CALL - Cities in Action for Learning LAB

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Italia
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CALL - Cities in Action for Learning LAB

CALL - Cities in Action for Learning Lab is an interdisciplinary Research Group at DAStU, POLIMI

CALL explores the multiple objects and dimensions of transition processes from urban and community perspectives. Research activities investigate mechanisms and dynamics affecting transformative innovation in multiple domains, ranging from bottom-up initiatives to policymaking. Current Projects:
MESOC - MEasuring the SOcial impacts of Culture - https://www.mesoc-project.eu/
DIGISER - Digital Innova

tion in Governance and Public Service Provision - https://www.espon.eu/DIGISER
EasyRights - Immigrant Services - https://www.easyrights.eu/
YAK AROUND - Il Teatro attraverso lo spazio fragile - https://www.karakorumteatro.it/yak-around/

Past Projects:
DESIGNSCAPES - Building Capacity for Design-enabled Innovation in Urban Environments - https://designscapes.eu/about/
POLIVISU - Policy & Data Results Hub - https://www.polivisu.eu/
Safari Njema - Supporting Sub-Saharan paratransit mobility policies through big data analysis - https://www.safari-njema.polimi.it/
Open4Citizens - Empowering Citizens to make meaningful use of open data - http://open4citizens.eu/

05/05/2026

💫 Landscapes in Trouble, Landscapes in Action by Francesca Berni and Irene Bianchi , published by - the conversation continues.

📖Swipe to explore selected excerpts: fragments drawn from the authors’ essays, offering a first glimpse into the volume.

The book originates within as a corpus of conversations, unfolding over three years through exchanges across disciplinary boundaries and fields of experimentation.

Across its pages, landscape is understood as a living, contested process. What unfolds is a plurality of voices, ways of observing, listening, and acting, a resonant collective effort to engage with complexity and change.

Contributions by:
João Nunes , Giacomo Borella (Studio Albori), Francesco Careri , Marta Cuscunà (Dialogues section)
Michael Jakob , Massimo Venturi Ferriolo , Annalisa Metta , Sanna Lehtinen , Irene Bianchi , Giambattista Zaccariotto , Matteo Vianello (Perspectives section)
Luca Befera , Oriana Perisco , Natalia Agati .sse, Sergio Rodríguez Estévez , María Salas Mendoza Muro , Francisco José Pazos García , Estelle Jullian (Experiments section)

Scientific Committee: Daniela Colafranceschi, Katerina Gkoltsiou , Pier Luigi Sacco .sacco21, Ilaria Valente

📖 The volume is open access and available, link in bio!

28/04/2026

🙋‍♀️ What does it mean to plan for reconstruction in the midst of a conflict? To what extent can planning serve as a compass in conditions of radical uncertainty and help us « strategically navigate » in the face of evolving conflict dynamics? How is the relationship between long-term perspectives and operational needs discussed and continuously (re)defined?

These are just some of the questions we had the pleasure of discussing last week with Marharyta Borysova and Anastasiia Popovych from .ukrain, during a two-part event focused on dialogue and reflection on the challenges of recovery planning in the Ukrainian context.

In the morning, our guests delivered a lecture titled “Planning under High Uncertainty: The Ukraine Experience” as part of the course “Fragility and Anti-Fragility in the Spatial Realm,” by Valeria Fedeli within the Master’s program Urban Planning and Policy Design. 💡

In the afternoon, Marharyta and Anastasiia led a seminar on « Envisioning Recovery » as part of the seminar series “Transformative Agencies in/for Contested Spaces,” curated by Irene Bianchi, Maryam Karimi, and Alice Buoli under the umbrella of the OPEN FORUM initiatives by .dastu.polimi.

🩵 A special thank you to Viktoria Baltser (Municipality of Voznesensk) and Kateryna Pisotska (Municipality of Vinnytsia) - who joined online - for sharing their on-the-ground experience.

Thanks to Barbara Piga, Nicola Colaninno, Anna Hoblyk and Arxhenda Lipovica - from .dastu.polimi for participating in the discussion!

👉 Read the full article! Link in bio

22/04/2026

Seminar 🟡 Transformative Agencies in/for Contested Spaces #2 Envisioning Recovery

📍Spazio CRAFT, Building 11B - Campus Leonardo, Politecnico di Milano
💻 Online (link in bio)

The seminar explores recovery planning and presents the strategic and operative challenges of urban planning “compressed in time.” In contexts affected by large-scale destruction, particular significance is placed on the effort to (re)imagine future cities and territories amidst total uncertainty and the continuous evolution of conflict dynamics.

