PORTFOLIO SHARON AMBROSIO November 2016 for further info visit my personal website and urbanita website
CONTENT PAGE 1. DPU SUMMERLAB 2016 - PALERMO EMERGENT MIGRANT TOPOGRAPHIES 2. CITY WIDE UPGRADING STRATEGY FOR TRANSFORMATION IN A TIME OF TRANSITION IN CAMBODIA 3. URBAN PARTICIPATORY INTERVENTION: SANT’ANNA JAMMING. 4. SERVICE DESIGN FOR CITIES: TORPIGNATTARA DESIGN LAB 5. UrbanCrowdRaising 6. LIKE A LOCAL app 7- SERVICE DESIGN AND URBAN POLICIES. HOW NEW MODELS AND TOOLS FOR DESIGNING ARE INFLUENCING THE DEBATE ABOUT THE FUTURE OF CITIES. 8. THE BORDER: MULTIFORM MANIFESTATION AND MULTIDIMENSIONAL WORK. UNDERSTANDING THE PORTEADORAS THROUGH THE SPATIALITIES OF CEUTA AND MELILLA.
A project developed by
1. DPU SUMMERLAB 2016 - PALERMO EMERGENT MIGRANT TOPOGRAPHIES 5th - 10th September 2016
Sharon Ambrosio & Deborah Navarra
a workshop which offer a vital testing ground for the proposal of contextual, hybridised spatial interventions deeply embedded into socio-political agendas.
In collaboration with The Bartlett UCL London University of Palermo Municipality of Palermo PUSH Design Lab Palermo, 2016
As urbanita, I proposed, organized and facilitate the workshop run with the sponsorship of the Bartlett - UCLin collaboration with different partners located in Palermo, the chief town city in Sicily island. Participants worked along with urbanita, Push and the University of Palermo and various stakeholders mapping out the actual migrant urbanisms in the historical centre of Palermo while unveiling cases of emergent people-led activities – and questioning to what extent these manage to involve and empower newcomers. By looking at the political, social and economic contexts in which these initiatives unfold, as well as analyzing their impact at the urban scale, participants was asked to highlight new tendencies of urban development, their actors and agency. At the same time, engaging with authorities and investors, the DPU summerLab sought to make the current projects influential at various levels and scales, and to inspire a new enabling framework for similar experiments to unfold. The project will lead to the realization of a report collecting all the data and the projects, and probably the workshop will be performed again in 2017.
for further info visit: here
A project developed during the Msc Building and Urban Design in Development Development Planning Unit University College of London
2. CITY WIDE UPGRADING STRATEGIES FOR TRANSFORMATION IN A TIME OF TRANSITION IN CAMBODIA
In collaboration with United Nations, Phnom Penh Municipality, Community Architects Network
Researching collaborative people-centered partnerships for slum upgrading in Cambodia.
Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 2015 I took part of the project as part of the MSc BUDD at the Bartlett - UCL. I played the role of researcher, both desk and on the ground research. In fact, the aim was to envisioning strategic guidelines for Phnom Penh future development. The project was developed throughout three phases. 1st: The London based research - was fundamental to understand the constant and rapid evolution of the Cambodian contested urban and social conditions in order to identify specific research questions and goals to carry out during the field work. 2: The Cambodia based Field work - was the space to research and to design innovative strategies that could contribute to the work of the local stakeholders and citizens. The sites of investigation were related to the communities that have entered a process of regularizing their tenure, upgrading their housing and infrastructure, widening the spectrum of onsite economic activities. 3: The post field trip report - of the tangible and intangible “spaces of opportunities” and potential strategies towards a socially and inclusive socio-spatial transformations, involving the various national and international stakeholders.
“You don’t walk into the community, let the community walk into you” - Chawanad Luansang, May 2015, Phnom Penh
for further info visit: here and here
1
A project developed by
3. URBAN PARTICIPATORY INTERVENTION: SANT’ANNA JAMMING
Sharon Ambrosio & Deborah Navarra
a co-design project aimed to create collaborative networks to find alternative, low-cost and creative solutions for urban underused areas - sant’anna square in Palermo
In collaboration with Municipality of Palermo PUSH Design Lab Palermo, Italy, 2016
I took part of the initiative as ideator, organizer and mentor as urbanita co-funder, after the commission by the municipality of Palermo. The project was developed throughout three phases to re-activate an urban space, through participatory design processes. 1st. We have organized 48hours workshops involving citizens and local students to design strategies and solutions to reactivate the Sant’Anna ancient square. 2nd. The ideas developed during the design phase was uploaded on a dedicated web platform to be then voted by the local community and citizens. The technology here helped us to create a new experience for the city itself, opening up a decisional process towards a common final goal. 3dt. The most voted solutions has been presented to the Municipalities to be then financed and realized. Currently the project has been selected for for the ADI index, the publication of the Italian Association for Industrial Design that every year collects the best of Italian design put into production, selected by ADI design permanent observatory.
