Camposaz is an initiative started in 2013, by the collaboration between two cultural associations in Primiero and Trento, with the ambition to organize wood self-construction workshops. The format of Camposaz, which has now reached its 13th edition, is based on the formation of a temporary community of designers, selected through an international call, who live closely for 10 days in a camping site, with the shared aim of designing and self-constructing wood installations in order to improve public spaces and to engage with the surrounding landscape. Generated as a reaction to the impossibility of building, for a generation of architects that hit the job market during a decade-long economic downturn, Camposaz is intended to subvert -at least for a week- the contemporary professional conditions: encouraging professional collaboration instead of permitting extreme competitiveness and fostering design improvisation and temporary solutions rather than indulging in excessive design control and aiming only at definitive results. Camposaz operates in a minimum resources condition: a very short time to design and build (a week), a limited amount of wood ( 3 cubic meters ) with a fixed number of wood profiles and sections (five) and a small budget. These rigid conditions can be considered as a stimulus for improvisation and collaboration among participants. The workshop, which is free of charge for the participants, is open to architects, designers and carpenters between 18 and 35 years old. During the camping days, sharing the working and living spaces, participants design and self-build small wood installations in problematic and abandoned areas, interacting with the local population. The team is usually formed by 12 participants helped by tutors and local carpenters. The Camposaz community is now formed by 123 associates and previous participants, coming from 22 different Nations. The built project is site-specific and it can change according to the conditions in which is going to be realized. An important aspect of the workshop is the human scale, conceived as a proportional and practical scale for the construction of a 1:1 scale model. Our own body and our manual work are considered expressive and measuring tools. The aim of the initiative is to condense in a unique experience the immaterial and material aspects of the construction procedure, enhancing the entire creative process. Camposaz is an open platform without hierarchies and fixed roles: it is also an open source initiative that can be replicated in other contexts. Knowledge-sharing and adaptability are necessary conditions for a successful result. A primary aim is to offer to graduated students the possibility to design and to see the realization - very often for the first time- of their own project. The current economic situation tends to postpone the possibility, for a young architect, to verify in reality a hypothetical design, whereas only through a tangible “trial and error” process it is possible to improve design skills. Camposaz is a format in which Culture with a capital C, which students experience in academia, meets the “know-how” material culture witch is typical of local craftsmen and artisans. The use of wood, which was originally chosen as a cheap construction material typical of the Primiero Valley, fits perfectly with the workshop specificities: allowing flexibility, modularity, workability and ensuring the possibility to modify details during construction. Many esthetical and constructive solutions are taken during the building process, directly verifying their effect on the construction. The philosophy of the workshop is centered on the notions of temporariness and reversibility: wood is not treated and ages naturally. Once the built installation will be deteriorated, it is enough to dismantle its elements, recuperating the screws and transforming the original material in firewood. Every realized project is not conceived as a definitive solution to the local needs, but only as a temporary intervention intended to reactivate the space: it is only a first step in the long-term transformation process of a specific area.