LUOGHI COMUNI
How can we shape public spaces?
IMIAD International Workshop 2025 in Piacenza (Italy) | 30 August - 7 September 2025
SUPSI Mendrisio - HFT Stuttgart - ITU Istanbul
hosted by the Politecnico di Milano, Sede di Piacenza
What does it mean, today, to inhabit a public space?
Where do we begin, when we wish to act upon a place that belongs to everyone-or perhaps to no one?
The international IMIAD workshop "Common Grounds - Public Space" stems from these very questions. And it begins in Piacenza, a city crossed by the Via Francigena, one of Europe's great pilgrimage routes. An ancient road, travelled over the centuries by pilgrims and wanderers, yet also inhabited daily by those who live along its course. A path that is both transit and anchor: a reference point for those on the move and those who remain. Some pass by only once. Others watch the world unfold from that same road each day-seated on a bench, waiting, or simply observing. Common grounds are everywhere: squares too small to be called squares, benches long abandoned, pavements stretching awkwardly between private walls and overgrown verges. They are thresholds of houses facing the street, steps, corners where greetings happen, where people stop to chat-or just to look. These are not spaces anyone truly owns, yet they concern us all. It is precisely in these in-between places that we focus our attention: spaces often invisible-too ordinary to be seen as "public", too small to be recognised as "places". Spaces tht are experienced differently by different people: those who live there, those who pass through, those who notice, those who don't. And yet, something happens there: a gesture, an exchange, a routine. This is where the real city takes shape.
The title Luoghi comuni, in English Common places and plays on ambiguity: on the one hand, the cliché-an empty phrase repeated without thought; on the other, the literal meaning-a space shared, where lives intersect. Our aim is to turn the cliché on its head, transforming it from stereotype into a living opportunity for action. The workshop invites us to reflect on the meaning of public space today, starting from a physical and symbolic element: the boundary. The ancient walls of Piacenza-some still visible, others absorbed by the city's fabric-bear witness to a limit that once separated city and countryside, inside and outside, community and world.
But what does it mean today to inhabit a boundary? Where does the private end and the public begin? Where does the threshold of a home turn into the space of the square?
Public space is never neutral-it's a weave of times, presences, uses, and gazes. Recognising this complexity is the first step towards meaningful action.
Throughout the IMIAD workshop, we will work together by starting with a simple yet profound practice: walking, observing, listening, and doing. Surveying, engaging with inhabitants, drawing, asking questions, collecting fragments. Only in this way can we imagine interventions that are respectful and rooted-able to converse with the past and open towards the future. Boundaries-be they walls, fences, or thresholds-are not only limits. They can become openings, invitations, chances for connection. A step can become a seat. A patch of shade, a place to gather. A neglected corner, a site of exchange. Public space, after all, is never a fixed given. It is a process, a fragile balance, a moving condition. In a city like Piacenza-layered with history, slow transitions, and sedimented memories-common grounds reveal the complexity of contemporary inhabiting. And they remind us that before form, what matters is relation. And that design, at times, is a minimal act of care: restoring attention, listening, presence. Common places is not just a title-it is an invitation to look at the city with different eyes. Not starting from the big voids to be filled, but from the small
densities to be rediscovered.
A particularly heartfelt thank-you goes to Prof. Pietro Vitali, Giulia Brugnoli, Ludovica Franchetti Pardo, as well as Giuliano Gavin and Giulio Zaccarelli for organising the workshop.
Also we would like to thank Politecnico di Milano for hosting us in its spaces and providing valuable logistical support, sharing information, plans, and organisational assistance. In particular, the book "Along the traces of the Via Francigena: points of view on the public space", edited by Guya Bertelli, Hervé Dubois, Pasquale Mei, and Michele Roda from the Politecnico di Milano, has been fundamental to the organisation of this workshop.
Tutors:
Prof. Pietro Vitali, Prof. Giulio Zaccarelli, Giuliano Gavin, Giulia Brugnoli, Ludovica Franchetti Pardo (SUPSI)
Assoc. Prof. Orkan Güzelci and Aycan Kizilkaya, PhD. (ITU)
Prof. Andreas Kretzer and Melissa Acker (HFT)
