigm that a country like Italy, that has in the excellence manufacturing its historical strength, has to deal.»

- Carlo De Benedetti & Massimo Banzi

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OPEN DESIGN SCHOOL - MATERA Not a school. Not an academy. Not a course.

It’s a space open to all, collecting the creative minds from all sectors On October 17, 2014 Matera was nominated European Capital of Culture for 2019. The title of the application is Open Future. Milestones of the project the Open Design School and the I-DEA, Demo-Ethno-Anthropological Institute. Among Matera and design there is a durable bond. In order not to lose the important legacy of the past a new generation of designers has to wise, one whom is familiar with science and technology, with the major contemporary social and cultural transformations.

The Open Design School Matera is the first design school in Europe to be based on the principles of open culture; it is an incubator of archetypes that breaks the mold and trace an invisible thread between past and future, tradition and innovation, a collective intelligence connected to a network of different skills. In a word: experimentation.

The school will gather authors, bloggers, designers, craftsmen, hackers, students and academics, who will transform Matera and Basilicata in a radical innovation platform in the field of art, science and technology.

case studies ITALIAN VIRTUOUS EXAMPLES OF HOW EDUCATION PARADIGM CAN BE REINVENTED, TAKING ON THE PRINCIPLES OF TECHNOLOGY, DIGITAL MANUFACTURING, OPEN KNOWLEDGE, DESIGN AND EXCHANGE OF COMPETENCES. FROM THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL UP TO UNIVERSITY.

The first intensive workshop launching the ‘Open Design School was held in Matera from September 1 to 21 October 2016, bringing together 15 participants from different professional backgrounds, local, national and international. The purpose was to develop the concept of a theater/venue for highly innovative performances in an eighteenth century cava, and to devise a long-term program of work (up 2019) of ODS and design its future home, Matera. http://ods.matera-basilicata2019.it/

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LA SCUOLA OPEN SOURCE - BARI Educational Institute, Centre for Research and Consultancy — in Art and Technology — for Industry, Trade and Handicraft (digital or not).

H-CAMPUS - RONCADE (TV) Digital laboratories designed for kids aged 8-18, during the summer vacation and throughout the school year

La Scuola Open Source is a place designated for social and technological innovation where teaching and research take place, as a follow-up to the research and co-planning experience of xylab (born from ‘Laboratori dal Basso’, a program sponsored by Regione Puglia and EU); a Hackerspace, a place where people with the same interests in the fields of handicraft, technology, science, visual art, publishing, robotics, home automation, biology, electronics (and more) can meet up, socialize and/or cooperate; a Reuse Promotion Center, a collection point where obsolete technologies are smartly recycled; a FabLab which offers personalized services of digital manufacture, equipped with a series of prototyping tools (3D print, laser cutter, etc.).

Our teaching methodology: participants work on research projects together with teachers and tutors, sharing their skills and knowledge, lowering production costs, stimulating self-production as a form of selfemployment, and developing hybrid design capabilities as a result of cross-pollination between different professions - in order to improve the efficiency of existing production segments. This generates new opportunities. La Scuola will be, paraphrasing Gropius, a kind of “Educational Institute, Centre for Research and Consultancy in Art and Technology for Industry, Trade, and Handicrafts (digital or non-digital)” The models we challenge, in terms of collective imagination, are the legendary Bauhaus and Roycroft Community. We usually say: «educate to emancipate». (Excerpt from the Manifesto)

H-International School is an International Baccalaureate Organization World School (IBO) that brings innovation to traditional modes of teaching and learning by using an approach in which technology, digital tools and soft skills become instruments that render the learning process engaging, interesting and forward-thinking. Within H-CAMPUS, The mission of the Labs & Camps programs is to allow boys and girls to guide their own growth by helping them to develop critical thinking skills and connections through an active and creative approach to the digital and technological world. Their team designs and conducts laboratories and summer camps for kids aged 8-18 in an environment that allows them to bring their ideas to life, to experiment and to learn by doing.

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Their projects are characterized by the method that they apply: imagine, design and create, experiment, fail and then try again, teamwork, get inspired by the proposed challenges; by the environment in which they create: play and create with passionate and skilled Digital Educators, active and creative startuppers; and by the technology that they use: coding, Arduino, 3D printing, robotics, tinkering. These three ingredients mixed together allow boys and girls to actively and creatively approach the digital and technological world, thus guiding their own growth and developing their critical and relational abilities.

https://h-campus.com/

http://www.lascuolaopensource.xyz/

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4.

SERVICE DEVELOPMENT WHAT IS THE SERVICE ABOUT? HOW DOES IT WORK? WHO ARE THE STAKEHOLDERS INVOLVED? WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE? WHAT IT THE BUSINESS MODEL?

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WHAT IS IT? WHAT IS XYZ LAB? HOW DOES IT WORK? WHO ARE THE ADDRESSERS? WHAT ARE THEIR ROLES?

Graph - Meaning

XYZ LAB The service idea is connecting high schoolers and artisans through digital fabrication. XYZ LAB is a platform that allow the three actors to participate all together to workshops. Together they exchange knowledge, experiment with materials and techniques, prototype artifacts.

The final aim is: to let artisans educate young people about craftsmanship and hand them down their know-how; to give the teenagers the possibility to learn creative thinking and to acquire practical knowledge, while collaborating with each other.

The teenagers attend the workshops as a leisure activity or as curricular activity planned by the High School - school visit or Alternanza ScuolaLavoro. They work in team in order to produce an output by implementing 1.0 and 2.0 craftsmanship techniques.

The artisans have the role of "1.0 Craftsmanship" masters. First they give a short lesson about their craft, explain their outlook on craftsmanship and show some examples of their manufacturing; then, they teach a technique and assist the students.

The makers, working for the FabLabs, have the role of «2.0 Craftsmanship» master. First they give a short lesson about their digital fabrication, explain what the fablabs are and what is their purpose and show some examples of their manufacturing; then, they teach a digital manufacturing technique.

The educators have the role of mentors and guide the whole process through Design Thinking. Together with artisans and makers, they first co-design the workshops and then they tutor the teenagers involved.

XYZ LAB’s name recalls, on one hand, the Generation X, Y and Z, who are those involved in the service - both artisans (XYZ) and makers (YZ) and teenagers (Z); on the other, they are the Cartesian coordinates referring to the 3D dimension system used in FabLabs for 3D modeling, printing or CNC milling.

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materials suppliers

artisans associations

schools, student's associations

c.a.g.s ngos, foundations

STAKEHOLDERS MAP WHO ARE THE PRIMARY ACTORS? AND WHO ARE THE OTHER ONES? WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THEM? Graph - Stakeholders Map

CORE GROUP & STAFF INVOLVED The primary actors involved in the system are the artisans, the teenagers, the makers and the educators.

•∞ Teenagers are 14-18 year-old students attending High Schools, Technical Institute or Professional Institutes.

•∞ Artisans come from artistic-creative field and can be still active or retired. They are masters of a specific discipline - e.g. wood working, tailoring, cooking, jewelery, lutist and so on.

•∞ Makers are part of FabLabs’ staff and they can be designers, engineers, lab technicians. They master all digital manufacturing techniques.

•∞ Educators are part of XYZ LAB’ staff and they can be designers, teachers, psychologist. They are the mentors, so they know how to apply Design Thinking processes and how to deal with teenagers Teenagers and artisans both are end users of the service, the FabLabs are the enablers and the educators are the staff.

