For the last week I’ve been in Florence helping Chris Ryan (my thesis supervisor) and Michael Trudgeon with a design studio in Florence. The studio intriguingly titled Eco Acupuncture, is all about performing narrow but deep sustainability interventions in a cityscape, that have a far ranging potential. Students from Melbourne, New York, Delft and Italy joined forces to come up with a variety of innovative ways of reinvigorating Florence’s sustainability outlook.  The City of Florence provided a converted prison to work from, which was pertinent given the intensity and timeframe of the studio.  The final assignments aren’t due until the end of semester, but I was delighted by the range of ideas that were born this week.  In the words of Chris “It’s not about changing Florence, but giving Florentines a chance to think differently.”
The New York University kindly published some of my thoughts about working with change on their Pietra Dialogues page.