AWARD SELECTED FOR “BEST ITALIAN DESIGN: DESIGN FOR SOCIAL” ADI DESIGN INDEX 2016 by italian association for industrial design http://www.adidesignindex.com/en
for further info visit: here and here
A project developed by
4. SERVICE DESIGN FOR CITIES TORPIGNATTARA DESIGN LAB Experimenting the design thinking and service design approach to develop new strategies for the regeneration of the urban periphery of Rome.
\ Sharon Ambrosio & Deborah Navarra In collaboration with Sapienza University Torpignattara local District Committee Rome, Italy, 2016
I took part of the initiative as ideator, organizer and mentor as funder of urbanita. The project was developed throughout three phases to re-activate an urban space, throught participatory design processes. 1. The Design Lab for the students: “Torpigna Design Lab� was a three days of an experimental co-design workshop where the service design approach meets the urban design to come up with innovative tools, visions and solutions. The students dealt with locals and citizens to discover the district. 2. Strategy formulation with the students - to translate these insights into a useful and innovative service / strategy proposition, experiencing participatory design processes with the main stakeholders getting social touchpoints. 3. The project by urbanita - the set up strategies and themes of interested were the starting point to formulate a project proposal by urbanita and the local district committee to act on the urban area involved.
for further info visit: here and here
we listen NEEDS we touch PROCESSES we see RESULTS DESIGN EXPERIENCE
5. UrbanCrowdRaising
A project developed by
first Urban crowdfunding platform dedicated to the cities and their inhabitants
Sharon Ambrosio & Deborah Navarra Italy, 2016
AWARD INNOVATIVE WOMEN 2015 BY LAZIO REGION
Urban Crowd Raising is a digital vertical crowdfunding platform dedicated to the urban realities and cities developed in 2015 by me as urbanita. I had the role of ideator, developer and grant funding. The aim of the project was to open up an alternative way of financial models to support projects and initiatives related the urban environment and the social regeneration within the cities. UrbanCrowdRaising thus allows the funds raising to implement and realize projects around the city meanwhile fostering a network among people sharing same interests around the social and urban environment. Generally, UCR aims to encourage a new civic responsibility within citizens, aiming to innovate and to change the citizens’ perspective about their role within the urban realm. The project has been awarded through the call “Innovative Women 2015” by Lazio Regional funds.
taking care of your built and social environment
URBAN
creating
CROWD
to
a
foster
for further info visit: here
new
network
social
and
in
our
community
financial
funds
RAISING
A project developed by Sharon Ambrosio, Annie Mitchell, Valentina Volpi, Giuseppe Spataro
6. LIKE A LOCAL app app developed to promote a new way of living within the city overcoming social barriers and preconceptions.
Like a local project was developed during the Service Design Intensive school “City as a service” that I attended sponsored by the scholarship “AAA architects seeking” offered by Federabitazione. My role in this project was to be part of this multidisciplinary team, throughout different phases: ideation, prototyping, evaluation, implementation. The app aims to satisfy a need which is usually felt by the new comers into a new city. In fact, Like a Local meant to be the solution to improve the social integration and human connections between local communities and newcomers, being a new tool to live the city with a different attitude. Thus, Like a Local supports the concept of a new urban living as peculiarity of the new globalized cities and world. The project was the winner of the school getting the offer to develop the project further through a support program offered in a coworking CoopUP space by Confcooperative.
City as a service - Intensive School 2015
AWARD SCHOOLARSHIP “AAA ARCHITECTS SEEKING” - FEDERABITAZIONE, ITALY, 2015 CONFCOOPERATIVE AND COOPUP AWARD - CONFCOOPERATIVE, ITALY, 2015
likealocal C R E AT I N G CONNECTIONS. IMPROVING COMMUNITIES.
for further info visit: here
An article by
7.SERVICE DESIGN AND URBAN POLICIES. HOW NEW MODELS AND TOOLS FOR DESIGNING ARE INFLUENCING THE DEBATE ABOUT THE FUTURE OF CITIES.