DIRECT STAKEHOLDERS Connected to them, we can find a series of important secondary actors that have the role of "collectors" of the primary stakeholders, all on a local level.

•∞ High Schools, Technical Institutes, Professional Institutes •∞ C.A.G. and youth centers •∞ Student associations •∞ Confartigianato •∞ Associations of craftsmanship or small businesses INDIRECT STAKEHOLDERS Lastly, there are a series of external stakeholders that are not directly affected by the service, but are part of it.

•∞ Raw materials suppliers, they can sponsor the workshop by giving small pieces/leftovers of materials for free •∞ Socio-Cultural Foundations for the development of young people •∞ NGOs promoting services and education for young people •∞ Italian Chamber of Commerce for the registration to Alternanza Scuola-Lavoro

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personas WHO ARE THE TARGET USERS? WHAT ARE THEIR DREAMS AND THEIR FEARS? WHAT DO THEY EXPECT FROM THE FUTURE?

SARA, 15 Y.O.

ETTORE, 55 Y.O.

•∞ Classical High •∞ Use of digital

School student, 2nd year devices: pc for homework and tv series, smartphone for social •∞ Willing to become independent asap from her family by doing little works •∞ Doesn’t know what to do when she will grow up, but wants to try many options

•∞ Woodworker. Specialty: wooden toys •∞ Use of digital devices: pc only for work,

Sara is known for her very sparkling wit. She is talkative, curious and sunny. Her eyes light up when there is a challenge ahead. Next year she will attend her 3rd year of High School and she’s very excited about it. In particular, she heard about Alternanza Scuola-Lavoro from her older friends and can’t wait to make that experience. In fact, since she’s attending a very theoretical high school, she loves the idea of doing something more practical, closer to her future.

Ettore is a quiet and shy person but the toys he make talk for themselves. They are tiny little sculptures that reminds nostalgically of a distant past. He is very passionate about his work, although he doesn’t earn so much.

He thinks nowadays parents and children are only into technology and no one wants wooden toys anymore. He knows a little about technology and that’s fine for him, although he’s always curious to know more.

smartphone for communicating •∞ He owns a little laboratory but has no apprentices.

•∞ Lives with his wife. Has 2 teenage sons •∞ Would like to know more about tech

He lives with his wife and two sons: one is 17 and the other one is 19. They often told him to get an Instagram account for his business but he’s never had time to learn it and his sons are always busy. He’s afraid that once he will retire, no one will take his place and he will be forced to close down his laboratory.

Finding an apprentice today is very difficult and hiring one is expensive as well. For now, he tries not to think of it. He relies a lot on small fairs, where he sells a good amount of objects, especially on Christmas times.

She sometimes is a bit bossy because she’s only-child, however she’s got lot of friends. She communicates with them daily, especially through messaging platforms and social medias such as Messenger, Instagram and Snapchat. She loves watching make-up tutorials on YouTube and going shopping.

Her concept of craftsmanship is old men sitting in a workshop. She’s heard a lot of Made in Italy and thinks is a great opportunity for our country.

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GET TO KNOW

invitation

SUBSCRIBE

GUIDELINES

SUBSCRIBE

GUIDELINES

SUBSCRIBE

GET TO KNOW

GET TO KNOW

HOW IT WORKS I HOW TO JOIN THE SERVICE? WHAT ARE THE WORKSHOPS ABOUT? WHAT IS THE ROLE OF THE DIFFERENT STAKEHOLDERS? Graph - Customer journey map

personal profile

personal profile

personal profile

JOINING THE NETWORK XYZ LAB is a network that fosters cultural exchange about craftsmanship. It is promoted by schools, craftsmanship organisations and educational institutions. In order to become part of the network, craftspeople, teenagers and FabLabs should become members. The process to join the network starts by choosing the correspondent profile on the landing page.

Craftspeople and FabLabs need to sign in to the platform by inserting their personal data, email and password. Anyways, in order to being accepted, they must stick to specific guidelines to become members of the network: •∞ Artisans should have a small business, an education in a professional school or more than 10 years of experience in their artistic-creative field; this rules are intended to avoid "hobbyists".

•∞ FabLabs need to posses a space and the facilities to hold a workshop of 8-10 people; they are also requested the list of machines available, in order to plan the right kind of workshop for each place.

Teenagers need to sign in to the platform by inserting their personal data, email and password.

•∞ If teenagers join XYZ LAB through Alternanza Scuola-Lavoro program, they are automatically subscribed by their educator, so they will receive a username and just need to finalize the registration.

The three of them have a personal page, where they can view and edit their data; teenagers’ personal page is more articulated and interactive, containing mechanism of gamification: badges, photo gallery, suggested courses, additional materials.

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choose ws

payment

co-design session

confirmation

materials selection

HOW IT WORKS II HOW TO JOIN THE SERVICE? WHAT ARE THE WORKSHOPS ABOUT? WHAT IS THE ROLE OF THE DIFFERENT STAKEHOLDERS? Graph - Customer journey map

workshop

PLANNING THE WORKSHOP During this phase, teenagers are not involved yet, whereas artisans, educators and makers co-design the output of the workshop.

Educators act as mediators between 1.0 and 2.0 craftspeople, while fixing the Design Thinking process. Artisans propose an output coherent with their expertise, educators confirm its feasibility and the alignment to the principles of the workshop, makers prove its viability in terms of technology and can propose their own ideas or suggestions. It’s a very open process. Once agreed on the output, they select the materials to work with supplied by XYZ LAB’ Materials Library. In fact, it is very important to work with safe materials in the FabLab, so they need to be previously chosen. The Materials Library is made by the contributes of local suppliers, who offer small quantities or leftovers of materials in exchange of promotion.

PARTICIPATING TO THE WORKSHOP The workshops are held in local FabLabs and focus on one craft, possibly a local traditions - for example, woodworking, typography, tailoring, cooking, and so on. The courses are taught by one artisan - plus his/her partner, if needed - one maker and two educators.

Teenagers can choose the course they prefer by browsing the correspondent section of the website and selecting the one they are interested in. Each course has a minimum and maximum number of participants, the timetable, the program and the names of the speakers. After having subscribed to the course, they receive a confirmation email they will show at the workshop check-in.

Artisans and makers will give a 40-minutespresentation and assist the participants throughout the workshop.

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ARTISANS' OFFERING MAP WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS ARTISANS GET? WHAT ARE THE RESONS WHY THEY SHOULD SUBSCRIBE THE MEMBERSHIP? Graph - Artisans' Offering Map

CRAFTSPEOPLE MEMBERSHIP By giving a number of hours of teaching per month, artisans can choose among three different offers in exchange; the more offers they choose the more hours they will have to give. These offers are: •∞ Advertising&promotions.

Artisans that have low skills or no skills at all in promoting their own business through the Internet and social medias, will receive a personal profile on XYZ LAB website, a photo shooting and resonance on our Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat accounts. Thinking forward, these accounts could be managed by the high schoolers in a second stage of the project.

•∞ FabLab services. Some artisans already resort to digital manufacturing services outsourcing them to external companies. By becoming a member of XYZ LAB they can choose to receive a discount on this services at a local FabLab. •∞ Training. Instead, those who are interested in understanding and learning about digital fabrication can benefit from the free weekly training lessons about digital manufacturing that FabLabs offer - e.g. how to use the laser cut, how to 3D print, and so on.

•∞ Added value. Besides economical benefits, artisans also receive a more intangible level of value: they can educate and create awareness about craftsmanship and ignite a new class of apprentices, in order to hand down their knowledge and make the tradition survive.

