Nomad MAnagement of Urban Development: The value of temporary communities. The case of ART33 in San Giovanni a Teduccio, Naples

Abstract

The research NOMAD, Nomad MAnagement of Urban Development - The value of temporary communities, is exploring the impacts of temporary use on urban areas and the role of urban nomads in the development process. Currently, there is a lack of affordable space for housing and workplaces, while cities have many vacant spaces, representing a significant potential for new activities. In Europe, more than 38 million dwellings were unoccupied (permanent or seasonal, or secondary residences). From the 1970s to now, the squat, anti-squat and co-management forms of housing occupation movements represented a strong space demand. Young people, activists or creatives, claimed space and experimented with co-managed forms of living. These temporary communities are urban nomads, voluntarily or not. They temporary inhabit spaces for a short time span, usually for low rents with different forms of public or private agreement, and generate value through active use and management of space, but eventually have to move if higher rents can be achieved or the space will be redeveloped. The reuse of abandoned spaces improves urban sustainability and contributes to activating the principles of the circular city, by recovering discarded real estate. In fact, buildings and areas, waiting for new permanent functions, are temporarily wasted. What happens in the meantime (months or years) in these spaces has a strong impact on urban dynamics and values. In virtuous cases, nomadic communities generate vibrant neighbourhoods, attracting new activity, improving street safety, generating intangible urban values, and boosting real estate markets, eventually leading to gentrification. As a consequence of increased real estate values and gentrification, the temporary users who co-produced the increased values, have to move again and start again in often precarious conditions. This is the paradox that this research will focus on. The paper focuses on the case of Art33 - Cultural Hub. In 2015, the “Gioco Immagine e Parole” association won the call for proposals "Giovani per la valorizzazione dei beni", with the project "GiovaniArtistixGiovaniUtenti", co-financed by the Municipality of Naples and the Presidency of the Italian Council of Ministers, Department of Youth and National Civil Service. ART33 is the first cultural hub in Campania Region, created to support art and culture in the eastern area of Naples - San Giovanni a Teduccio neighbourhood, through the regeneration and redevelopment of some spaces of a former school building part of the 47° Circolo didattico Enrico Sarria de Robbio. The centre activates processes of social inclusion, urban regeneration and cultural innovation on a local scale, hosting various temporary communities and cultural projects. This paper aims to reveal which values have been generated by ART33 in the San Giovanni neighbourhood through the practice of the school adaptive reuse. The paper is part of a research that aims to understand how complex values are created in urban redevelopment, and to what extent temporary reuse contributes to accelerate value development.