Design Workshop in Agrigento (Italy) 31 May – 3 June 2025

Agrigento Capital of Culture. Memory The Enchanted City. Pop-Up San Vito Prison

Transformation of a former prison closed for 30 years into a cultural and social centre

The Design Workshop was born as part of the regeneration process of the former San Vito prison in Agrigento. A place full of memory and meaning, it is today at the centre of a cultural and social relaunch vision. Farm Cultural Park and Collective CTRL S invited the Politecnico di Milano, the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts, and the Ilia State University of Tbilisi as academic partners to activate a collective, multidisciplinary, and open design process.

Since 2019, the Politecnico di Milano has been cooperating with the two Georgian universities within the framework of Erasmus+ Programs for teaching and research activities. These activities have been found in the Workshop a concrete opportunity to explore ways of reactivating urban spaces in conditions of environmental and social fragility, in line with the so-called “third mission” of the university, i.e., dialogue with civil society and local communities.

The workshop has included intensive days of fieldwork, during which students, professors, representatives of local cultural associations and public administration have been asked to propose, discuss, and test design solutions for the layout and organisation of spaces, focusing on architectural quality, sustainability, the place’s identity, and cultural and social impact.

2025