Design Ethnography driven innovation for Urban Sport Communities

Sport serves as a valuable social tool, promoting connections between individuals in society and fostering the creation of safe spaces by developing spontaneous infrastructures in urban areas. This contribution delves into the impact of ethnographic design in innovating the field of sport by acting on spontaneous urban communities, showing tangible effects in urban settings and contributing to the understanding of sport as social phenomena. Its proximity to sociology, design research, and social issues, offers a multidisciplinary perspective on the roles of design. Using a previously developed ethnographic toolkit, a living lab of designers collected and translated raw information into empirical data for design practices. The study investigates the dynamics of sport as spontaneous catalysts of interactions by focusing on urban sport communities and their societal roles, inclusivity, and main challenges. Considering the municipality of Rome, 65 communities have been identified, of which 8 have actively collaborated with young designers to explore their identity and define tailored solutions. Finally, the toolkit’s findings were compared to the designers’ projects to evaluate the toolkit’s effectiveness and relevance. The outcomes demonstrate design’s capacity to investigate specific connections and interactions within each sport community (such as game setup, training methods, communication within and outside the group) and promote their growth and cohesion using insight derived from the research toolkit. Findings of the Research, as the individual projects derived, hold significance for citizens as for policy makers and urban planners who want to design and advocate for more inclusive urban social development models and thriving neighborhoods.