Superbarrio Favara is developed in 2018 for the SOU - School of Architecture for Children, a project promoted by Fam Cultural Park, an internationally renowned art and creation centre in Favara, Sicily.
The SOU School is a project of social innovation created in 2016 with the aim of spreading knowledge related to architecture, environmental sciences and urbanism in the context of Favara, with weekly sessions directed to a group of 25 students with the age of 6 -12 years.
With the Superbarrio Favara application, children will have the unique possibility to interact with the public space of their small city, represented in a navigable 3D environment, to make their proposal for a better urban environment and to learn the values and complexity of urban design.
An educational tool
Having the specific target of users which age was between 6 and 12 years, Superbarrio Favara was developed with the objective of being used as an educational tool.
The tool will allow the young students to navigate the city center of Favara and interact with the buildings and the public space of the main square of the city, the Cavour square. For the very first time students will be able to visualize the space of the square, currently only partially pedestrianized, and envision it as a play field, open to changes and infinite different configurations.
Each student will have the opportunity to use the interface to allocate different programs and express for the public space, understanding the impact of each of them on the complex system of the neighborhood.
Playing collectively
In the Favara case study, the Superbarrio application was also used as a tool to facilitate interaction between the young users. Student were asked to share their individual proposals with their fellow colleagues and analyse the differences between them. This process allowed them to understand how the public space represents a resource for the entire community of a neighborhood and therefore can be the object of conflicts between different opinions, expectations and needs.
