Abstract

This essay narrates two alternative spatial practices: Software-ing Spaces, an intense living-designing-building residency inside the former monastery Sant’Agata in the old town of Bergamo, Italy, marked by its transformation into a prison that was active up until the 1980s; and Seeds Under the Snow, and experimental laboratory for knowledge exchange and testing ground for innovative methods and technologies set within Bergamo’s Orti Social (Social Gardens) di Porta San Giacomo. This initiative aims to converge local projects and networks in urban agriculture and social development, while forging partnerships with European counterparts. As encounter space, educational exchange, and on-site experimentation, it endeavours to unite, amplify, and empower.

Both projects seek to challenge systemic procedures that regulate the construction sector, visible in the control of material lines, compartmentalisation of actors, and other logics based on budget or efficiency. Instead, they embrace the volatile urban condition and pay tribute to the ever-changing nature of all human and environmental properties. They attempt to put place, resources, users, and builders in sync, developing spatial ideas based on empathy instead of imposition.

The text, which is based on the two authors’ experiences in spatial research and practice, consists of a poetic narrative as its main body, accompanied by a number of visual impressions and further academic reflections in the margins.

Keywords: alternative spatial practices, cohabitation design, local empowerment

How to Cite:

Gotti, F. & Schreyer, Y. C., (2026) “A Tale of Soft Spaces and Seeds Under the Snow”, field 11(1), 35–52. doi: https://doi.org/10.62471/field.174