Sometimes the process of creating a public space can be as meaningful as the space itself. This is the case for Dispersione Zero, a collaborative project by a primary school and placemaking organization TaMaLaCà. Dispersione Zero, which roughly translates to “Zero Dropout,” involved 20 students, aged 11 to 13, who were at risk of dropping out. Using grant funding (approximately 5000 euros) from the Ministry of Education, project leaders purchased the equipment to create a small carpentry workshop. Students then used the new workshop to build creative, colorful street furniture, and dispersed it along an underused sidewalk that had previously been a grim element of the daily walk to school. The result was a bright, inviting space that brought students and other members of the community together to rest, play, read, and people-watch. 
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The installation was temporary—a splash of color that lasted for two days—but the carpentry workshop remains in the school. In a context of limited municipal budgets, Dispersione Zero made unconventional use of a national grant to simultaneously reimagine the futures of the urban space and the students themselves.