The neighbourhood home

An environments system from sharing to caring

Abstract

Cities are changing. Wars, climate change and idealised better life opportunities open the doors for massive migration. Unfortunately, however, the new arrivals with their different backgrounds and lifestyles are often perceived as a threat to pre-existing culture and home. But what is ‘home’? From the results of ethnographic research and an online open survey conducted for a master’s degree final thesis in systemic design, ‘home’ is the neighbourhood that involves all the values and behaviours that everyone needs in their everyday life. This research led to the academic concept of the ‘neighbourhood home’, a system of new environments for future inclusive cities that aims to make all the inhabitants ‘feel at home’. This notion is based on the idea that inclusion is developed through empathy, creativity and know-how, discovering the cultural rituals and myths of different peoples. In every structure (like Homes of Music, Language, Clothing, etc.), new and old citizens can rediscover their common roots, which have always been, today as yesterday, interconnected through a multiplicity of cultural handicraft expressions. The pilot project designed is ‘MeetEat’, a home that promotes informal cooking classes and social eating and is ingredient-driven (chosen on a seasonal basis) and organised by volunteer citizens in the neighbourhood. With the neighbourhood home’ thesis, we aim to propose a system that can turn diffidence into curiosity, conflicts into sharing and exclusion into caring.