Livable Proximity. A design-orienting scenario. 

Design Research Week Closing Event

This closing event celebrated the conclusion of a week-long series of keynote speakers, talks, and other activities – physical and virtual – that involved the Northeastern community as well as external stakeholders, partners, and guests; further developing the Center for Design's reach and network, expanding and connecting actors across the Boston design ecosystem.

Ezio Manzini’s keynote and the related panel discussed social innovation practices that bring services, workplaces and people's homes closer together, as the beginning of a new, emerging scenario: the scenario of proximity. Although the problems of the society of distance were evident for a long time, until 2019, the ideas and practices that had led to the definition of the scenario of proximity have slowly advanced. Then the pandemic arrived and, paradoxically, the same sanitary distancing it required has shown everyone how important physical proximity is: the social role of neighborhood services; the advantage of working close to where you live; the importance of having good relationships with the tenants next-door. In short, the value of the scenario of proximity has been recognized by a growing number of people and institutions.