SEEDS UNDER THE SNOW - Landscape as a common
Yona Catrina Schreyer
Wunderbüro is an action-research collective founded by Francesca Gotti and Yona Catrina Schreyer, developing spatial interventions, narrations and pedagogical experiments to question commoning, spatial remediation and practices of mutualism. It engages in transdisciplinary collaborations and supports civic and self-managed initiatives, striving for the empowerment of underrepresented communities.
SO.NO.Società Nomade (promoting urban commons and socially impactful cultural initiatives) and Wunderbüro co-curated the Winter School Software-ing Spaces (former Sant’Agata prison, Bergamo, 2023) and are curating the proposed summer school. The Winter School will be featured in FIELD Journal (Vol. 11 “Architecture is Climate”, Autumn 2025) and in the By Design or by Disaster 2025 Hope Conference proceedings (2026).
Francesca and Yona coordinate Seeds Under the Snow, producing its collective infrastructure of care for the temporary community.
Francesca Gotti, architect and researcher, explores empowerment through spatial interventions and simulations. She holds a Ph.D. from Politecnico di Milano on critical spatial practices in Southern Europe and is a research fellow at the University of Pavia for COSMO, on self-building and commoning. She was a DASTU fellow for En/counter/points on reactivating neglected spaces. In 2021–22, she taught at USI Mendrisio in the studio led by Leopold Banchini. Since 2015, she’s worked with SO.NO. in Bergamo and, since 2016, joined ARK magazine’s editorial board.
Yona C. Schreyer critically examines the interplay between people and place and how norms shape the built environment. She explores interdisciplinary design methods and pedagogies for commons, infrastructures, and care. She is a Ph.D. researcher at Politecnico di Milano (DAStU) and senior scientist at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna. As member of SO.NO. and the Ecologies of Care network, she mediates cultural, social, and ecological projects in communal urban spaces.
Seeds Under the Snow is a collective cohabitation and self-building project spread across the hills of Bergamo, promoting the landscape as a common and supporting existent non-institutional initiatives of management of urban natural reservoirs. It is coordinated by SO.NO.Società Nomade, a local non-profit organisation, and Wundebüro, a creative collective of designers and researchers based between Milano and Vienna.
Structured as a summer school, it offers young people a pedagogical opportunity to explore innovative ways of caring for landscapes and commons. Participants test participatory management, reflect on resource use and transformation, and design solutions to support the work of local associations. The goal is to create a temporary community where all, regardless of background or knowledge, engage with one another—including more-than-human actors.
The name Seeds Under the Snow refers to hidden yet active local initiatives and the intention to spark energies whose effects may unfold in time. The local network includes: Cooperativa L’Impronta, managing social gardens at Porta San Giacomo with young adults facing social or physical challenges; Frutteto Sass de Luna, a community-driven urban agriculture project; Progetto Benpensata, reactivating the Ermanno Olmi park as a neighborhood hub.
In September 2025, local and international young adults will build support structures — workshop tables, vegetable beds —in the project’s outdoor sites. These elements will remain in the hands of the local community as seeds, hopefully becoming strong plants nourishing future acts of commoning and protecting urban landscapes.
Supported by NGOs and the Municipality of Bergamo, the project promotes circular food systems and recycling. Mentorship comes from creatives in architecture, design, carpentry, botany, and geography, and is enriched by local expert dialogue. Public activities during the summer school invite broader community participation and exchange.