Sofware-ing Spaces
Can we build soft autonomies?
- Installation
- Teaching
- Performance
The Software-ing Spaces Winter School 2023 was a spatial experiment. The aim was to find out what an urban community space needs in order to become inviting, usable, and self-sufficient. For one week, the participants lived and worked on site and learned through joint planning and construction. The basic idea was to design objects that function like “software” within the spatial “hardware.” Elements that bring a place to life and enable its use.
The Winter School took place in the historic rooms of the former prison and monastery of Sant’Agata (ExSA) in the old town of Bergamo and builds on the work developed since 2015 by the Associazione Maite, an association that promotes socio-cultural initiatives. In recent years, Sant’Agata has been used and managed collectively by various groups and individuals, coordinated by Maite and So.No. – Società Nomade.
The focus was on three physical spaces: the entrance area (Salotto), the kitchen (Cucina), and the adjacent corridor (Corridoio). These were complemented by a fourth, immaterial space: the space of communication (Parole).
The Winter School
The workshop was divided into four studios, each led by a different collective:
Studio Cucina – Mascha Fehse & Licia Soldavini (Berlin)
Studio Salotto – Guerilla Architects (Berlin)
Studio Corridoio – Camposaz (Italy)
Studio Parole – Collettivo Franco (Bologna)
The starting point for the design was large quantities of fabric remnants from a former upholstery workshop. The participants spent a week experimenting with the material. First, they created a huge carpet for the Salotto, which was later raised to form a tent roof, creating a warm, cozy space for communal dining. The “footprint of the room” was then rearranged in various areas of the monastery and finally carried performatively into the city. Together, the group moved the textile object through public space – as a marker, as a measuring instrument, as a picnic blanket on which food was shared, or as a giant cloak that united the entire group into a collective.