Location: Design phase: Politecnico Di Milano / Construction phase: Macao Milano
Rehabilitation of Macao building through interior unit designs
Year: 3~20 October 2019

program leaders: TerraViva Workshops, Ilgin Ezgi Tunc, Prof. Richard Ingersol

[WORKSHOP THEME]
​
The “Plug-in 4 Rehab” workshop will be a two-part course which will take place in Milan during the month of October. It concerns the ideology of the “Plug-in”, first made popular in the 1960s by the Japanese Metabolists and by Archigram. The Plug-in of 50 years ago proposed architecture for modern nomads, assuming futurist buildings prepared as technologically equipped scaffolds into which prefabricated units for dwelling or workers could be inserted or extracted at will. Plug-in predicated a future of joyful uprootedness.
The TerraViva reinterpretation of the Plug-in concept is for sure more modest and it assumes that the high-tech component is already present in our lives: due to the incremental spread of wi-fi and digital technologies, people are finally being freed from spatial rootedness. We thus propose a similar flexibility of making designs for living (sleeping, reading, writing, cooking) made from more comfortable and biodegradable materials (or in some cases recycled materials). The workshop will have direct contact with Architect Ilgin E. in Tokyo, which has specialized in Plug-in solutions made in wood for hostels set up in existing buildings. Ilgin Tunc, graduate of Politecnico di Milano , will be our special consultant. The idea is to propose a return to the Plug-in concept as a practice more appropriate to the social and economic determinants of the 21st century.

Migration, mass tourism, share economy, and climate change are new factors that create an increased demand for nomadic devices, implying architectural solutions with the flexibility of cell phones. Rather than destroying and rebuilding the whole world, the new plug-in approach aspires to adapting to existing buildings and landscape. It also hopes to serve alternative social solutions based on the share economy, such as co-housing and co-working. The underlying reason for the “Plug-in 4 Rehab” workshop in Milan is to promote a more environmentally responsible mode of intervention, using biodegradable materials for new additions while preventing the waste of demolitions and the use of dubious construction materials.
TerraViva will work in the case with the Association “MaCaO”, which has occupied a beautiful Liberty-style building (ex-SEGIMA headquarters) for over 10 years, offering cultural and artistic services. We will design according to the needs that are expressed by the members of MaCaO and use their very well-appointed wood-working shop to build the components.

Prof. Richard Ingersoll, August 2019

[ MANIFESTO ]
​
Seeks solutions for renovating abandoned and absolute structures.
A return to the plug-in concept as a new format.
-
Plug-in proposed architecture for modern nomads.
-
Plug-in assumed futurist buildings prepared as technologically equipped scaffolds into which prefabricated units for dwelling or working could be inserted or extracted at will.
-
Plug-in predicated a future of joyful up rootedness.
-
Rather than destroying and rebuilding the whole world, the new plug-in approach aspires to adapting to existing buildings and landscape. We are looking for solutions that illustrate how plug-in solutions can be applied to existing structures or contexts.
#plugin4rehab

[SCIENTIFIC COMMITEE AND TUTORS]
​
Prof. Richard Ingersoll, Politecnico Di Milan
Ilgin Ezgi TUNC, Architect Tokyo
Emanuele Braga, Artist Landscape Choreography Macao MI
Simone Choule, Sociologist -Activist Macao MI
Eugenia Bolla, Co-Founder and TerraViva
Stefano Lardera, Co-Founder and TerraViva
Toufic Rifai TerraViva Teaching Assistant TerraViva