“I always think that each floor is like walking into a different world” is Aldo Campanelli’s introduction as he begins his tour of Spazio13, a 1,500-square-metre community hub for creative and social organisations, located in an abandoned middle school in the Libertà district of Bari. He’s not wrong, as each level turns out to be an Aladdin’s Cave of workshops, studios and co-working spaces, filled with highly-skilled creative people from Puglia.
Aldo, is the Co-Founder of Tou.Play, an experiential play-focused cooperative who occupy a number of spaces in Spazio13. He founded Tou.Play in 2017 as a “game practice community” for children, young people and adults who want to use play and gaming as a tool for learning, boosting their wellbeing and getting to know each other, in a fun and interactive way.
It’s a pretty inspiring concept and Tou.Play has now grown into one of the most interesting young organisations in Bari. On one hand, they host afterschool clubs and workshops for children from low-income families but on the other hand, they create bespoke games, treasure hunts and ‘quests’ for private birthday parties and even, corporate teambuilding days. It’s a model that’s focused around fun, collaboration and learning through playing and exploration. Tou.Play has also teamed up with Bari’s Museo Civico for a series of events and exhibitions such as Una Notte al Museo and A Brick For Nick.
The ground floor of Spazio13 is partly occupied by Tou.Play and at the time of my visit early on a Thursday evening, it’s buzzing with kids of various ages playing games and making crafts as part of the regular afterschool club. It’s loud but the students seem well-behaved and really engaged in what they’re doing.
Photos courtesy of Tou.Play.
Tou.Play has its ‘Game Room’ on the next floor, where I’m introduced to some other members of the team, including German artist Paul and dancer Franklin who are volunteering at Spazio13 as part of a scheme run by the European Solidarity Corps and European Youth / ErasmusPlus. There’s also a playful and inquisitive two-month old Border Collie puppy who is in the process of being house-trained (she has a few ‘accidents’ whilst I’m there).
The room is very much Tou.Play’s nerve centre with a large gaming table dominating the space and an array of different board games, puzzles, toys and role-playing costumes dotted around it. Aldo shows me a board game that was recently created by the team and is keen to point out that it was purely made of wood. Even the box was wooden, rather than plastic or more disposable cardboard and one would hope that its clear craftsmanship means that it will be treasured and looked after by those who play it. Whilst there are a couple of video game consoles in the corner of the room, it’s refreshing that so many of the games are analogue and not screen-orientated.
Tou.Play’s games room.
Elsewhere in Spazio13, there are a number of classrooms and performance rooms for both adult and under-18 classes, a co-working space and bar area for start-up businesses and it’s on the upper levels where things start to get really interesting. There is an entire floor that’s occupied by artists, designers and printers, including the gifted silkscreen artist Cristina Todisco. There’s a carpentry workshop, where the blueprints of Tou.Play’s recently-created wooden board game were turned into reality. There’s also a decent-sized 3D printing laboratory FabLab, who has recently shipped its creations to as far away as Los Angeles, and finally on the top floor, there is a plush but compact recording studio and audio production facility that’s apparently favoured by Bari’s tight-knit hip-hop community.
Everyone who Aldo introduces me to on every floor is warm, welcoming and happy to chat to me about their work. Whilst each part of the building has its own specific area of expertise, everyone seems to know each other and share the common goal of nurturing and encouraging creativity in the name of social enterprise.
Elsewhere in the Spazio13 building, including its courtyard which transforms into a lively outdoor events space during the warmer months.
It’s an encouraging trait that many of Bari’s burgeoning small businesses seem to have in common. In fact, I first heard about Tou.Play through another social enterprise HaBari Hostel, a low-cost, ethical and responsible ostello also located nearby in the Libertà neighbourhood. HaBari was launched by three friends who were all raised in Bari and believe strongly in “travel as an educational tool”. As well as operating like a regular boutique hostel, HaBari has partnered with a number of likeminded organisations in the area, including non-profit sustainable tourism project In Itinere, legal graffiti collective ReTake Bari, ETNIE a cultural programme that aims to integrate Italians with foreign people living in the country, and of course, Tou.Play itself.
I had originally reached out to HaBari a few months back with the aim of doing some volunteering work there; I thought it might be a way of getting to know some of Bari’s aspiring entrepreneurs and change-makers, as well as improving my Italian. One of its co-founders Silvia very kindly agreed to meet me, gave me some background on the hostel (it’s located in her grandfather’s old apartment and has given his former home a new lease of life) and talked to me about its ethos and the importance of collaboration with its partner organisations. She explained that they wanted to offer travellers more than just the usual hostel experience and that these partners could provide them with volunteering opportunities, socially responsible excursions and the chance to discover more unusual parts of the city, if guests were keen to do so.
The distinctive interior at HaBari Hostel. Photos courtesy of habarihostel.com
The so-called “brain-drain” remains to be a major problem for the Italian South with many educated young people leaving Southern areas like Puglia, Calabria and Campania for university and better job prospects in the more affluent North or overseas. However, many of the students I have taught in their 20s or 30s speak affectionately about Puglia and explain how, one day they plan to return to the area to settle post-university or after making their money in Milan, Rome, Turin or Bologna. In contrast to privileged middle class Britain where families tend to disperse and it’s considered a rite-of-passage to fend for yourself in a new city in your early 20s, here one gets the impression that they’d rather not leave their hometown and that it’s merely done out of necessity.
However, there are more positive signs when it comes to opportunities for young people in Puglia. The number of start-up businesses setting up home in Bari appears to be growing, particularly when it comes to socially-conscious organisations and cooperatives such as Tou.Play and HaBari. Certainly, the incubator-type environment created by Spazio13 and co-working spaces like Impact Hub can help provide a ready-made network of creatives and like-minded professionals for aspiring entrepreneurs and digital freelancers alike. Bari was also recently named one of the “most tech cities in Italy” in terms of companies recruiting there in the technology sector and the city has long been home to established firms such as Bosch and the Peroni Brewery (now owned by Asahi Breweries).
Inside Impact Hub Bari, Fiera del Levante.
A multi-billion Euro project to build a new high-speed rail link between Napoli and Bari is currently underway too. Its aim is to make the South more accessible to the rest of Italy and it will halve the travel time between the two cities, as well as reducing the journey from Bari to Milan to just six hours. This increased accessibility will undoubtedly bring more opportunities to the area and with the increase in remote working caused by the pandemic and more flexible work schedules, perhaps will help to reduce the economic and cultural schism the North and the South of Italy currently experiences.