Codesign Toscana

The cultural association Codesign Toscana was founded in 2017 by a diverse group of professionals and enthusiasts dedicated to the design and facilitation of co-design processes. From the very beginning, we have positioned ourselves as a creative and open collective, drawing inspiration from the principles of the civil economy and the open-source philosophy.

With a focus on co-design, Codesign Toscana aims to foster the creation of ever-evolving communities while keeping design horizons alive; it thus encourages the ability and responsibility to be actively involved in devising creative solutions in response to contemporary challenges.

Codesign Toscana’s approaches and methodologies, ranging from design thinking to community and group engagement, are applied in the development of services and activities centered on the association’s areas of interest: social innovation, sustainability, transculturalism, and quality of life in the urban context. Specifically, the types of services we offer fall into three main categories of activities, which are closely interconnected: #research, #training, and #consulting.

Research

The association promotes initiatives to listen to the communities where it works and operates through applied social research and design research tools. Furthermore, through the publication of white papers and scientific articles, it promotes the creation of knowledge and the dissemination of practices in co-design, speculative design, and systemic design focused on the themes of urban sustainability, the empowerment of design communities, and social innovation.

Design

We specialize in tactical urbanism, supporting master plan processes, service design, and eco-design. We are a studio dedicated to developing innovative concepts for the ideation, design, and drafting of European grant proposals.

Training

From the very beginning, the association has served as a platform for the exchange of knowledge and skills among its members. All activities offered by Codesign Toscana are designed with educational objectives in mind, aimed at enhancing participants’ skills and their ability to work independently on projects. Fostering cooperative learning and the use of a “learning by doing” approach are the hallmarks of the horizontal knowledge-sharing methods we employ during our workshops, regardless of the topic at hand. We also maintain a platform, Open Source Learning, dedicated to peer-to-peer exchange and self-directed learning, where participants can download the tools we use and delve deeper into our research.

Consulting

The association provides services in the design, implementation, and facilitation of research, co-design, training, and community engagement activities for public and private entities, both for-profit and nonprofit. In this way, we promote the spread of a design culture and collaborative design, addressing the challenges and opportunities presented by local organizations and groups.