Eutropian organizes workshops and public debates aiming at finding solutions to revitalize food markets by integrating them better in the local social, economic and ecological context.

Market as a Service     |      Market as a short food chain distribution hub

The video “Nuova Vita ai Mercati – New Life to Markets” is available! What to know more about what the people in Rome are doing to revitalise their local markets? How are they working to connect it to solidarity economy? How can resources enter in a circular cycle?

“Rethinking Food Markets” is a project that aims at elaborating strategies to revitalize declining marketplaces. Public spaces are created in interaction of various social groups. Marketplaces have traditionally constituted some of the most important public spaces, attracting people from all ways of lives and all financial capabilities. In the past decades, however, they gradually lost their role: while urban and metropolitan agriculture are flourishing, and an increasing number of enterprises work on short chain food distribution, many markets in European cities are abandoned or underused. The project explores the possibilities to renew markets as public spaces, by connecting them to new agriculture initiatives, by inviting various actors to play a role in their renewal, and by creating viable economic models for their maintenance and vitality, by including new social and cultural functions.

 

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Viale Adriatico Market in Rome

Similarly in many European cities, marketplaces have been losing their role as public spaces. Due to neglect, the spread of supermarkets, legal constraints and management problems, as well as the lack of new user groups, historical marketplaces have been underused or abandoned in various parts of cities. However, with the rise of socially responsible and healthy food distribution chains, local produce deliveries and gastronomy, marketplaces have an enormous unused potential: by repositioning them with proper strategies, and revitalizing them by events and bringing in the right protagonists, they can become exceptional spaces of exchange and sociability, where commerce supports social cohesion and does not disrupt it.

In the past years, many European cities recognised the unused potentials of their marketplaces. However, many of the approaches to revitalize these markets have created exclusive enclaves of consumption, disconnected from local needs as well as from potentials to create public spaces that are catalysts of social cohesion and economic resilience. With well-thought, socially inclusive and economically sound regeneration processes can help markets become centers of social life and exchange, helping communities emancipate themselves and create new services and social infrastructures. A better integration of marketplaces in food distribution chains can also strengthen links between urban and rural areas, creating new possibilities of social interaction.

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Parsecflor cooperative farm in Rome

“New Life for Marketplaces” brings together sectors of agriculture, gastronomy, health, social services and education, by connecting them with the help of underused marketplaces. These sectors, traditionally in the domain of the welfare state, have increasingly been explored by socially sensitive, engaged cultural actors. To catalyze the interaction between various sectors, marketplaces can offer spaces for cultural initiatives, as well as opportunities to interact with and intervene in social services and infrastructures.

In collaboration with TSPOON and Wonderland Platform for European Architecture  with the support of the Dutch Embassy and the European Cultural Foundation.

PUBLICATIONS

Read our article on the work in Rome on the ECF Magazine We Build the City

For further information please read the Mercato al Centro report:

 

PAST EVENTS

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14 November 2016: Metronio Market in Rome

Together with the local stakeholder we discussed about the role of the market as a local service in the neighbourhood. How to improve it? How to better respond to local needs? The event was realised thanks to the support of all the local partners and the European Cultural Foundation.

 

 

Federico Pigneto

31 October 2016: Pigneto Market 

During this public lunch at the market we discussed about the role of the market as a short chain distribution hub. Various stakeholders from Rome participated and contributed with their knowledge. Thanks to all!

 

 

Eutropian_Square_Market121-22 February 2015: Rehabilitation intervention 

In collaboration with the TUTUR project an intervention in the Viale Adriatico Market took place

with over 50 people of the neighbourhood that worked together to refurbish the market and the green space around it.

 

 

Eutropian_Square_Market318th February 2015: “Mercato al Centro” Conference 

The international conference was held in the Casa della Citta’ with lectures by Francesca Miazzo, Pinar Balat and Paul de Graaf. Local experts discussed how some of the approaches presented to be implemented in Rome. The event was realised thanks to the cooperation of the URBACT-funded TUTUR project, The City of Rome, the Dutch Embassy and TSPOON.

 

Eutropian_Square_Market22nd February 2015: Vote your Market

L’iniziativa sul Mercato di Viale Adriatico e’ stata sviluppata all’interno del progetto TUTUR del Comune di Roma con il contributo del Programma Europeo Urbact ed in collaborazione con l’Ambasciata del Regno dei Paesi Bassi grazie al supporto dell’Associazione Eutropian, TSPOON, LabGov dell’Universita’ LUISS Guido Carli, il Rome Centre dell’Universita’ dell’Arkansas ed il Gruppo di Supporto Locale del III Municipio di Roma.

 

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