Casa dei Beni Comuni

Description

"We are a group of activists who fight for the conquest and defense of the commons. We are communards, volunteers, precarious, students, retirees, social workers, district policy makers, media and eco-activists. We come from Belluno (Italy), a small mountain province surrounded by the Dolomites, UNESCO’s World Heritage Site. Here, nature covers the biggest part of the province, but commons such water and landscape are constantly in danger. Numerous water predators have built hydroelectric power stations drying up 90% of the rivers’ beds and devastating our territory. Mountain mobility is not sustainable and services are insufficient. We live in a hostile planet where income, culture and rights seem alien elements and loneliness can really hurt. The need of a self-managed social space, in fact, has emerged in different forms and during several years. Finally, we found the place to build our future home, the House of Commons. A social lab in which to build a community response to the crisis, sharing knowledge and experiences. It will be the place of everything that, material or not material, may be self-produced, returned and conquered by the community, making it stronger.

In July 2013, we started the recovery process of a former military base that the Municipality of Belluno assigned us with the duty to renovate the building at our expense.

The aim is to transform it into a self-managed and multi-purpose social space, creating a “lively” place of self-production, culture and political participation through social cooperation. The project will be implemented with the self-organization of tools and resources. The decision-making body is the assembly, which is free and open to the public.

The space can host cultural, theatrical and musical events, shows and exhibitions, assembles, public meetings, and will be initially composed of a workshop, a social carpentry and a small office which will become the headquarter of bellunopiù, an independent media channel.

The House of Commons already exists. It is a masonry building of about 200 square meters in good condition but with the need to be renovated and made safe. We also need to refurbish the facilities. The recovery works has already begun thanks to a heterogeneous group of volunteers that mowed down the thick vegetation, replaced most of the roof tiles, restructured the walls and cleaned up gutters and wells. All the used materials have been recovered or donated by supporters." (https://www.produzionidalbasso.com/pdb_3610.html)