Systemic Home Handbook: towards a more healthy and sustainable living

Generally, most products sold on the market come with a short paper or digital guide, aimed at facilitating use, maintenance and, in some cases, the assembly of the object purchased. However, these guides aren’t always interesting and easy to understand. Consequently, they are often forgotten about or consulted only when strictly necessary. But what happens when an instruction manual accompanies the use of an apartment and all the elements within it? The purpose of this article is to describe a real case of the design of a Home Handbook, conceived as a complete tool to help solve frequent daily problems related to the use of products, components and spaces within the average home. Using a typical Systemic Design approach, the project aims to encourage the adoption of a more sustainable lifestyle at environmental, social and economic level, providing useful advice to change incorrect daily behaviour with a high impact. The aim is to make users act spontaneously and consciously, in order to promote more sustainable living which is more attentive to the environmental and social dynamics that are currently devastating the planet. The project is being applied in Milan, Italy, particularly in the recently developed Smart Uptown District and will be initially distribution in the apartments of the housing complex in question.