Regeneration Of Public Spaces Research Articles

Towards a nature-culture relationship in historic centres. Evidence of public spaces beyond tourism in Florence (Italy)

Historic centres globally are facing issues they have never encountered before, such as climate change and, for some, mass tourism. Over time, the relationship between nature and culture is one of conflict, with nature seen as a threat to the conservation of tangible heritage; at the same time, tourism has upset the reality of historic centres, compromising their fruition for both residents and tourists. In this context of great changes, the public space role of historic centres has been overturned. These public spaces, conceived as a set of elements that make up the urban scene and represent the identity of a community, have already changed significantly; on the one hand, they must respond to the needs of users who are mainly tourists and who arrive in larger numbers than originally envisaged, while on the other hand, they are experiencing the effects of climate change, with rising temperatures, heat islands, variations in the distribution and consistency of rainfall, and other site-specific issues. Historic centres and culture can contribute to sustainable development goals, and conservation plays an important role in creating projects in synergistic relationships with the natural environment. Following an overview of the themes and current literature on tourism in historic centres and on experiences with nature-based solutions applied to conservation, this paper reports two positive instances of conservation and the regeneration of public space in the UNESCO Historic Centre of Florence, which were aimed at responding to the critical issues of the area and to enhancing its historic urban landscape.

Revitalization microprojects: how the civic budget supports regeneration activities in cities: the Łódź city case study

Motivation: One of the distinguishing features of revitalization processes is social activation of the local community. It results directly from the very definition of revitalization, which is understood as the process of social and investment character carried out in degraded urban space which is implemented concertedly by the territorial self-government, the local community and other participants. The residents of the run-down quarters are the main beneficiaries of revitalization policy. Undertaken regeneration efforts are, first and foremost, aimed at improving their life situation. Not only grand projects are important in order to revive degraded space. It is those projects which are conducted on a microscale, which do not require substantial financial outlays and on which the inhabitants of degraded areas subjected to regeneration exert an impact that are equally significant. Undoubtedly, the civic budget and the projects submitted within its framework which supplement revitalization undertakings pose an opportunity to regenerate run-down areas on such a microscale. Aim: The purpose of the study is to evaluate the role and significance of the microprojects financed from the civic budget which fit into the revitalization process. A research hypothesis was advanced for the purpose of the article which states that the revitalization microactivities which constitute a part of the civic budget are a tool for supporting revitalization process. Results: Revitalization focuses not only on the technical aspect consisting in regeneration activities performed within the buildings themselves, but it also effectively engages local communities with the use of disposable financial means. In Łódź a systematic increase in the activation of the community dwelling in degraded area is observed. Social participation enables dialogue and cooperation among all the stakeholders, which may in turn lead to consensus and to working out the solutions satisfactory for all the parties concerned, starting from the territorial self-government which initiated the process to the inhabitants of degraded areas. One of the tools which enables local community to actively participate in the decision-making process is the civic budget. It results from the fact that the civic budget and the projects submitted within its framework are convergent with the undertaken revitalization activities. Year by year the interest in the civic budget increases and almost 50% of the projects submitted for implementation in Łódź within the analysed period of time and the spatial framework being the subject of analysis concern the activities aimed at regeneration of public space. The projects regarding public transport infrastructure, improvement of the condition of roads and pavements in revitalized areas or concerning green and recreational areas gain considerable popularity.

Public Open Spaces: connecting people, squares and streets by measuring the usability through the Villanova district in Cagliari, Italy

Growing spatial and social injustice, vulnerability to environmental hazards, and the Covid-19 pandemic have underlined the need of a radical re-conceptualization and transformation of Public Open Spaces (POSs). Within this perspective, the usability of the public space emerges as a fundamental condition that influences the individuals’ well-being by affecting central human capabilities, including bodily health and integrity, control over the environment, and attachment to people, objects, and places. Usability is herein defined as the potential of spaces to expand human capabilities by supporting autonomy, active mobility and utilitarian, leisure and social activities. Consequently, with a combination of space syntax and spatial analysis techniques, this study structures an analytical method to identify central spaces for pedestrian activity, assess their usability and underline major criticalities. The analytical method encompasses a set of quantitative indicators related to both intrinsic geometric, functional, social attributes and to configurational extrinsic properties of spaces. The case study concerns public spaces within the historical district of Villanova, Cagliari, Italy. The case study analysis will underline that the integration of space syntax techniques and spatial analysis methods is instrumental to the comprehensive understanding of intrinsic and extrinsic spatial attributes affecting patterns of outdoor activities, and to the identification of intervention priorities with regards to the redevelopment and regeneration of public spaces. Consequently, this study represents a valid contribution to the topic of Active mobility and urban redevelopment, in the urban planning session of the conference. In conclusion, the study underlines the relevance of the proposed analytical method as a framework supporting data-informed design solutions and smart decisions within a planning perspective centred on strengthening inclusion and equality of the urban realm.

