T-Factor

As years or even decades can pass between the approval of a regeneration plan and its actual implementation, more and more unused or degraded buildings, plots and spaces within urban areas are being transformed into sites for temporary co-creative experimentation through a multitude of innovative cultural, social and entrepreneurial activities.

The aim of the T-Factor project is to create an international network of exchange and collaboration to demonstrate the transformative potential of temporary uses as critical assets for the city to establish more inclusive and sustainable regeneration processes.

25 European partners and 6 pilot cities - Milan, London, Bilbao, Amsterdam, Kaunas, Lisbon - worked to design, prototype and test different types of temporary initiatives through the involvement of local communities.

The city of Milan hosted one of the 6 pilot projects at MIND - Milano Innovation District - formerly Expo2015 area - as it is the subject of a large regeneration project scheduled to end in 2031. The Milan pilot project focused on the realisation of temporary initiatives with the aim of:

• MISSION 1: create a dynamic community open to the exchange of ideas, projects and scientific knowledge;
• MISSION 2: promote conscious and sustainable lifestyles through the knowledge and protection of urban biodiversity;
• MISSION 3: build a shared identity for the district and foster accessibility through osmosis between internal and local realities.

Among these initiatives, Polifactory specifically addressed mission 2 and 3, through the design of Herbula Wild Garden (in collaboration with LAND) and the MIND Community House (in collaboration with Plusvalue).

Herbula wild garden
Herbula consists of a temporary herbal garden dedicated to the cultivation of indigenous herbs and flowers, fostering local biodiversity and the smart use of its products. The garden endorses the function of educating surrounding communities to the benefits of urban biodiversity, preserving the natural environment, as well as providing a space for learning and experimentation for students of different ages.

Herbula is composed of three different areas:

• an area with planters, dedicated to the cultivation of aromatic and officinal herbs available to those interested in using them for culinary or herbal preparations;
• an experimental area, dedicated to educational research and botanical or agronomic experiments, especially devoted to the cultivation of edible native species that can be processed and transformed into everyday products;
• a flowery meadow, dedicated to spontaneous vegetation capable of attracting pollinators and other useful insects.

The differentiation between these areas allowed the development and realization of different kinds of initiatives around the topic of urban biodiversity.

BiodiverCity@MIND for Schools is an environmental education initiative for local primary and secondary school students, conducted in cooperation with landscape architects and a local association of natural science experts. The initiative involved the students in a series of activities, conducted both in the classroom and at the MIND flowery meadow, aimed at learning about and getting in touch with local biodiversity. Specifically, during the field activities, the students were accompanied by natural science experts on a biodiversity tour and were involved in a workshop led by the Polifactory team. The workshop consisted of assembling specially designed bug hotels produced by the design team through digital fabrication technologies and composing seed bombs to sow the flower meadow itself. BiodiverCity@MIND for Schools was co-designed and realised by the local T-Factor coalition (Polifactory, LAND and PlusValue) in collaboration with Fondazione Triulza and natural science and scientific dissemination experts of a local non-profit, Progetto Natura Onlus.

Herbula Lab is a workshop aimed at designing and setting up Herbula's experimental area, which involved the students of an agricultural high school in Milan. In agreement with the school's teachers, it was decided to create a resilient wild garden, composed of edible native plants, suitable for transformation into everyday products, for gastronomic, cosmetic or herbal purposes.
Once the herbs had been selected and planted in the dedicated area, a practical activity was organised in the school to show the students how to transform the plants through processes such as distillation, fermentation and dehydration, experiencing at first hand the tools and technologies required for this purpose.
The work done at MIND has finally culminated in an open-air exhibition, called Civic Nature, and an opening event during the MIND Innovation Week that hosted the speech of 2 experts from Studio Terra Viva, in charge of biodiversity mapping at MIND, and that involved more than 50 participants coming from the real estate sector, academia, and public administration.

Civic Nature Exhibition an experiential path through the different areas of Herbula, where visitors could find various information panels, developed by the Polifactory team, aimed at spreading awareness about urban biodiversity and how to interact with it. These panels provided information on the herbs and wildflowers in the garden and were linked via QR codes to further digital content. In addition, throughout the path, people were invited to action by contributing to biodiversity mapping on the iNaturalist app, following the simple instructions provided on the panels.

Biodiversity Ambassador Programme, an activity dedicated to MIND companies to get them to start considering biodiversity in their sustainability budgets and to include biodiversity-related activities in their welfare system. Participation in the programme included an open call for company employees to carry out simple biodiversity mapping activities to survey the fauna present in the district.