Sharon Ambrosio & Deborah Navarra In collaboration with PUSH Design Lab Published in Urbanistica Tre, #08 Urban Consciousness 2016
Abstract
The urban environment has been facing multiple challenges, considering the social, political and economical forces which act within this realm. Indeed, various stakeholders have been debating over problems spread within the cities. The international community is aware about the needs to rethink the urbanization model. Indeed, there is a high number of examples which show the necessity to bring new approaches, methods and processes in the cities’ strategies and policies. In this paper we will briefly show experimentations, methods and solutions deployed according to the different realities. The digital revolution has a role in facing these challenges, since it is possible to exploit its new means in order to enhance the possible interaction between the urban actors. The service design method becomes fundamental for a different understanding of the urban reality where the technological aspect is intertwined with the social innovation aspect. This possibility gives the chance to investigate an innovative frontier allowing a new engagement and dialogue between public administrations and civil society. This leads to a different collaborative system among the
various urban stakeholders, which gives to citizens the opportunity to become active participants in the city’s transformations and planning. UN-HABITAT is dealing with these digital challenges and is going to address them in the international conference Habitat III, which will be held in Quito in 2016. Various Urban Thinkers Campus (UTC) have been set up across the world as occasion to debate over the multiple experiences which will be enriching contribution during Habitat III. In this framework, the mission of the UTC in Palermo was to better understand the capacity of the combination of ICT and Service Design to reimagine cities, especially in less globalized contexts, debating the role of the key actors involved: urban communities, researchers, private businesses and local authorities.
for further info visit: here
8. THE BORDER: MULTIFORM MANIFESTATION AND MULTIDIMENSIONAL WORK. UNDERSTANDING THE PORTEADORAS THROUGH THE SPATIALITIES OF CEUTA AND MELILLA. Abstract The dissertation aims to unfold the concept of the border and its mechanism of working having socio spatial reflections. The research will seek to answer the following questions: how does the border work and how it manifest itself in a multiform dimension? Which are the narratives that perform the border itself and, in turn, which performances are generated by the border? The answer will be researched throughout the theoretical literature and the spatialities of Ceuta and Melilla, two Spanish cities located in North Africa alongside Morocco. Particularly, the focus will be around the everyday of the porteadoras, practice generated across the border between Spanish and Moroccan land. The dialectic of the national border will be navigated through both its poietic and praxis, being physically located at the edge of certain territories, sovereignties, economies, politics and societies. Accordingly, the border will be deployed as polysemic dispositif having multiform and multi-scalar manifestations, permeating the everyday at the human body scale. The dissertation will be structured in three main sections, framing the border as a complex concept investigated from various scales. The matrix below is a navigator to be oriented throughout the research according to the approach of each chapter. The matrix also includes the diagrams generated in each chapter to visually synthesize the macro-micro scale agents within the dynamics of the border at work.This tripartition allows a heuristic understanding of the diverse conceptualizations of the border and its work. Specifically, I will unfold what the border does and how it works on the territory as exceptional physical space but even the reflections it induces as dispositif that is constantly performed. Eventually, each chapter will be extended thanks to the argumentation of the Spanish-Moroccan border. Indeed, the first chapter will depict the border as an entity transposed by the sovereign state to order and separate the territory. Thus, it will be described as a tridimensional physical territory, exceptional symbol of power able to generate
A Dissertation project developed by Sharon Ambrosio The Bartlett Development Planning Unit University College London 2015 other exceptional spaces. This entry point will be utilized to investigate the spatialities and the border in Ceuta and Melilla. The second chapter will continue from the exceptional space of the border, conceiving it as a dispositif able to control and act bio-politically. Indeed, the border will be framed as a physical device with political and social effects at the scale of the borderlands. These dynamics will be further explored through the crossing bordering practices, referring to the narratives triggered by the Spanish- Moroccan border and its presence. Consequently, the third chapter will have more emphasis on the concept of performance, conceiving it as a result of the work across the border. The performance is the generation of the border at work, but even the generator of the border itself. Thus, this twofold interpretations will be applied to the experience of the porteadoras, crossing border traders in Ceuta and Melilla. So, the porteadoras performance will be explored to further navigate the everyday life praxis as poietic of the border yet even as performative agents constructing the border itself.
thanks for your attention. SHARON AMBROSIO