Abitare il Paese – La cultura della domanda

Social marginalisation is one of the effects of urban inequality at a global level: not being considered as citizens fuels exclusion and discrimination. Thus, the need to start a research where children are the first protagonists since they are citizens of the present, users and authors of experiences in the city. Their involvement is not during the design phase, but in participating in the search for the meaning of the city, place of relationships and meetings, of daily life and feelings.

Walking, observing, and traversing neighborhoods and urban spaces becomes a practice of knowledge and relational engagement. From listening to experiences and perspectives emerge narratives, maps, works, and installations that convey a plurality of viewpoints on places, making often invisible meanings visible and opening up new possibilities for imagining and transforming territories.

The questions that emerged during the early research pathways have, year after year, fueled the development and consolidation of Abitare il Paese – La cultura della domanda. The project, promoted by the National Council of Architects, Planners, Landscape Architects, and Conservators in collaboration with the Fondazione Reggio Children – Centro Loris Malaguzzi ETS, has progressively expanded its network, strengthening the dialogue between schools, the profession, and local territories. 

The strength of the project lies in listening to children and young people, the true protagonists of the processes of understanding and transforming places. “Bottom-up participation” is at the heart of Abitare il Paese, as it gives voice to those who live daily in these places and understand their potential and vulnerabilities. It is from this listening that the territorial co-design processes initiated by the project take shape.

Since 2018, Abitare il Paese has built a national network of educational experiences and territorial co-design initiatives:

The pathways have developed in numerous urban and territorial contexts on a national scale, involving cities and areas including Rome, Milan, Turin, Bologna, Reggio Emilia, Genoa, Florence, Venice, Padua, Verona, Modena, Parma, Ravenna, Forlì-Cesena, Rimini, Ancona, Pesaro, Perugia, Terni, Bari, Taranto, Naples, Benevento, Reggio Calabria, Catanzaro, Messina, Catania, Syracuse, Trapani, Savona, Siena, Treviso, Trieste, as well as many other small and medium-sized centers. This widespread network has allowed for the experimentation, in diverse contexts, of listening, participation, and co-design practices capable of fostering educating communities and processes of shared urban regeneration.

Abitare il Paese is conceived as a territorial co-design initiative capable of fostering social and territorial cohesion. The project triggers processes of social and urban regeneration at multiple scales: from the classroom to school outdoor spaces, and extending to neighborhoods and broader urban contexts.

Launched in 2018, the project continues to strengthen the network between schools, cities, and territories, generating new practices of urban and social regeneration and promoting a culture of quality in the built environment.

The Manifesto: A Tool for Caring for Places

On December 4, 2025, the Manifesto of Abitare il Paese – La cultura della domanda was presented in Rome as a shared outcome and public relaunch of a national pathway of research, education, and territorial co-design. 

Addressed to architects, school leaders, teachers, institutions, and educating communities, the Manifesto calls for collective responsibility in caring for places as common goods, reaffirming the value of listening, participation, and care as the foundations of quality design. It is intended as an open tool to support schools and territories in building more inclusive, proximate, and sustainable cities, recognizing children and young people as competent citizens and protagonists in processes of transformation.

The eighth edition, “School Beyond School for a City of Proximity”, starts precisely from this point: the relationship between places, people, and possibilities. 

For the Manifesto, documentation, and images of the Abitare il Paese projects: click here.