🤔 What should be preserved, and what should be rebuilt or “reinvented”? Which needs should be considered and prioritized? Whose knowledge should be included to support anti-fragile action? Which tools could be activated to mobilize resources and rebuild local (physical and relational) networks?

The seminar will reflect on these interrogatives, starting from the experience of the Ukrainian research and professional collective .ukraine.

Special guests: Marharyta Borysova and Anastasiia Popovych from .ukraine
In dialogue with: Valeria Fedeli, Barbara Piga, Nicola Colaninno, Alice Buoli, Maryam Karimi, Arxhenda Lipovica from .dastu.polimi.

👉 The event is part of the seminar series “Transformative Agencies in/for Contested Spaces”, curated by Maryam Karimi, Alice Buoli and me, and funded by .dastu.polimi

☀️ In the morning (9:30-11:00, Building 16B1.1) our guests will give a class to the students of the course « Fragility and antifragility in the spatial realm », hosted by Valeria Fedeli (slide 2)

25/02/2026

🖼️ Earlier this month, ’s Maryam Karimi participated in the opening of “Echoes of Separation, Recognition, and Co-existence” at Unterhaus Galerie in Oberhausen, Germany!

She gave a keynote named “Rethinking Migration Beyond Otherness,” where she invited the audience to consider migration not as a crisis or exception, but as a universal dimension of human life. Drawing on historical moments and archival photographs of European immigrants arriving in the United States, she examined how mobility was once framed as opportunity, ambition, and hope, rather than as burden or threat. 💼

👀 “Echoes of Separation, Recognition, and Co-existence” is a curatorial project based on a photographic series, spanning from 2014 to today. It addresses migration as a moment of physical displacement and focuses in particular on decision-making within migratory trajectories. Curated by Marjan Hasoumi in collaboration with Asal Alinejad and Maryam Karimi, the event explores themes of choice, memory, loss, transformation, resilience, and renewal across three interconnected artistic formats. In addition to photography, it incorporates Asal’s naqqāli (traditional Iranian storytelling) and Maryam’s research-based reflections.

We are proud of this collaboration that reflects Maryam Karimi and ’s ongoing engagement with interdisciplinary approaches to migration, bringing together academic reflection, visual practice, and narrative traditions. 😊

🎥 🔗 Read our full article in bio where you’ll find the event’s movie.

Thanks to Boris Aleksandrov for creating the short video of the opening session. And thanks to .de supporting the organisation!

06/02/2026

PALIMPSEST consortium meeting in Pilsen: two days of exchange and inspiration ⭐

On January 29th and 30th, , represented by Grazia Concilio and Talita Medina, together with the partners, were hosted by colleagues from the , University of West Bohemia, Pilsen, Czech Republic. The consortium had the opportunity to explore the remarkable faculty building, a space specifically designed to support an innovative educational programme and approach, characterised by transparency, spatial fluidity, and a large central open area.

🏺 During the visit, participants attended the end-of-semester exhibition showcasing students’ work from various courses held in the building, including ceramics, fashion, audiovisual media, illustration, and more. The diversity and quality of the projects proved highly inspiring for all members, including creatives, technologists, communicators, and researchers, each engaging with the works from their own perspective.

🐟 Among the highlights of the event were the ceramic workshop led by Markéta Kalivodová, the student exhibition, and the presentation of a particularly inspiring project by the Czech partners: a series of bottles containing water collected from the four rivers that cross the city of Pilsen, sampled both in spring and within the urban context, accompanied by the results of water quality analyses.

Overall, the meeting represented two days of full immersion, exchange, and collaboration with the exceptional team.

26/01/2026

We're excited to announce that Maryam Karimi () has collaborated with Marjan Hasoumi and Asal Alinejad on a photo exhibition "Echoes of Separation, Recognition, Co-existence". 📸

As part of the opening this Thursday, Maryam Karimi will give a keynote titled “Rethinking Migration Beyond Otherness”, calling for migration to be understood not as a crisis or exception, but as a universal dimension of human life, beyond attributions and boundaries.

🕊️ The exhibition "Echoes of Separation, Recognition, Co-existence" brings together photography and a public programme to explore experiences of leaving, arriving, and rebuilding a life. Across three connected artistic formats, the exhibition engages with themes of choice, memory, loss, transformation, resilience, and renewal. Alongside photographic work, it includes storytelling (naqqāli) and reflections drawn from research, offering emotional, political, and everyday perspectives on migration. The exhibition foregrounds migrants as active, motivated individuals and highlights the ways they shape and contribute to the societies they live in.