Innovación verde en área urbana como modelo de cultura cívica inclusiva. El caso de PAZ (Parque Agroecológico de Zapopan).

This research aims to analyze the model of inclusive civic culture created and developed in the Agro ecological Park of Zapopan (PAZ). Based on the need to rescue vacant urban land use with the participation of residents residing in the surrounding colonies, social movements, civil society, and local government, they have designed and implemented actions to create PAZ (PEACE). The Agro ecological Park of Zapopan is an area of green innovation where in addition to the cultivation of vegetables, vegetables, medicinal plants, and decoration under relations of cooperation, trust and community support, the formation of social capital that sustains a culture of peace based on environmental sustainability activities. The results of the implementation of this project, born from bottom of the social and power structures, constitute a significant experience in the regeneration of public spaces and green areas that provides greater economic efficiency in terms of family income, a greater relevance of equity, inclusion and social justice and improvement of environmental sustainability.

Cities on Circular Economy: Urban Strategies based on the study of pioneering local experiences

Today's society is in a critical situation: the prevailing linear model of the economy has led to an overexploitation of natural resources, and it has generated environmental impacts that affect the health of all living beings. An economic model of a cyclical nature, or circular economy, is presented as a solution in this situation. This form of economy facilitates the optimization of the useful life of materials, reducing the environmental impact, allowing products and materials to retain their value throughout the production and use cycle. The main purpose of this work is to identify urban strategies carried out by local experiences in pioneering cities that are actively committed to the development of a circular economy as an economic model of society. Cases such as Amsterdam, London, Paris or Milan stand out. The ultimate goal is to show examples that can inspire other cities and local governments to implement measures towards this new model of economy and urban development. The study of local cases throughout the strategies carried out has made possible to establish relationships between the different experiences analysed and to identify the areas with the greatest development and those in which there is less experience. Efficient waste management is one of the most explored areas and where a greater number of local initiatives have been identified. But alongside this, there are other areas that need to be explored: the efficient management of water resources, energy, or food in the city. In response to these, some urban strategies stand out: regeneration of public spaces, sustainable mobility infrastructures, renaturation of urban environments, urban limits, integration of pre-existences, citizen participation and governance are some of them. The contribution of the work focuses on the identification and classification of a whole series of urban strategies already implemented for their possible transfer to other environments.

Sustainable Natural Resources Management and Land Planning: The Case of Parque Agroecológico De Zapopan

This research aims to analyze the model of sustainable natural resources management and land planning an in the Agro ecological Park of Zapopan (PAZ). Based on the need to rescue vacant urban land use with the participation of residents residing in the surrounding colonies, social movements, civil society and local government, they have designed and implemented actions to create PAZ (PEACE) as an area of green innovation. In addition to the cultivation of vegetables, vegetables, medicinal plants and decoration under relations of cooperation, trust and community support, the formation of social capital that sustains a culture of peace based on environmental sustainability activities. The results of the implementation of this project, born from bottom of the social and power structures, constitute a significant experience in the regeneration of public spaces and green areas that provides greater economic efficiency in terms of family income, a greater relevance of equity, inclusion and social justice and improvement of environmental sustainability.

Education for Sustainable Development and Children’s Involvement in Public Spaces. From Universalism to Places, from Rights to Capabilities: Some Evidence from a Research Project on the Regeneration of Public Spaces in Milan

The United Nations Decade on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) expanded the epistemological and methodological debate on sustainability and education. Currently, ESD encompasses a broad spectrum of socio-political issues (including global citizenship and social justice), while “place-bonding” is seen as key to fostering citizen advocacy in local communities and enhancing “children’s lived experiences of local issues”. Herein, we emphasize both the political and the pedagogical value of this perspective, arguing that ESD bears the potential to overcome “universal vs. individual” tensions and dichotomies. Our line of reasoning is that the “capabilities approach” (CA), although it did not originally focus on children, can offer a useful theoretical framework in support of ESD, thanks to its multidimensional nature and focus on the concrete agency of individuals. Accordingly, we see the CA as playing a key role in bridging the gap between universal prescriptions, which disregard the specificity of the actors involved, as well as the peculiar nature of their social environment and its context-specific needs or constraints. We supplement this theoretical discussion by presenting “The Flying Carpet”, an ongoing community-based education project that has elicited the active involvement of over one hundred 11–13 year old students in an urban regeneration project in a municipal district of Milan.

