Paloo. A festival for the urban transformation of Sinigo

How can we make the first Sinigo Urban Regeneration Festival an opportunity for citizens to rewrite and enhance the narrative of their neighborhood?

A shared vision of the future, capable of reflecting the values and desires of Sinigo’s residents, is the foundation for the creation of new connections and new spaces capable of regenerating relationships both within the neighborhood and between the neighborhood and the surrounding context, starting with the enhancement of existing resources.

Through a participatory and collaborative approach aimed at actively involving the residents of Sinigo in the creation of a festival that reflects the aspirations and values of the community, we co-designed workshops, meetings and activities capable of enhancing the human and relational capital of the area, focusing on the skills, stories and ties that characterize the neighborhood. The purpose of fostering a participatory and activating process is to bring out a shared identity, capable not only of strengthening the sense of belonging of those who live in Sinigo, but also of transforming the narrative of the neighborhood and its perception in the eyes of those who observe it from the outside.

The co-design process of the Sinigo Urban Regeneration Festival began with an envisioning phase and two workshops, conducted in collaboration with TILT, Sinigo Youth Center run by the NGO La Strada – Der Weg. The first workshop was dedicated to the collection of long-term visions: the insights that emerged allowed us to thoroughly understand the context and past of Sinigo, a key step in mapping the needs, critical issues and aspirations of the community. In fact, the Sinigo neighborhood is a complex characterized by the presence of several social housing units built during the 1900s-the oldest dating back to the 1920s and 1930s. Over time, the demographic composition of Sinigo has also changed: born as an Italian settlement in South Tyrol during the Fascist era with a farming and working-class vocation, in recent decades the neighborhood has been the scene of profound cultural changes, in a context challenged by its proximity to the tourist resort of Merano and the cultural dichotomy that characterizes South Tyrol.

The second workshop, on the other hand, focused on constructing an activating narrative for the festival through a long moment of reflection on the identity and collective memory of Sinigo together with the inhabitants and key stakeholders of the area. The work done together with TILT and the community led to the conception of the festival naming, Paloo. The name recalls the origins of the neighborhood, which was once characterized by swamps that were later reclaimed. Paloo reflects Sinigo’s multilingual and multicultural identity and represents overcoming the opposition between negative and positive, celebrating the territory’s potential to regenerate itself, reclaim its own narrative and generate new meanings.

Between the workshops and the realization of the festival, the team was responsible for strategic accompaniment. This phase was critical in translating the narrative concept that emerged in the workshops and supporting TILT in curating the program schedule.

Paloo Fest took place over three days, on the second of which Shifton designed and facilitated some activities. We involved cultural operators, designers and planners in the field of culturally-based urban regeneration from all over Italy, creating a fertile dialogue with the Sinigo community. During the morning, breakfast provided an informal opportunity for discussion on best practices in urban regeneration. Afterwards, an ethnographic walk led by local residents allowed experts and the community to explore the neighborhood together, deepening its history and potential. The day ended with a lunch during which the experts shared urban regeneration tactics applicable to the local context.

At the conclusion of the festival, we developed and shared with the project partners a theme-tool matrix and a set of strategic guidelines. These documents, the result of the work done in the workshops and the insights gathered during the dialogue with the experts, focus on action areas and provide a starting point to guide future urban regeneration interventions in Sinigo.