MinD - Mad in Design

The annual MinD workshop experiments with collaborative and participatory approaches through co-design activities. The projects that act on two aspects of design: on the one hand the project as a tool for transformation in an improving context, on the other the creative process as a system of relationships that translate into practices of social inclusion and rehabilitation. Through the direct participation of students and people followed by mental health services, MinD is the place to experiment and verify the clinical results of a design culture understood as a creative process. The participatory dimension of design makes it an effective tool for social inclusion, a generator of relationships aimed at enhancing the other, and a valuable ally of the rehabilitation strategy.
Since 2014, MinD has been holding its main workshop in Turin. Every year they are welcome:
- around 50 students from all over Italy, with a background in design-related fields and in human and social sciences (Design, Architecture, Psychology, Psychiatric Rehabilitation Techniques, Anthropology, Educational Sciences);
- people supported by Mental Health Services;
- healthcare professional;
- designers.

Aria - Architettura e Riabilitazione was born from the need to rethink the spaces of mental fragility (psychiatric residences, hospitals, semi-residential structure of mental health services), mostly conceived as places of marginality and isolation rather than spaces of rehabilitation and inclusion.
The project goals are:
- Humanization of mental health care settings;
- Intersectoral synergies between project culture and health (project scalability and new market opportunities);
- Networking, knowledge transfer;
- Bringing about cultural change (stigma reduction, social inclusion and re-employment).

Hear Me is an urban rehabilitation project started in 2020 and carried out in collaboration with PUSH, Fondazione per l'Architettura/Torino, and Circoscrizione 3. The project focuses on the creation of micro spaces of well-being within the underdeveloped green public area of 'Giardino Piredda' in Turin. Active listening is used as a tool for social inclusion that allows the activation of co-created practices that connect citizens, people supported by mental health services, design students, psychologists, and designers.
Hear Me is a multidisciplinary project composed of different activities spread out over a time span of 2 years; Co-creation workshops, urban explorations, and design sprints guided the participants through an in-depth analysis of the area, the needs of its users, and the shared vision for its future. Together they envisioned, designed, and built prototypes of urban furniture that could make the place more accessible, enjoyable, and attractive.
The participants developed the idea of using a module of 1 square meter to invite people to imagine a future for the area starting from a very tiny portion of it. This exercise helped each participant to confront his/her ideas with a manageable dimension in which allocate functions and objects aimed at fostering positive interaction in public space, reducing the stigma over mental fragility.
The project today presents 2 prototypes of the co-designed urban furniture that are actively maintained and taken care from the residents of the neighborhood. The next step will be the development of a stable partnership with the Municipality for the continuation of the transformative process happening in the area.

Luoghi Comuni is based on the recognition of the effectiveness of cultural and creative activities as a factor in promoting individual and collective well-being. Luoghi Comuni enables a group of people to enjoy cultural opportunities and actively contribute on the accessibility of these spaces, benefiting the cultural organizations involved and the whole community. The goal of the project is to facilitate the identification of kind places that enable and generate well-being in collaboration with citizens with divers fragilities but also to collaborate with cultural organizations for improving their services.