Entrepreneurial Models of Inclusive Civil Culture: The Case of Zapopan Agro Ecological Park

This research aims to analyze the model of entrepreneurial, inclusive civic culture created and developed in the Zapopan Agro ecological Park (PAZ). Based on the need to rescue vacant urban land use with the participation of residents residing in the surrounding colonies, social movements, civil society, and local government, they have designed and implemented actions to create PAZ (PEACE). The Zapopan Agro ecological Park is an area of green innovation where in addition to the cultivation of vegetables, vegetables, medicinal plants, and decoration under relations of cooperation, trust, and community support, the formation of social capital that sustains a culture of peace based on environmental sustainability activities. The results of the implementation of this project, born from the bottom of the social and power structures, constitute a significant experience in the regeneration of public spaces and green areas that provides greater economic efficiency in terms of family income, a greater relevance of equity, inclusion and social justice and improvement of environmental sustainability. It is concluded that Zapopan Agro ecological Park is a model of entrepreneurial, inclusive civil culture. This park marks a milestone in the regeneration of public spaces with a project of social and environmental relevance.This research aims to analyze the model of entrepreneurial, inclusive civic culture created and developed in the Zapopan Agro ecological Park (PAZ). Based on the need to rescue vacant urban land use with the participation of residents residing in the surrounding colonies, social movements, civil society, and local government, they have designed and implemented actions to create PAZ (PEACE). The Zapopan Agro ecological Park is an area of green innovation where in addition to the cultivation of vegetables, vegetables, medicinal plants, and decoration under relations of cooperation, trust, and community support, the formation of social capital that sustains a culture of peace based on environmental sustainability activities. The results of the implementation of this project, born from the bottom of the social and power structures, constitute a significant experience in the regeneration of public spaces and green areas that provides greater economic efficiency in terms of family income, a greater relevance of equity, inclusion and social justice and improvement of environmental sustainability. It is concluded that Zapopan Agro ecological Park is a model of entrepreneurial, inclusive civil culture. This park marks a milestone in the regeneration of public spaces with a project of social and environmental relevance.

Placemaking, local community and tourism

The challenges of modern tourism development increasingly indicate the need for new approaches based on the creative use of intangible assets and heritage, and a more harmonious relationship between the local community and tourists. Placemaking is one such approach, which goes to the core of what builds places and local communities. This paper looks at the evolution of the concept, and its approaches and definitions. Among the tools of placemaking, tangible (physical design), intangible (mental images), and mixed approaches are recognized. The examples in this paper have been selected mainly from tourism and community development studies. Quality placemaking leads to the development of a sense of place, increases social cohesion, and stimulates the long-term regeneration of public spaces, which contributes to tourism attractiveness. In this light, the concept of placemaking can serve as a useful analytical category for more systematic research on spatial transformations and as a development tool in strategic tourism planning.

Pioneering urban practices in transition spaces

The article suggests a set of design requirements to orient urban practices of transformation and space management when they work on transition spaces, which are difficult to interpret and classify in accordance with traditional dichotomous categories such as centre/periphery, urban/not urban, open/closed, abandoned/lived, public/private. The first part of the article explains how various disciplines describe and characterise this kind of space, which cannot be described precisely through traditional categories. Literature search indicates how transition spaces have a number of attributes that can be translated into requirements to steer design actions. The examples of urban practices, described in the central paragraphs of the article, quickly show how project actions actualize the requirements that can be inferred both from literature and from the examples themselves. The conclusions summarise the design requirements to transform and manage transition spaces, in order to orient “pioneering urban practices”, thus opening the way to different modes of intervention and offering new insights into the role of designers and users in this particular kind of practice. Promising prospects emerge not only for the design methodology of this type of spaces, but also for the possibility of addressing relevant issues in the current disciplinary debate concerning, on the one hand, the liveability and care of urban spaces and therefore the regeneration of public space, at a time in history when its existence is questioned, on the other hand the effectiveness of the involvement and empowerment of local societies in the processes of space transformation.

The capibaribe park project, Recife: using the river to reinvent the city

Recife is an amphibious city whose urban development does not value its rivers. In the past, the city’s main watercourse, the river Capibaribe, was understood to play a key role in structuring urban spaces and providing connectivity. Since then, this understanding has dwindled, and the resulting situation is a cause of great concern. Recife City has turned its back on the banks of its rivers and neglected both their capacity to smooth and shape urban space, and their potential to create a coherent image of the city. Recife is one of those cities in the world that are most vulnerable to climate change, ranking 16th in the list of world hotspots. In order to confront these challenges and rethink the role of the river that runs in the heart of Recife, researchers, architects, engineers, and sociologists from Research and Innovation for Cities — Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (INCITI-UFPE) were invited by the Recife City Hall to draw up plans for a park stretching along the river’s banks. Capibaribe Park Project attempts to answer one key question: How can we use the river to transform the city? The park project is based on a structural approach to landscape and is guided by the precepts of sustainability and regeneration of public spaces, in line with the emerging paradigm that combines a cross-disciplinary and cross-sector approach with water-sensitive design and social participation. The present article presents an overview of the main characteristics and development of this project, its theoretical and methodological underpinnings, its contribution to society, and the results achieved so far. It shows how, in addition to the planned park, the project also envisages the installation of a much more extensive system of parks, as a first stage towards the creation of park-city by the 500th anniversary of the foundation of Recife, in 2037.

