This is the photographic book which goes along with the PLACES exhibition. This book is in Italian Nine portraits. Three countries. One question: how can academia work differently?Some people turn markers and glitter into scientific tools. Others set up labs where different subjects and knowledge can mix. Some find out about reciprocity when they receive.Architects of impossible spaces, weavers of decades-long relationships, researchers who bring communities and universities together.PLACES searched Italy, France and the United Kingdom for an academy that rarely appears in league tables. We found it: in markets, school canteens and neglected buildings.This photographic book and the accompanying exhibition are an invitation to a convivial conversation around crucial questions – What kind of university do we want? How can we shape it? – starting from a journey into the academy that produces collective value, where different kinds of knowledge meet, where people and relationships find meaning again, where communities open up.