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teenagers' OFFERING MAP WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS TEENAGERS GET? WHAT ARE THE RESONS WHY THEY SHOULD SUBSCRIBE THE MEMBERSHIP? Graph - Teenagers' Offering Map

TEENAGERS MEMBERSHIP After having subscribed to the platform, teenagers receive a free voucher for a course of their choice. The following courses will be available for a small fee, in fact the costs are mostly covered by the funds received by foundations, institutions and calls for education. In exchange, high schoolers will get: •∞ A variety of workshops.

On the platform they can choose the courses that better respond to their interests. All workshops have a particular focus based on the kind of craft it is matched with. From tailoring to woodworking, from typography to cooking.

•∞ Qualified guidance. Both the Fablabs and the artisans members of the network need to stick a series of guidelines. So teenager can be sure to receive a high quality support during the workshop.

•∞ Training. During the workshop, young people can learn about traditional artisan techniques as well as digital fabrication - e.g. how to use the laser cut, how to 3D print, and so on. This are all practical skills that can create a solid base for their own CV. •∞ Added value. Besides economical benefits, teenagers also receive a more intangible level of value: they can get orientation for possible future paths, they can learn the value of collaboration over competition; all while gaining a new mindset, a new way of thinking, that is the creative one.

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fablabS' OFFERING MAP WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS THE FABLABS GET? WHAT ARE THE RESONS WHY THEY SHOULD BECOME PART OF THE NETWORK? Graph - Fablabs' Offering Map

FABLAB MEMBERSHIP After having subscribed to the platform, FabLabs undertake to host the workshop, according to their scheduling availability, and to allow the use of the machines for free. In exchange, they will get: A network of schools. High schools, Technical and Professional Institutes can be a great way to create awareness about FabLabs, their aim and their benefits. The network can be a trigger to start collaborating on a wider variety of projects and to even create positive synergies inside schools - an example can be Scuola Rosmini in Rome who hosts the first FabLab inside an elementary school, a project made in collaboration with the Rome Makers FabLab •∞ Spread of open knowledge. Aligned to the core philosophy of FabLabs is the idea of a free sharing of knowledge and know-how in order to enable everybody to participate to the movement and create value.

•∞ Growth of the community. Both the teenagers and the artisans can increase the community that gravitates towards the FabLab, meaning a higher number of memberships, of ideas and possibilities for networking.

•∞ Increase of reputation. Some FabLabs have already an eye for social relevance, creating projects with the collaboration of associations, foundations and so on - for example, the aforementioned Opendot Lab. Many others, though, don’t have much of an impact on the social sphere or are newly opened and still need to get recognition. Being part of XYZ LAB’s network can improve their image.

•∞ Added value. This point is the biggest opportunity of all. Although there are no certainties about the actual realization of this point, the FabLab can act as the enabler for the preservation of the traditions and the reinventing of new ones. The FabLabs are unique cultural places of cultural ferment, where this shift in paradigm can happen, but the design of XYZ LAB stops here and gives the floor to the community.

•∞

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THE WORKSHOP I HOW IS THE WORKSHOP STRUCTURED? WHAT IS THE TIMETABLE? WHAT ARE THE FORMATS?

Graph - Workshop Mechanism

DESIGNING THE WORKSHOP | DESIGN SPRINTS XYZ LAB’s core activity is workshops, so a proprietary framework has been developed based on Design Thinking methodology. To be precise, I was inspired by Design Sprint Methods2 by Google Ventures: Design Thinking refers to the established methodology developed at IDEO and the d.school at Stanford, while the Sprints originates with the Agile framework. According to Google Venture’s definition: «The Design Sprints are a framework for teams of any size to solve and test design problems in 2-5 days». Sprints are characterized by shorter times during convergent phases and by quick alternating session of prototyping and testing; their aim is to develop a full operational prototype in the timespan of 2-5 days and it is mainly used to solve UX issues. The very reason why I decided to re-elaborate and scale their model is that, since FabLabs are focused on the idea of rapid prototyping and experimentation, a framework that is based on the concepts of quick alternating sessions of prototyping and testing would be the most coherent. So I built the workshop’s framework on top of the 6 steps of Sprint process: Understand. The teenagers undertake the user’s point of view, to let them know that you always think first of those who will use a product when you design, which often is not you. The exercise uses the ploy “think of a gift for” (e.g.: imagine to make a gift for Superman).

Definition. Then, they identify the 3 “design principles”, that are the values that guide their design choices (e.g.: the gift should be light, resistant and invisible).

Diverge. During this phase, people are free to express their creativity and imagine different solutions through quick sketching and tinkering with preselected materials from XYZ LAB’s Material Library.

Prototyping. This is the phase of the actual realization of the project.

Two lessons are planned; the first by the maker, who will explain how to use a machine, the second, by the artisan, who will show how to use a traditional technique. In this phase is important to give clear instructions to the participants, who will then make everything on their own, supported by the educator, if necessary.

Validation. In the final step, the teenagers have to invent a promotion campaign on Instagram to advertise their product, from the photo shooting to the hashtags. Finally, all the groups share their work.

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FLASH WS

BOUNCE WS

FLOW WS

THE WORKSHOP II HOW IS THE WORKSHOP STRUCTURED? WHAT IS THE TIMETABLE? WHAT ARE THE LESSONS ABOUT?

Graph - Workshop Typologies

THE THREE FORMATS Depending whether the workshop is meant as a leisure time activity or as a curricular school activity (as Alternanza Scuola-Lavoro), the formats will be different.

•∞ XYZ Flash is a 1-day format workshop, lasting 7 hours from 10 A.M. to 5 P.M., in which teenagers will experience all the 6 steps of Design Sprint and develop a project in teams of 4-5 people •∞ XYZ Bounce is a 5-day format workshop, lasting 10 hours in total, divided into 5 sessions of 2 hours, Monday to Friday from 5 to 7 P.M., in which teenagers can benefit from after school time to develop a project in teams of 4-5 people •∞ XYZ Flow is a 3-week format, lasting 105 hours in total, from 10 A.M. to 5 P.M. from Monday to Friday, and it’s specifically aimed to answer Alternanza Scuola-Lavoro’s need. In fact, a 35-hours-module fulfills a wide field of knowledge, so they can be combined to create a more structured learning path on different levels of complexity: basic, medium and advanced. This would make it 105 hours in total, which complies the requirements of acceptance by the ministerial program - 100 hours.

PREPARATION Before the actual workshop there is a preparatory phase consisting of a co-design workshop among the educator, the artisan and the maker. Together they have to adapt the structure of the workshop for the specific craft and to make a model of the output that the teenagers will then prototype. This phase happens just once at the beginning of a collaboration with a new artisan.

•∞ For the 1-day format, for time reasons, the model is fixed and the teenagers can only customize it •∞ For both the 5 and the 3-week format, teenagers can experiment with different shapes and materials, so the output is not defined, only some boundaries are previously identified EXECUTION During the workshop, the teenagers are free to experiment and try things on their own. They have to make all the "dirty work": the help they can get is limited to the explanations, the tasks will be up to them. Educators’ role is to keep the pace of the activities and mediate between the participants.

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ONLINE

OFFLINE

touchpoints WHAT ARE THE CHANNELS? WHAT ARE THE ASSETS NEEDED? WHAT ARE THE MEANS OF PROMOTION AND ADVERTISING? Graph - Touchpoints

ONLINE •∞ Platform. It is a web app addressed to artisans, teenagers, schools, families and FabLabs. It allows users to register, view and edit a personal profile page and to contact the support. Specifically for teenagers, the platform showcases the courses available and gives the possibility to subscribe to them.

