Project Details

P.ACT is a Learning Living Lab that redesigns Milan’s Bovisa food ecosystem to promote regional food security. It bridges the gap between university expansion and the local community by forming a coalition of Local Heroes. The lab fosters economic resilience and inclusive food security by addressing food gentrification in Milanese university neighborhoods.  

Overview

P.ACT (Polimi Active Community Table) is a Learning Living Lab situated in Milan’s Bovisa neighborhood. It serves as a territorial interface designed to bridge the systemic gap between the Politecnico di Milano and the local food ecosystem. By establishing a coalition of Local Heroes—trusted neighborhood food businesses—P.ACT identifies the key spaces that give shape to the region’s social infrastructure to leverage networks of  social cohesion and economic resilience. The project reimagines how the university can be a force to strengthen a neighborhood and not a gentrifying one. With P.ACT, Polimi is an active participant in a shared urban fabric. 

P.ACT has three core principles:

Design Challenge

The Bovisa district faces a significant town vs. gown divide, where university expansion often triggers gentrification and the “studentification” of food systems. The encroachment of chain stores, or the pressure on local businesses to cater to commuter hours, pushes long-standing local businesses and full-time residents out of the neighborhood. Nearly 30% of local businesses in Bovisa are in the food sector, and, after extensive ethnographic research, we identified that food-shops not only function on the surface level, but also are key social third spaces within the Bovisa residential community. Interviews revealed that business owners feel a divide between themselves and Politecnico, feeling both vulnerable to and excluded from the decisions of the university in the region. The challenge then became to resolve this fragmentation by creating a system that prevents food inequality and ensures that urban redevelopment benefits existing residents and local shopkeepers rather than displacing them.

Process

The project followed a rigorous research methodology divided into systemic and localized phases:

Co-Design Workshop

Two primary codesign cycles were conducted to validate and refine the service model:

• Session 1 (Expert): Conducted with food policy experts, service designers, and Politecnico community/outreach coordinators. The objective was to identify structural difficulties in the service system and how to ensure long-term project sustainability. 
• Session 2 (Business Owners): Conducted with local residents and Bovisa food-business owners. The objective was to understand constraints and barriers to entry for locals in the systems.

Boundary Objects

Insights

These sessions emphasized that the lab must act as a trusted mediator to reduce the burden on small business owners while fostering meaningful community engagement. Codesign Session 2 also highlighted the fear and mistrust from local residents to Politecnico di Milano. This informed us to design the lab for reciprocity, ensuring a mutaul exchange between actors associated with Politecnico and Bovisa Residents. This lack of trust is what led to the Pilot Pivot. We designed for a one-year trust building pilot engaging local residents and businesses that were identified as being key sites of social infrastructure in the community. These members would be our, ‘local heroes’, helping establish trust and legitimacy in the region within year one prior to P.ACT’s full neighborhood roll-out.

The Expert session informed P.ACT of the need for strong data-governance and an internal system of data-management. In order to ensure persistence over time, we developed a system of data exchange between Municipality 9 (Bovisa/Dergano) and Commune di Milano. This was then validated by interviews with members of the Commune. 

Pivot

A critical pivot occurred regarding the role of technology versus relationality. Initially, the team considered a heavily digital toolkit. However, feedback from local stakeholders revealed that digital assets were only “partially useful” and that shopkeepers valued human-centric guidance and physical interaction. Consequently, the project shifted to prioritize relationality as infrastructure, positioning the P.ACT team as a mediator of trust rather than a digital platform provider. The Roundtable became the core physical space for negotiation.

Prototyping

Service Timeline

Prototyping focused on the Common Food Agreement and the Roundtable model. The team conducted a live session with the local heroes identified following the codesign session.

• Commitment Pillars: Governance, Territorial Activation, Equity, and Quality were tested; while Governance and Equity saw full agreement, “Quality” required more inclusive definitions.
• The Roundtable Sequence: A five-step sequence—feedback, goal definition, ideation, proposal building, and framing—was simulated. We tested tools, process, and mediation.
• Tangible Output: This resulted in a draft for a Community Picnic, confirming that structured guidance empowers business owners to participate in neighborhood activation. 

This simulation led us to conclude that the MVP is responsive and functional leading to the desired impact. However, following the prototyping we understood we needed to integrate a prior step in the service structure to scaffold users’ and grow familiarity amongst them.

Final Outcome

From Fragmented to Flourishing

The final service is built on three operational pillars:

• Neighbourhood Food Hub: Facilitates community decision-making and an Accessible Meal Guarantee to ensure nutritious food remains affordable for all residents.
• Local Hero Membership: Provides ethical businesses with a Quality Seal and a loyalty network to distinguish them from large-scale chains.
• Coalition Framework: Includes a Living Lab Observatory for data collection and a replicability toolkit for other neighborhoods.

Offerings

Impacts

Social Cohesion: The lab acts as a permanent “platform”. The Town Hall sessions have become the neighborhood’s democratic engine, where food policy is co-designed. We project increasing in local food literacy from 42% to over 60%, empowering residents to make informed health and environmental choices.

Economic Resilience: Local businesses report higher stability due to the “loyalty network” and a constant flow of diverse customers (students, faculty, and residents). By aligning their offerings with the university’s sustainability goals, they access procurement opportunities previously reserved for large-scale caterers. The lab implementing adaptations to the food space annually through round tables ensures that the neighborhood stays responsive to external and internal community needs, creating greater resiliency for local businesses.

Policy Innovation: At a macro level, the Living Lab Observatory provides the Municipality of Milan with real-time, verified data. Bovisa serves as a “case zero” for the Alleanze di Quartieri, proving that urban redevelopment can occur without social displacement.

System Map

Reflection

P.ACT is deeply rooted in Italian social structures and context driven innovaiton. P.ACT shows the important of territorial activation to resist the gentrification’s encroachment. This project demonstrates that social relationality is as essential to urban infrastructure as physical buildings. Business owners sought structure and a seat at the table more than digital tools. However, a lingering risk is the potential for institutional dilution—the danger that the lab becomes a bureaucratic university exercise. To remain effective, P.ACT must function as a living social contract, proving that universities can transition from islands of knowledge to anchors of community resilience. 

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