Introduction
The Construction site for non-affirmative practice is an interdisciplinary group of young Italian designers that came together in autumn 2011 during a two months long artist residency we did at Careof, a non profit art space in Milan. In some ways similar to My Castle Is Your Castle, the initial aim of the project was to share the material and social resources of the residency programme with other practitioners – in this instance a group of recent graduates from Italian design schools with different interests and levels of experience, but who have in common the will to develop a politically engaged approach to design in their practice.
Since, the group has developed its own dynamics. Its current form is that of a trans-local collective of practitioners who reunite on different occasions in order to study and experiment with alternative criteria with which to act in the world – in particular the world of design. The Construction site is supported by different means, it is welcome by different host institutions and it is constantly looking for chances to meet and work together.
The Construction site is asking questions like:
What sort of society do we want to contribute to?
What position are we taking within the capitalist economy and how can we question that position?
How do we want to work and relate to others?
How do we want to live?
What support structures can we construct in order to allow for the development of diverse and sustainable design practices?