•∞ Social media (Facebook page, Instagram, Snapchat). This channels are made available for teenagers, allowing them to post photos and videos taken during the workshops. In this way, they become the activities log.

•∞ Blog (Medium). It will contain the experiences, the evidences, the best practices and the report of the workshop. It is meant to affirm XYZ LAB as a reference for educators and designers, but also to enhance its reliability.

•∞ Emails. They are used as confirmation of registration and as newsletters when new courses are available.

OFFLINE •∞ Materials Library. It is a collection of different materials - fabric, wood, plastics, cardboard, etc. - made by the donations of local suppliers, who offer small quantities or leftovers of materials in exchange of promotion.

•∞ Workshop. It is the heart of the service. It is co-designed by artisans, educators and makers and it’s carried out in a FabLabs. 8-10 students maximum can participate and collaborate altogether to produce an output, supervised by the educators.

•∞ Templates&branded stationary. They are the support materials for the workshop. Templates are used as a framework for Design Thinking exercises and are specifically designed for each phase of the workshop.

Branded stationary is given to the participants in order to carry out the creation and as takeaways.

•∞ Educators. They are the staff working for XYZ LAB. Their role is mediation between 1.0 and 2.0 craftspeople and mentoring and conducting the workshop using the Design Thinking approach.

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business model canvas EVEN IF THERE IS A STRONG SOCIAL PURPOSE THAT DRIVES XYZ LAB, IN ORDER TO MAKE IT SUCCEED WITH ITS OWN FORCES WITHOUT RELYING ON DONORS, IT IS NECESSARY TO RESEARCH A BUSINESS MODEL THAT ENSURE ITS SUSTAINABILITY AND REPEATABILITY. IN FACT, A BUSINESS MODEL REPRESENTS WHAT ANY SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR NEEDS IF THEY DON’T WANT TO BE STUCK IN AN ENDLESS CYCLE OF GRANT PROPOSALS.

THE NEED FOR A BUSINESS MODEL Even if there is a strong social purpose that drives XYZ LAB, in order to make it SUCCEED with its own forces without relying on donors, it is necessary to research a business model that ensure its sustainability and repeatability. In fact, a business model represents what any social entrepreneur needs if THEY DON’T want to be stuck in AN endless cycle of grant proposals.

BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS A business model is an «abstract representation of a business, be it conceptual, textual, and/or graphical, of all core interrelated architectural, co-operational, and financial arrangements designed and developed by an organization presently and in the future, as well as all core products and/or services the organization offers, or will offer, based on these arrangements that are needed to achieve its strategic goals and objectives.» (Al-Debei, El-Haddadeh and Avison, 2008).

Synthetically, we can state that a business models describes the rationale of how an organizations creates, delivers and captures value. It depicts how the pieces of a business fit together. The Business Model Canvas is a strategic management and lean startup template for developing business models (Barquet, Ana Paula B., et al., 2011). It is a business’ blueprint and it sketches out what a venture is trying to do, for whom and how it’s

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going to work. The original canvas was initially proposed by Alexander Osterwalder and it is made up of nine blocks: value propositions, customer segments, customer relationships, channels, key activities, key resources, key partners, cost structure and revenue streams.

Since the release of Osterwalder’s work in 2008, new canvases and variations have appeared - specifically for social entrepreneurs and mission-driven businesses.

ADDING THE SOCIAL LAYER In order to describe the business model of XYZ lab, we will adopt a Business Model Canvas variation proposed by Osterwalder for depicting each business model that has a strong purpose and goes beyond profit.

The main difference with the original business model canvas is that it is added and considered another constraint in addition to profit: the impact that the venture want to achieve. This “social layer� is added just below the original canvas template and takes in considerations the social impacts and social benefits of what it is reported in the nine canvas blocks.

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KEY PARTNERS

KEY ACTIVITIES

workshop execution

PRESERVING TRADITION

CUST RELATIO

dedic & perso

ADVERTISING

fablabs

DIGITAL MANUFACTURING

raw materials suppliers schools

VALUE PROPOSITIONS

CHA

KEY RESOURCES SELF-IMPROVEMENT xyz educators xyz frameworks platform materials

FUTURE ORIENTATION

business model canvas COST STRUCTURE

operations platform

"hobbyist" business SOCIAL IMPACTS HOW IScompetitions THE WORKSHOP STRUCTURED? WHAT IS THE TIMETABLE? WHAT ARE THE LESSONS ABOUT?

Graph Cut-outs - Business - http://skalgubbar.se/ Model Canvas

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fa confar

schoo

fab

INCOME STREAM

SOCIAL BENEFIT

USTOMER ATIONSHIPS

edicated & ersonal

CUSTOMER SEGMENTS

artisticcreative artisans

gen z highschoolers (14-18 y.o.)

CHANNELS

faris, fartigianato

hools, c.a.g.s fablabs

EAMS

EFITS

donations government funds light subscriptions

OPEN KNOWLEDGE CRAFTSMANSHIP PRESERVATION

THE BUILDING BLOCKS The main purpose of XYZ lab is to connect artisans and Gen-z by creating a framework of workshops that let them share their specific know-how. Using FabLabs as enablers of this process, artisans and gen-z will be able to learn from each other and gain professional skills and cultural benefits. The business model canvas for XYZ LAB is composed by the following pieces: CUSTOMERS XYZ LAB has been designed in order to address to two different type of customers: •∞ Creative-artistic artisans •∞ 14-18 Y.O. High Schoolers VALUE PROPOSITION The value proposition represents the value that XYZ lab is creating for customers’ perspective.

For each customer, XYZ is offering an unique value proposition.

Artisans: •∞ Preserving traditions. They are willing to hand down their tacit know-how in order to keep craftsmanship alive. In fact, they are continuously seeking for new apprentices to introduce in the business.

•∞ Promoting and advertising their abilities and their profession. Taking advantage of XYZ LAB, any craftsmen that are still less inclined to adopt digital communications medias may find new opportunities in order to boost their business, to increase awareness and attract new customers.

•∞ Digital Manufacturing. The workshops held

by XYZ LAB represent a golden opportunity for craftsmen to analyze new digital manufacturing techniques that can be implemented in their work. These can be great allies of the “traditional artisans”, enabling new processes and economical advantages.

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Gen-Z: •∞ Self-improvement. Participating to XYZ LAB allows Gen-z to improve themselves, increasing their ability to acquire practical skills and stimulate creativity.

•∞ Orientation. XYZ LAB allows them to understand the meaning of 1.0 and 2.0 craftsmanship. Having a practical representation of what is taught and a meaningful immersion in that kind of jobs provide a clearer view of what is expected from them in the real life and in the work environment, besides giving them the opportunity to explore a possible future path.

CHANNELS Channels describe how XYZ LAB is going to deliver the value proposition to artisans and Gen-z. The main channels are: •∞ FabLabs. Each FabLab that will host XYZ LAB workshops represents the enabler of the value creation process, letting artisans and Gen-z share their knowledge in a technological and cultural hub.

•∞ Fairs, events and associations. They represent a key channel in order to attract and get new artisans participating in the lab activities.

•∞ Schools and C.A.G.s. They represent a key channel in order to promote XYZ lab among teenagers.

Furthermore – even though it is not a key channel - we have also to consider a digital platform that will be used to assist artisans and teenagers during the subscription and the purchase process.