Bioscopium, an innovative wildlife biodiversity mapping system aimed at supporting developers, politicians and other decision-makers involved in regeneration projects in learning about, preserving and implementing wildlife in the regeneration area. The system includes the use of sensor stations, designed by the Polifactory team in a modular manner to be configured and customised on a case-by-case basis according to the biotope to be monitored and to overcome the current limitations of monitoring by human observation or the use of phototraps.

Mind Community House
The Community House is conceived as a symbolic space of collaboration between MIND actors and the non-profit realities of the territory, in which to propose and realise joint initiatives in a spirit of exchange and cross-pollination to the benefit of both the district's internal and external ecosystem.
Its objective is the gradual overcoming of barriers and perceived differences between the internal and external/profit and non-profit worlds, in a spirit of mutual and real collaboration.

The Polifactory team supported the co-creation process of Futurabili, the first initiative of the MIND Community House. Futurabili is a career orientation path to the professions of the future aimed at all young people who reside or live in one of the municipalities in the north-west Milan area or in the city of Milan. The path offers a series of training experiences on topics such as artificial intelligence, Industry 4.0, rapid prototyping and advanced materials, led by MIND companies.
The success of the first experimentation allowed the initiative to be replicated for a second edition in collaboration with other third sector organizations in neighbouring municipalities and to transform the path into a consolidated format.

For more information:Futurabili Community House

In addition to the abovementioned activities, the Polifactory team was part of the T-Agency, a design-driven working group that operates in support of the six pilot regeneration initiatives - and their Local Coalitions. The working method of the Agency with the pilots was characterized by the so-called ‘design stations’, i.e. intermediate milestones that punctuated the main stages of the T-Factor’s city-making method.
Each station focused on a specific aspect of the city-making method, as follows:
1) Exploring and inquiring station (M6-M11): Led by UAL, this station aimed at the exploration of meanings, perceptions and values that diverse groups attributed to the targeted areas and regeneration masterplans.
2) Scoping and ideation station (M12-M16): Led by AAU, and building on the previous one, this station focused on the articulation of the insights into challenges and opportunities for local innovation missions that are in turn relevant to SDGs.
3) Prototyping station (M15-20): Led by Polifactory-Polimi, this station guided the refinement of the Pilots’ Activity Plans through, as well as the actual implementation of prototyping activities at pilot sites.
4) Iteration via Action Research (M20-42): Led by LAMA, this station aimed at fostering the iterative development of activities and uses, and adaptation around the fruitions and interactions captured via action research.
The Prototyping station guided by Polifactory focused on developing a methodology for the prototyping and testing of meanwhile uses within the context of urban regeneration plans and processes. In particular, it envisaged a design process that could support local coalitions involved in urban regeneration in:
• designing into detail the meanwhile uses they want to implement;
• defining a mission-oriented prototyping strategy according to own resources and contextual conditions;
• executing and testing prototype through qualitative evaluation methods;
• running iterations based on evaluation results.
The Prototyping Station included 2 Prototyping Cycles, each one dedicated to prototyping some activities of the Pilots’ Activity Plans, according to a plan that pilots defined during the a series of workshops ideated and facilitated by the Polifactory team.
The methodology developed and tested during the project led to the development of guidelines and tools included in the T-Factor Toolbox (https://hub.t-factor.eu/prototype-test/), and thus available to the wider audience.

Consortium Partners:
Anci Toscana
Lama Development And Cooperation Agency Societa Cooperativa
Plusvalue
The University Of The Arts London
Politecnico Di Milano
Asociación Cultural Open Your Kolektiboa
Land Italia Srl
Fundacion Tecnalia Research & Innovation
Aalborg Universitet
Futuribile
Friche La Belle De Mai
Stichting Waag Society
Kauno Technologijos Universitetas
Universidade Nova De Lisboa
Fundacio Per A La Universitat Oberta De Catalunya
Entidad Publica Empresarial Local Bilbao Ekintza
Kauno Miesto Savivaldybes Administracija
Technische Universitat Dortmund
Stadt Dortmund
Kpmg
Lodz-Miasto Na Prawach Powiatu
London Borough Of Camden
Kaunas 2022
Università Degli Studi Di Milano
Tongji University

Milan Pilot Local Coalition Partners:
Plusvalue
Politecnico Di Milano - Department Of Design - Polifactory
Land Italia Srl
Università Degli Studi Di Milano _ Physics Department