“60 × 60”: From architectural design to artistic intervention in the context of urban environmental change

•“Artistic service” in the estate: an imaginary and improbable place where ideas, suggestions, information come and go.•With “Operation Doormat” we occupied a disinvested space, and that we created a debate on the role of art.•60 × 60 Project is committed on various fronts: artistic intervention, on-site research, social action and citizen engagement.

60 × 60 is an artistic project in the city of Geneva asking for the participation of the residents of an urban and popular housing complex. From the first initiatives, as photography exhibitions of doormats inside the estate, to the organization of a citizen movement protesting against densification and gentrification of the area, this article shows how artistic intervention and research in the public sphere can make the residents realize that they all share something and that they therefore can take direct action on their environment.