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP Customer relationship outlines how XYZ LAB interacts with artisans and Gen-z. During the workshop, the customer relationship will be personal: in this phase, XYZ lab will offer personal assistance, as some educators will hold the workshop activities. The workshop is the heart of the process in which artisans and Gen-z can share their know-how and learn.

Furthermore, considering what happens before and after the workshop, it is possible to depict the following relationships as well: •∞ Acquisition Artisans will be reached through direct promotional activities in fairs, events and associations by our representatives. The promotions activities for Gen-z will be pretty automated, using the digital platform and social media.

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•∞ Retention

In this phase, the customer will go through an automated system. Using the platform, they will discover new workshops available the nearby, subscribe and purchase tickets for participating in new workshops.

KEY RESOURCES Key resources are a breakdown of what inputs XYZ LAB will need in order to deliver the value proposition. They are: •∞ XYZ lab educators. Their goal is to act as mediators between artisans and Gen-z: they will take care about all of the workshop activities.

•∞ Proprietary XYZ LAB workshop framework. It consists in the various guidelines and best practices that are followed during the workshops.

•∞ Material Library. Needed in order to create fully working prototypes.

•∞ A digital platform. For ensuring visibility and communication.

KEY ACTIVITIES The main activities needed in order to run XYZ LAB successfully are those related to the workshops. Artisans and Gen-z must be guided by XYZ LAB educators during the activities, in order to optimize the activity in the FabLabs. Therefore, key activities are: workshop framework creation, workshop preparation and execution.

KEY PARTNERS Key partnerships highlight the relationships that are crucial to the success of XYZ LAB activities. The main partners are: •∞ FabLabs. This places are the enablers of the process of knowledge sharing. FabLabs allow workshop’s participants to be exposed to new technologies. The best way to nurture and manage them is by building partnerships.

•∞ School & C.A.G.s. These are fundamental partners in order to promote XYZ LAB among Gen-z teenagers.

•∞ Raw materials suppliers. These suppliers are needed in order to perform the activities during workshops - e.g. 3d print filaments suppliers, wood, fabric, Plexiglas, paper, etc. These materials will be collected in the Materials Library

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COSTS In order to define the revenue streams, it is important to define the cost structure of XYZ LAB activities. The most relevant costs – needed to sustain and fuel the business model – are: •∞ Operations and inputs needed in order to run workshops, such as educators to lead the activities, materials and FabLabs’s machines •∞ Digital platform building and maintenance REVENUES Revenue streams indicate how XYZ LAB intends to makes money.

Government funds and donations will be important to fuel and run activities. But - as we mentioned before - even if there is a strong social purpose that drives the venture, it is necessary to charge a fee for workshop activities in order to let the business go ahead with its own forces, without relying only on subsidies (that are still necessary, though).

The payment scheme is depicted as follows: •∞ Artisans will always be free of charge. It is crucial to attract as many craftspeople as possible in order to effectively run the venture.

•∞ Gen-z can participate in workshop activities within their school activities. In that case, public grants will subsidize activities. If someone shows interest to participate to the workshops outside their school program – for instance, people attending C.A.G.s – after subscribing, they will receive a free voucher for a course and later they will be asked to pay a light subscription fee in order to participate.

SOCIAL IMPACTS Now, talking about the other side of the coin, the negative social impact that XYZ LAB could cause is the increase of a potential class of amateur or "hobbyist" artisans, that could potentially become business competitors.

SOCIAL BENEFITS The social benefits that XYZ LAB and its activities promote are many different ones. Open knowledge, awareness and education to craftsmanship, preservation of traditions and research for innovation, creative learning development, spread of digital manufacturing as processes and FabLabs awareness, cultural exchange, best practices and know-how sharing.

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Photo Pexels - CC0

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Develop

VISUAL IDENTITY I HOW DOES THE CORPORATE IMAGE LOOK LIKE? WHAT'S THE SENSE OF IT? WHAT IS THE LOGO?

1. Building the logo

2. Assembling

3. Full and empty

4. Logotype

6. Colors&Fonts

| Blogger Sans Regular |

abcdefghijkl mnopqrstu vwxyz

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| Color palette |

#293d4a

#00a18d

#b7c894

#bbce00

#f4f3f4

Develop

VISUAL IDENTITY II HOW DOES THE CORPORATE IMAGE LOOK LIKE? WHAT'S THE SENSE OF IT? WHAT IS THE LOGO?

7. Logo variations

8. Patterns

9. Graphic tablet hand drawn icon set

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VISUAL IDENTITY III MOCKUPS OF XYZLAB LANDING PAGE AND MATERIALS

10. Landing Page

11. Teenager's personal workbook

by XYZLAB

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5. workshop prototyping AFTER HAVING IDENTIFIED THE CORE OF THE SERVICE- THE WORKSHOP - TIME HAS COME TO TEST IT. THE FOLLOWING CHAPTER PRESENTS A REPORT OF THE PROTOTYPING AT OPENDOT LAB.

All photos are by Chiara Riva.

Please note: for privacy restrictions reasons, participants’s faces could not have been photographed

Deliver

PROTOTYPING XYZ LAB YOU DON’T KNOW THE VALUE OF THE PROJECT UNTIL YOU PROTOTYPE IT AND TEST IT WITH THE USERS. THAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS LAST STEP, THE DELIVERING OF THE SERVICE. TOGETHER WITH TWO ARTISANS, 6 TEENAGERS AND OPENDOT FABLAB, XYZ LAB FINALLY CAME TO LIFE. AND THANKS TO THE PROTOTYPING, I WAS ABLE TO GET MANY INSIGHTS ON HOW TO IMPROVE THE SERVICE.

THE PARTICIPANTS After having defined the structure, the aim and the activities of the workshop, the moment to actually make it happen had finally arrived.

Thanks to Opendot Lab I was able to prototype the experience in their FabLab. However, there was still one thing missing: the participants! So my quest started around the beginning of March, looking for teenagers and artisans willing to test my view. I happened to be very lucky, finding amazing people that supported my project from the start. On one hand, Opendot Lab shared with me one of their contacts, CeAS (Centro Ambrosiano di Solidarietà) an association operating in the same neighborhood that had already expressed the will to collaborate with the FabLab in the past: they felt that the opportunity had finally arrived with XYZ LAB; on the other hand, I recontacted Federico, the artisan from Rude I had previously interviewed in my research, and asked him his availability and interest to participate to the prototyping. I chose him because I was very stroke by his young age and strong awareness about the values of ​​ craftsmanship and Made in Italy. I was very lucky because both of the parts reacted with a lot of enthusiasm to my proposal and expressed their will to being involved in my experiment. So, who are they exactly? What is their activity?

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Federico presenting Rude - Photo by Chiara Riva

Deliver

•∞ CeAS (Centro Ambrosiano di Solidarietà). It is a non-profit organization

active in Milan since 1986. Today hosts and accompanies towards a new beginning people with different fragility: single mothers with their children, families in need, young people, women victims of violence, persons with mental health problems or addictions.

Opendot Lab put me in contact with Fabio, an educator working for the project «Costruire radici per il futuro». The project is addressed to MSNA (Minori Stranieri Non Accompagnati), or Unaccompanied Minors, that are young people, without parents, emigrating to Italy on their own.

Those people are around 16-17-year-old and they come from different countries, such as Kosovo, Egypt, Bangladesh, Gambia and Ghana. They used to live in rural contexts, with a low or absent level of education.