📅 Opening: Thursday, 29 January, 4pm. Exhibition on view until 1 February.
📍 Unterhaus Galerie, Oberhausen, Germany

05/01/2026

How can artistic research and design practices help us rethink climate adaptation, landscape transformation, and energy transition from a place-based perspective? What role can local cultural practices play in generating shared knowledge around environmental change?

These questions framed the final event of the .jerez project where the coordination team took part in a moment that brought together three years of transdisciplinary collaboration.

Conceived as a single, articulated event, .jerez combined an exhibition and a collective performative moment to reflect on the territory of Jerez through artistic and design research. Originating from the artistic proposal of (Culturama), with curatorial support from , the project mobilised ceramics, viticulture, cante, emparrados (wine arbors), and the ritual of the zambomba to address pressing challenges such as climate adaptation, heat waves, and landscape transformation. 🍇

The exhibition, developed with the Municipality of Jerez, presented images, maps, diagrams, sketches, and material experiments documenting a long-term co-creation process involving artists, researchers, craftspeople, and local experts. This research was then activated through the zambomba climática, a collective and symbolic moment that marked the closure of a shared research journey connecting Jerez, Milan, and Łódź. 👩‍🎨🏺

👏 .jerez demonstrates how artistic research can operate as a relational infrastructure, capable of linking local knowledge and cultural practices with broader environmental and climatic questions.

Grateful to all those who made this collaborative process possible!

📷 ©

DesignResearch ClimateAdaptation Landscape Transdisciplinarity PlaceBasedResearch NEB

28/10/2025

Join us at “The Space of Inequalities: Environment, Mobility, Citizenship” for an open dialogue between academics and representatives of cities, metropolises, and megacities worldwide! 🌍

📍 Where? , Milan
📅 When? 31 October 2025, 09:00 to 17:00
🔗 Free entry upon registration (link in bio)

As part of 2025 and for World Urban Day, the event is organised by CRAFT, .dastu.polimi and , in collaboration with UN-Habitat Milano MetroHUB Centre, and co-curated by the working group that contributed to the project “The Space of Inequalities: Environment, Mobility, Citizenship” under the scientific supervision of Sandro Balducci.

🏙️ What’s on the agenda?

Four thematic “Urban Dialogues” bridging scientific debate and urban experience:
🔸 “Socio-environmental and climate inequalities: between international perspectives and local impacts” - coordinated by Farah Makki, Gloria Pessina
🔸 “Mobilities, Migrations and Inequalities” - coordinated by Giovanni Lanza, Paola Pucci
🔸 “The Equity challenges of the digital transition” - coordinated by Mara Tanelli, Grazia Concilio
🔸 “Citizenship rights and urban services” - coordinated by Maryam Karimi, Marco Peverini

A round-table discussion bringing together representatives from international associations of cities and metropolitan areas, and organisations advocating for the strategic role of cities in addressing inequalities - moderated by CRAFT .dastu.polimi, UN-Habitat Milano MetroHUB Centre on Metropolitan Dynamics, Valeria Fedeli, Contin Antonella.

Are you engaged in urban planning, architecture, governance, social inclusion, mobility or digital citizenship? Come and be part of the conversation on building more just, inclusive and connected cities.

👉 Discover the programme in bio

25/10/2025

What is the role of urban planning in territorial conflicts? 🏢

Join us on 5th november for our big event, "Planning for/against conflicts: Lessons from Palestine/Israel".

Starring renound researchers Rami Nasrallah and Oren Yiftachel, the seminar will explore the role of urban planning in shaping, mediating, and potentially exacerbating territorial conflicts.

Using the complex case of Palestine/Israel, it reflects on how planning can serve as a tool of control and as a means to foster resistance, negotiation, and coexistence.

Here's what to expect 👇

Rami Nasrallah and Oren Yiftachel, will lead two lectures on "Statehood, Resilience, and the Challenge of Gaza Reconstruction" and "The Political Geography of a Planning Apartheid: Shaping Spaces of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict".
In dialogue with Alessio Battistella (), Elisa Giunchi () and Dena Qaddumi (.middleeast).

👨 Rami Nasrallah is Founder of the ISRD Institute for Sustainable Regional Development, Founder and former Chairman of the International Peace and Cooperation Center (IPCC) in East Jerusalem, and Honorary Associate Professor at .ucl.

👨 Oren Yiftachel is Founder and Chair of the , Honorary Associate Professor at .ucl and Department of Geography and Environmental Development of .

Thank you to our organisers: Grazia Concilio and Maryam Karimi!

🔗 All information about the event in bio

Indirizzo

Milan
20133

Telefono

+390223995473

Sito Web

https://www.call-researchlab.polimi.it/

Notifiche

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