Officine Zero (IT)
A community with common goals
Friday 23 March / 14:00 – 15:00
Short Biography
In 2012 the Rail Service Italia (RSI), an almost one hundred year old company, went bankrupt. A group of 35 workers who had just lost their jobs decided to occupy the company’s premises as a form of protest.
The area comprises 20.000 square meters of property including, 9.000 of which is indoor space. After one year the workers open the gates to activists, precarious workers and freelancers. The former RSI workers and the newcomers started and illegal occupation movement – Officine Zero – with the aim of reversing the situation and creating a new opportunity out of a crisis. Together they started to reactivate the existing workshops, which included carpentry, mechanical, metalworking, upholstery and electronics. The administration building was transformed into a co-working space.
In 2015 the Officine Zero workers funded an association with the aim of promoting culture and professional training. Currently Oz hosts almost 50 workers, including freelancers, craftsmen, designers, associations, journalists, artists and researchers. The project was born under the guidance of three core principles: collaborative economy, urban regeneration and environmental sustainability.
The project evolved into a Multifactory based on space and skills sharing, reuse practices, research as well as collaborative and circular economy principles. These foundations strengthen Oz’s aim of reinforcing an economic model based on cooperation and mutualism. The community of workers started to work to gain a legal formalization. In the meanwhile the whole area has been under auction, without success.
Abstract
Based on our experience, we will examine how work dynamics, management mechanisms and peoples’ skills, improve the quality of workers’ conditions. These relationships will be explored with particular focus on their functioning within the urban and architectural framing of the former RSI site.
Our presentation will be an analysis of how Oz, is the evidence that a community with common goals and visions is able to generate virtuous processes that have positive consequences on the whole of society.
Suggested Readings
Il genio è senza opera: filosofie antiche e arti contemporanee / Massimo Carboni / 2017
Vita e natura: una visione sistemica / Fritjof Capra, Pier Luigi Luisi / 2014
Questions / Statements
When does work become “common”?
How can a community modify a space by designing it together?
Can and should a project like Officine Zero act in the cultural and political change of society, specifically in a city like Rome?