Here in Italy, they attend Italian language courses, so they have a basic knowledge of the language. The aim of «Costruire radici per il futuro» is to provide these teenagers with an accommodation, a basic culture and help to integrate in our society.

The six teenagers that participated to the workshop came from Africa and the Middle East and had a very basic knowledge of Italian language.

Nevertheless, they have proved a high interest in the activities and excellent manual skills. At the beginning, the language was a bit of a barrier between us, but later on, thanks to the advice and mediation of Fabio, their educator, the communication became smoother.

•∞ Rude. It is a is a small project born in the center of the Langhe, precisely

in Alba. It is focused on tailoring and production with artisan approach in every process related to the needs of our client. They are two young craftspeople, Federico and Martina, having a different vision from the usual way of conceiving crafts. They work in order to involve the whole world of the Internet as well as their small local market. They strongly believe in the continuous textile research, in order to offer fabrics with different technical properties and with a new impact on the scene of the tailor-made, often designing and creating customized patterns. They are not limited to cutting and sewing but collaborating with two startups,(Teeser and The Color Soup) they manage to create custom graphics on fabrics, entirely Made in Italy. Their design approach is quite creative and digital, but at the same time, in the tailoring job they are true to the principles of traditional handmade.

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Martina from Rude - Photo by Chiara Riva

The boys from CeAS - Photo by Chiara Riva

Deliver

THE CO-DESIGN SESSION During the preparation phase of the workshop, we had to decide what kind of artifact should the teenagers make. The ideation and design of it was taken by co-designing the output of the workshop with the artisans from Rude and Opendot Lab. Due to the long distance separating me from the artisans in Alba, most of the sessions were carried out virtually, via Skype, emails and messaging platforms. My role was first acting as a mediator between CeAS and the artisans. I understood the characteristic of the teenagers, their background and their digitalization level. Then I reported it to Rude artisans and together we examined different kind of solutions. Eventually, we decided to choose a very simple output, a case that could adapt to contain different objects - e.g. pens, glasses, phone, etc.

The case was made of two pieces that were nestled into each other, making it easier both to cut it and to sew it. The cutting part was made by using the laser-cut machine and the sewing was done by hand-stitching.

Once the shape was decided, the artisans provided me with the vector trace of the case, in order to send it to the laser-cut directly during the workshop. We decided not to give this task to the teenagers due to their low level of digitalization, since many of them weren't very familiar with a computer. Then, the artisans realized a simple and neutral mock-up of the case, in order to showcase it to the participants but not giving hints on how it should have been done. Once defined the output's shape, we needed to decide the materials to use and here came the FabLab at stake. We contacted Opendot Lab to agree on the right material to use, considering that it needed to be laser-cut. So we received their directions on the laser-safe materials and agreed on using felt for the structure and neoprene for the decorations.

The great upside of the case is that its simple shape allowed participants to fully customize it: the dimension could be scaled, the stitching could be very different, the decorations on the two parts and the closure buttons. So, after the output was finally decided, we were able to get the workshop started.

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Creating a mockup- Photo by Chiara Riva

Sketch of the output by Rude

Deliver

XYZ LAB WORKSHOP | THE INGREDIENTS •∞ Participants.

6 Boys 2 Teams 2 Artisans 1 CeAS educator 1 XYZ Mentor 1 Photographer 1 Maker •∞ Workshop

set up.

2 Sets of templates (Identikit persona, 3 Design values, Quick sketching, Final idea) 3 PowerPoint presentations 2 Tinkering boxes containing: - Assorted Stationary (Paper, block notes, post-it, markers, pencils) - Fabric samples, decorations, threads 1 Coffee station 1 Table + 8 chairs 1 Tv Screen •∞ Materials

for the output.

3 Pieces of neoprene of different colors 2 Pieces of felt 5 Spools of thread of different colors 2 Rulers 1 Fabric glue Assorted needles, buttons and decorations •∞ Techniques

used for prototyping.

2.0 craftsmanship - Laser cutting 1.0 craftsmanship - Hand stitching and sewing decorations Photography

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Prototyping- Photo by Chiara Riva

Zen voting- Photo by Chiara Riva

Deliver

THE AGENDA THE WORKSHOP TOOK PLACE ON MARCH 31ST, FROM 10 A.M. TO 17 P.M. @OPENDOT LAB VIA TERTULLIANO 71, MILANO

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9.50-10.00 Arrival and adjustment 10.00-10.10 Welcome coffee + Greetings 10.10-10.25 Introduction to XYZ LAB 10.25-10.30 Warm up. Team up: choose a name and a symbol 10.30-11.10 1.0 Craftsmanship: Presentation by Rude

(by Federico and Martina) 11.15-11.30 Coffee break 11.30-12.10 2.0 Craftsmanship: Fablab presentation (by Federica and Alessandro) 12.10-12.20 Kick-off. "Designing a case for..."

12.20-12.35 Understand: Imagine to make a gift to someone

(template: Identikit Persona) 12.35-12.45 Define. Identify three keywords to describe your

project (template: 3 Design Values) 12.45-13.00 Diverge. Exploring different ideas and materials

(Quick sketching&Tinkering) 13.00-14.00 Lunch break. Pizza at the park

Photo by Chiara Riva

14.00-14.15 Decide. Zen voting: 2 stickers each person to vote

the best idea 14.15-16.30 Prototype. Creating the output:

- Laser-cut lesson + practice (15' by Tiziano)

- Hand stitching lesson (15' Federico and Martina)

- Manufacturing

- Packaging. Customizing a paper bag with their brand 16.30-16.50 Validate. Testing the idea: Creating a post on Instagram to advertise the product (photo+hashtag) 16.50-17.00 Ending. Sharing the output. Goodbyes and thanks.

Deliver

POST ACTIVITY ANALYSIS Prototyping and testing the workshop turned out to be a very exciting experience. The boys who at the beginning were too shy to talk, at the end of the day became very warm and exuberant. They enjoyed very much the FabLab atmosphere and were completely fascinated by the projects the FabLab team was working on. The initial language barrier crumpled down as we began to use the hands and the tools to design and create the output. The artisans' feedback was enthusiastic too. They were very grateful of having had the opportunity to show their view on craftsmanship, to inspire young people with their work and to teach teenagers their craft. However, a part from the positive feedbacks of the participants, I also got some insights from this experience that helped me re-design some aspects of the service and draw up a series of best practice to improve next workshops. They can be summed up like this: Material selection. Making available the materials for creating the output is essential to the right execution of the workshop; although, it is very important that those materials are "FabLab friendly". It means that some materials could be harmful for the health of the people or can damage the machines when used, so it is very important to select the correct ones for each workshop. From this, was born the idea of a Material Library: a collection of safe materials donated by local suppliers available to choose from in every workshop.

•∞ Time fitting. On one hand, students' daily timetable can be restrictive because they finish school around 2-4 p.m. and then have to do their homework; FabLabs' staff, on the other hand, are always super busy.

Managing to find a common scheduling can be difficult, so it has to be done well in advance and with flexible hours. This led me to think of the 5-day-workshop format, Bounce. It gives more freedom to the teenagers and to the FabLabs.

•∞ Remote co-design. Due to the impossibility to meet the artisans in advance because of the distance between us, most of the decision making was carried out through messaging platforms and calls.

Moreover, artisans are normally working alone or in pair, so they are very busy during the day. So this gave me the idea to implement an internal chat in artisan's profile as a means of communication with XYZ LAB, in case they are not available in person.

•∞

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Cases and bags outcome- Photo by Chiara Riva

Templates outcome by Chiara Riva

6.

