Description

[im]possible living is a crowd-sourced a website dedicated to the re-use of abandoned buildings all over the
world. It provides tools and services for people who try to raise, discuss and, potentially, solve the problem
represented by the underuse of real estate.
Since the beginning of the project in January 2011, the founders’ aim was to give new value to the global stock
of vacant properties, estimated in millions of units only in Europe. Nonetheless, it is still most common to build
new, traditional and monofunctional buildings, usually leading to an increase of land consumption and not rarely
they remain unused. The solution to this problem focuses on an important cultural shift: considering abandoned
buildings as valuable assets and adopting a long-term vision that can drive to enormous benefits for
stakeholders and shareholders.
A lot of people around the world understood this concept and they’re investing their energies in projects aiming
to give new life to some abandoned building. [im]possible living wants to be an enabler and simply wipe away
the hurdles that make it difficult to carry out rescue projects, from mapping to redevelopment: let’s understand
how.
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The approach of [im]possible living works in two contexts: on the one hand the local area has to be the
environment in which each project is carried out and finds its major players. On the other hand, the web is able
to manage the resources and serve as an excellences’ sounding board.
By integrating these two components [im]possible living is creating a national (and international) ecosystem that
can build all the structural elements necessary for the full execution of individual projects, without affecting the
distinctiveness and uniqueness of the different territorial situations.
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• Jan 2011 [im]possible living starts as a blog, discussing abandoned buildings in the world.
• Apr 2011 first public event during the Milan Design Week, in front of the House of Artists in
Brera | aggregation of an interested community during the week and [flash] flash mob at the end
• Dec 2011 launch of the first platform (only mappings)
• Mar 2012 release of the iPhone app
• Apr 2012 second public event during the Milan Design Week, at Cascina Cuccagna | various
talks on the topic of abandoned buildings
• Jan 2013 launch of the reactivation services and pilot reactivation projects