dipartimentodesign.polimi.it/en/staff/annalinda.derosa
linkedin.com/in/annalinda-de-rosa/

Being responsible for our surroundings means taking care of them. Designing is about creating spaces for cooperation, fostering relationships, and ensuring that every voice is heard.

Assistant Professor in Design at Politecnico di Milano and adjunct professor at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Milan). She belongs to the Polimi DESIS Lab research team and co-coordinates the Creative Europe project “Human Cities / SMOTIES”.

Her research focuses on design for social innovation and participatory design theories and practices to develop design-driven models to improve social cohesion through participatory design. She is involved in multi-actor systems projects at the community level in urban and rural contexts, with outcomes in spatial, strategic, and service design.

SMOTIES: participatory regeneration strategies with small and remote places

“Human Cities / SMOTIES” is a participatory design project focused on community engagement in co-designing public spaces and transformations across ten European rural areas. Over four years, project partners have explored local narratives, nurtured social imagination, and envisioned potential regenerative transformations. The project seeks to understand how rural contexts can inspire meaningful shifts in place-centred regeneration, offering a different path than the one typically suggested by urban models. What if the radical innovation lies in these non-mainstream approaches?