EXTRA MATERIALS A COLLECTION OF FRAMEWORKS THAT I HAVE DESIGNED AND USED FOR THE INTERVIEWS AND FOR THE PROTOTYPE OF THE WORKSHOP

Extra

IDENTIKIT PERSONA

GRUPPO

Il mio regalo è per...

QUAL È IL SUO MOTTO? Immagina una sua citazione, una sua battuta o un proverbio che lo rappresenti

“ ” PREFERENZE: Quali sono le cose che adora? E quelle che odia?

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3 design values

GRUPPO

Il mio regalo è per:

IL REGALO PERFETTO DOVREBBE ESSERE: Che caratteristiche ha il regalo che immagini di fare? Cosa non dovrebbe proprio mancare?

1.

2.

3. ...perchè: Per quali motivi te lo immagini così?

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Extra

2

nome

1

4

quick sketching

3

154

final idea

GRUPPO

IL NOME DELL'IDEA è:

I MATERIALI SCELTI SONO: Incolla un campione della tipologia prescelta

TESSUTO

FILATO

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FINITURE

Extra

INTERVIEW GENZ Objectives Questa serie di interviste si pone come step iniziale per conoscere meglio desideri e aspirazioni dei ragazzi delle scuole superiori (14-18 anni), la loro opinione sull’educazione scolastica e per validare l’assumption iniziale di progetto.

Scopo di questo step è dunque raccogliere informazioni su:

- Opinione riguardo l’educazione scolastica - Conoscenza e interesse nell’artigianato 1.0 e 2.0 e importanza del creare con le proprie mani

Questions

1. First approach. (2 min)

Presentare la ricerca che sto effettuando per la tesi e spiegare come avverrà l’intervista.

Chiedere tutte le autorizzazioni del caso (registrazione audio/video, per esempio). Dare un’indicazione temporale di quanto durerà l’intervista.

2. Introduction. (5 min)

Obiettivo: rompere il ghiaccio, creare con�denza.

Come: L’intervistato parla di sé e delle proprie abitudini.

Esempi di domande: - Raccontaci di te.

- Qual è la tua routine quotidiana? (Scuola, hobby) - Cosa pensi di internet? Come lo usi?

- Quali dispositivi possiedi: smartphone, tablet, computer? Quanto usi i tuoi dispositivi?

- In che classe sei? Che indirizzo frequenti?

- Hai mai partecipato al progetto Alternanza scuola-lavoro? Che attività hai svolto?

Com’è stata la tua esperienza?

- Se avessi del tempo, cosa ti piacerebbe imparare?

3. Context. (5 min)

Obiettivo: raccogliere informazioni su valori della vita e aspirazioni future

Esempi di domande:

-

Cosa pensi di fare una volta �nite le superiori?

Pensi che quello che hai imparato a scuola ti aiuterà nel futuro?

Quali sono le tue aspettative e le tue paure riguardo al mondo del lavoro?

4. Focus. (10 min)

Obiettivo: raccogliere informazioni su:

156

- Educazione scolastica - Importanza del fare con mano, della progettazione e dell’artigianato

Esempi di domande: - Cosa ne pensi della scuola superiore in italia?

- Pensi che la scuola favorisca la creatività? (La tenga allenata?)

- A scuola quanto è diffuso il lavoro di gruppo con gli altri studenti? Secondo te è importante collaborare?

- Secondo te, a scuola dovrebbero insegnare anche materie più pratiche?

- L’artigianato artistico-creativo racchiude diversi settori, che vanno dal legno, ai prodotti alimentari, all’abbigliamento su misura, etc. Cosa ne pensi dell’artigianato e del Made in Italy?

- Molti mestieri stanno sparendo. Ti piacerebbe imparare di più, storia e tecniche, dai maestri dell’artigianato? E provarle?

- Conosci i fablab e le tecniche di artigianato 2.0? (stampa 3d, taglio laser, fresa cnc, Arduino). Ti piacerebbe impararne di più in merito?

4. Propositions. (10 min)

Obiettivo: comprendere le caratteristiche e i valori che una possibile soluzione ideale dovrebbe avere.

Come: Attraverso la presentazione di Scenarios, all’intervistato viene chiesto di esprimere le proprie preferenze o suggerimenti.

Esempi di domande: - Se potessi riprogettare la scuola, come la immagineresti?

- Ti piacerebbe progettare dei prodotti tuoi e realizzarli con l’aiuto degli esperti?

5. Release. (5 min)

Obiettivo: raccogliere ulteriori input grezzi.

Come: L’intervistato ha lo spazio per porre domande, aggiungere note o commenti.

Esempi: - C’è qualcosa di più che vorresti sapere?

- Vorresti aggiungere qualcosa?

- Hai qualche commento che ritieni possa esserci utile?

6. Closure. (1 min)

Obiettivo: conferire senso di completezza all’intervistato e invitarlo a partecipare alla prototipazione del servizio.

Come: L’intervistato viene ringraziato e gli si danno le coordinate temporali per vedere il progetto concreto che nascerà dai risultati di questa ricerca. Inoltre, viene invitato a partecipare all’evento di prototipazione del servizio presso il fablab.

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INTERVIEW ARTISANS Obiettivi

Questa serie di interviste si pone come step iniziale per conoscere meglio desideri e aspirazioni degli artigiani del settore artistico-creativo, la loro opinione sul Made in Italy, sulla tradizione e sulle nuove tecniche di artigianato 2.0 al �ne di validare l’assumption iniziale di progetto.

Scopo di questo step è dunque raccogliere informazioni su:

- Opinione riguardo l’artigianato al giorno d’oggi e il Made in Italy e il suo futuro, per esempio: - Conoscenza e interesse per le tecniche di artigianato digitale 2.0 e dei fablab, per esempio:

Domande

1. Primo approccio. (2 min)

Presentare la ricerca che sto effettuando per la tesi e spiegare come avverrà l’intervista.

Chiedere tutte le autorizzazioni del caso (registrazione audio/video, per esempio). Dare un’indicazione temporale di quanto durerà l’intervista.

2. Introduzione. (5 min)

Obiettivo: rompere il ghiaccio, creare con�denza.

Come: L’intervistato parla di sé e delle proprie abitudini.

Esempi di domande: - Raccontaci di te.

- Qual è la tua routine quotidiana?

- Quali dispositivi possiedi: smartphone, tablet, computer? Quanto usi i tuoi dispositivi?

- L’artigianato artistico-creativo racchiude diversi settori. Qual è il tuo?

- Che prodotti/oggetti offri?

- Hai una bottega/atelier? Chi lavora con te?

- Da quanto tempo sei attivo?

- Come va il tuo business?

3. Contesto. (5 min)

Obiettivo: raccogliere opinioni sull’artigianato e il Made in Italy, oggi e domani

Esempi di domande:

-

Cosa pensi dell’artigianato al giorno d’oggi?

Cosa ne pensi del Made in Italy e di come viene percepito?

Come credi sarà l’artigianato tra 10 anni?

4. Focus. (10 min)

Obiettivo: raccogliere informazioni su:

158

- Interesse nel tramandare sapere e mestiere ai giovani - Importanza dell’artigianato 2.0 e dei fablab

Esempi di domande: - Quanto interesse nutrono i giovani nell’artigianato, secondo te?

- E’ facile trovare degli apprendisti a cui insegnare il mestiere?

- Pensi che, con le loro idee, potrebbero aiutarti a rinnovare i tuoi prodotti?

