Envisioning Real Utopias
Fre.Le is a mission-driven, independent, collaborative organisation that focuses on fostering inclusive and sustainable communities.
Our mission
At Fre.Le, we develop projects, programs and proposals that shape the future of community life. We focus on social ecology analysis, aimed at understanding how individuals respond and interact with (changes in) the environment around them.
We engage with public sector, architects, urban practictioners, academics, grassroots organisations and civil society to collaborate on projects aimed at delivering transformational impact.
"A city is never simply made by one single building. If you begin to approach this problem as a single building and you do not place yourself instead in the perspective that it is a building that, naturally, becomes a city and you do not reflect on the problematics of the city with all its elements of complexity that affect people life, you will miserably fail."
From a conversation with the architect Laura Peretti about successes and failures of a public housing project in the periphery of Rome.
Our Approach
In the last decades a general exaltation of the rediscovery of the joys of old-fashioned neighbourliness’ and community belonging has flourished.
We believe it is not only the people we are surrounded by which matter but it is the whole social ecology which is relevant to individuals's perception of space and wellbeing. Social ecology refers to the broad built environment our communities are made of. By social ecology, we refer to the social fabric made of local infrastructures, from neighbourhood associations to churches, from educational facilities to sport centers, from green areas to all those other spaces where people socialize.