- Saresti disposto a raccontare il tuo mestiere e tramandare il tuo sapere ai giovani?

- Conosci i fablab e le tecniche di artigianato 2.0? (stampa 3d, taglio laser, fresa cnc, Arduino). Pensi che la tecnologia e il digitale potrebbero essere usate in maniera positiva nel tuo lavoro?

- Ti piacerebbe imparare le tecniche di artigianato digitale e provarle?

4. Proposizioni. (10 min)

Obiettivo: comprendere le caratteristiche e i valori che una possibile soluzione ideale dovrebbe avere.

Come: Attraverso la presentazione di Scenarios, all’intervistato viene chiesto di esprimere le proprie preferenze o suggerimenti.

Esempi di domande:

- Se dovessi creare un prodotto artigianale per il futuro, che caratteristiche dovrebbe avere?

- Se nei fablab esistessero delle lezioni per imparare le tecniche di artigianato 2.0, saresti interessato a partecipare?

- Ti piacerebbe innovare il tuo mestiere, progettando con l’aiuto di ragazzi ed esperti dei fablab?

5. Rilascio. (5 min)

Obiettivo: raccogliere ulteriori input grezzi.

Come: L’intervistato ha lo spazio per porre domande, aggiungere note o commenti.

Esempi: - C’è qualcosa di più che vorresti sapere?

- Vorresti aggiungere qualcosa?

- Hai qualche commento che ritieni possa esserci utile?

6. Chiusura. (1 min)

Obiettivo: conferire senso di completezza all’intervistato e invitarlo a partecipare alla prototipazione del servizio.

Come: L’intervistato viene ringraziato e gli si danno le coordinate temporali per vedere il progetto concreto che nascerà dai risultati di questa ricerca.

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Sources

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New York: Twelve, 2012. Print.

Manzini, Ezio. SLOC, The Emerging Scenario of Small, Local, Open and Connected, in Stephan Harding, ed., Grow Small Think Beautiful Edinburgh, Floris Books, 2011 Menichelli, Massimo. Fab Lab E Maker Laboratori, Progettisti, Comunità E Imprese in Italia. Roma: Quodlibet, 2016 Micelli, Stefano. Fare è Innovare:. Bologna: Il Mulino, 2016 Stickdorn, Marc, and Jakob Schneider. This Is Service Design Thinking: Basics - Tools - Cases. Amsterdam: BIS, 2015.

Robinson, Ken, and Lou Aronica. Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That's Transforming Education. NY, NY: Penguin, 2016 Ryan, Richard M., and Edward L. Deci. Self-determination Theory: Basic Psychological Needs in Motivation, Development, and Wellness. New York: Guilford, 2017

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"Arduino (hardware)." Web. Wikipedia.

Wikimedia Foundation.

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Educycle. "Environmental Learning Of The Future". Pre-order The Future.

Neste, 2016. Web. <https://www.neste.com/preorderthefuture>.

Education Archives. ThisisFINLAND. 2016. Web. <https://finland.fi/tag/education/>.

The Fab Lab Network. "FabLabs". 2011. Web. <https://www.fablabs.io/>.

"Gen Z Research Findings." GEN HQ. 2015. Web. <http://genhq.com/igen/>.

Lab, MIT Media. "Learning Creative Learning." Web. <http://learn.media.mit.edu/lcl/>.

Khan Academy. 2012. Web. <https://www.khanacademy.org/about>.

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"Happy Birthday, Gen Z: Celebrating with 16-year-olds around the World."

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IMAGES INDEX pag 13 pag 17 pag 21 pag 26 pag 27 pag 27 pag 31 pag 32 pag 33 pag 34 pag 39 pag 42-43 pag 44-45 pag 51 pag 53 pag 59 pag 59 pag 63 pag 67 pag 69 pag 75 pag 83 pag 83 pag 86-88 pag 91 pag 100 pag 102

High Schooler (http://www.pexels.com) Kids playing at H-Campus (http://www.h-campus.com) Video frame Boyinaband (http://www.youtube.com) School in the cloud (https://www.theschoolinthecloud.org) Salman Khan (http://www.khanacademy.com) - left Finnish school (http://www.finland.fi) - right Opendot Lab view (http://www.opendotlab.it) Neil Gershenfeld (http://www.domusweb.it) Rep Rap (http://www.bitfluser.com) Fablab view (http://www.fabfoundation.org) Graph 1: not only fablabs (http://www.makeinitaly.foundation) Opendot Lab projects (http://www.flickr.com) Opendot Lab events (http://www.flickr.com) Teenager (http://www.pexels.com) Graph 0: Timeline of generations' main inventions & events Online shopping (http://www.pexels.com) - top Video frame Bethany Mota (http://www.youtube.com) Graph 2: map of the interviewees Woodworking (http://www.pexels.com) Traditional Azerbaijan silk (http://www.chakakhan.com) Shoemaking (http://www.pexels.com) Rude (http://www.instagram.com) - top Mow Maison (http://www.facebook.com) - bottom Cut outs (http://skalgubbar.se/) Lab Craft Exhibition (http://www.designmilk.com) Graph 3: Service intro Graph 4: Stakeholders map

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Graph 5: Personas Graph 6: Customer journey Graph 7: Artisans' offering map Graph 8: Teenagers' offering map Graph 9: Fablabs' offering map Graph 10: Workshop execution Graph 11: Touchpoints Graph 12: Business Model Canvas Laboratory (http://www.pexels.com) XYZ LAB prototyping (All photos by Chiara Riva)

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acknowledgments Genova's harbor at sunset.

View from my bedroom's window (2017)

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Come un avventuriero che fa ritorno in porto, mi appresto a terminare questa impresa là, dove il mio viaggio è cominciato. È stato un viaggio lungo e tortuoso, che ho dovuto compiere in solitaria, perché era arrivato il momento di mettermi alla prova e di dimostrare il mio valore.

Non è stato di certo "una brezza". Ci sono stati momenti insidiosi; tempeste marine dove ho rischiato, più volte, di affondare e momenti di secca, senza vento, in cui sono rimasta bloccata senza riuscire a continuare. La mia forza di volontà e la mia lucidità sono state messe spesso a dura prova, ma infine eccomi qua. Come ci sono arrivata, vi starete chiedendo? Un bravo avventuriero sa che per avere successo, bisogna sempre osservare, lasciarsi guidare e ispirare dalle piccole forze che lo circondano. Anche se apparentemente si è soli nel proprio viaggio, non si è mai davvero soli.

Io ho avuto la fortuna di essere stata sospinta da un vento gentile, la mia relatrice. Di essere sempre stata illuminata dalla più luminosa delle stelle, quella Polare, la mia famiglia. Di essere stata rallegrata dalla schiuma delle onde, la risata cristallina di mio fratello. Di essere stata travolta da improvvise e fresche raffiche che mi davano la grinta di continuare, i miei amici. Di aver trovato, lungo il mio cammino, degli alleati fantastici che hanno creduto in me e mi hanno lasciata libera di timonare, Federico, Martina, Chiara e Alessandro e OpenDot. E nei momenti in cui ero completamente persa, di avere avuto, sempre con me, una bussola che mi suggerisse la giusta via, Gianluca.

Riattraccare, dopo 6 anni, nel mio porto sembra quasi incredibile. Sono contenta del mio viaggio, dei volti che ho conosciuto, delle sfide che ho superato e dei momenti di gioia che ho provato. Ma il richiamo del mare è, e sarà sempre, troppo forte. Già non faccio che pensare al momento in cui spiegherò di nuovo le vele.

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