Entrepreneurial Models of Inclusive Civil Culture- The Case of Zapopan Agro-Ecological Park

This research aims to analyze the model of entrepreneurial inclusive civic culture created and developed in the Zapopan Agro-Ecological Park (PAZ). Based on the need to rescue vacant urban land use with the participation of residents residing in the surrounding colonies, social movements, civil society, and local government, they have designed and implemented actions to create PAZ (PEACE). The Zapopan Agro-Ecological Park is an area of green innovation where in addition to the cultivation of vegetables, vegetables, medicinal plants, and decoration under relations of cooperation, trust and community support, the formation of social capital that sustains a culture of peace based on environmental sustainability activities. The results of the implementation of this project, born from bottom of the social and power structures, constitute a significant experience in the regeneration of public spaces and green areas that provides greater economic efficiency in terms of family income, a greater relevance of equity, inclusion and social justice and improvement of environmental sustainability. It is concluded that Zapopan Agro ecological Park is a model of entrepreneurial inclusive civil culture. This park marks a milestone in the regeneration of public spaces with a project of social and environmental relevance.

‘Designing’ commons: exploring interplays between commons, space and spatial design

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the commons debate engaging with space and spatial design by analysing community-based design processes in two housing commons institutions in Brussels. Based on a literature review and an action research in a Community Land Trust housing project and a public space regeneration project in a housing cooperative, I argue that spatial designers can play an important role in commoning by empowering people to act outside dominant planning discourses and by spatially articulating the social, cultural and environmental role of dwelling space. However, there is need for public support and flexibility in the institutional frameworks of spatial design execution to create room for such engagement.

The Culture Zone in Katowice and its qualities as a public space

Abstract A city’s public spaces ought to meet a number of requirements to serve their main purpose, that is to foster public life. They need, for instance, to answer people’s needs, fulfil certain social functions, and let people use their basic rights, among them the most important right of access. In Katowice, one of the most prominent examples of the regeneration of public spaces is now the Culture Zone. The aim of this paper is to discuss the development of social functions in the area mentioned, a fine example of the post-industrial heritage of Upper Silesia. Applying some of the qualities of public space identified in the theories adopted, the paper discusses how the Culture Zone [in Polish: Strefa Kultury] fulfils the above-mentioned demands and requirements. Is it accessible? Does it meet the need for comfort? Does it function as a leisure space? By referring to analyses and opinions presented in the literature and comparing them with the results of the author’s own empirical research, this article discusses the importance, opportunities, and shortcomings of the Culture Zone as a public space.

Principles for public space design, planning to do better

This paper sets out a series of normative principles for planners and others to use when planning for and regulating public space design and management. Based on an exhaustive examination of public space in London, the substance of which is reported elsewhere, a first section sets out three overarching principles relating to the critical but often missing strategic planning framework for the development and regeneration of public spaces. A second and final section sets out seven more detailed considerations for evaluating the quality of public space design. This is an unashamedly positive framework for shaping public space, based on the notion that public spaces in our cities come in many different forms and guises, but collectively add huge value to the experience and potential of urban areas. Consequently, they deserve serious consideration by those with regulatory and other responsibilities for their delivery.

韓国商業地域における「マウル・マンダルギ」に関する研究

Since 1990s, Maul-Mandulgi has been carried out for living environment improvement and community regeneration in Korea. Maul-Mandulgi is a new type of community activity of which theme is developing community environment together with citizen's organizations or community experts as well as local people. The purpose of this paper is to analyze active development factor and tasks of Maul-Mandulgi at three business area in Korea. The following results were obtained: The main active development factors are regeneration of public space or street place, and revitalization of business area. There are two types of development process; local people proposal type and public works cooperation type. However, this process remains second question; participation system and activity supporting system.

The contribution and potential of town centre management for regeneration: Shifting its focus from 'management' to 'regeneration'

Following the rapid growth throughout the UK in adopting the concept of town centre management (TCM) over the last few decades, TCM has made a dramatic shift from its original 'janitorial' (managerial) function to a more strategic role in the regeneration of public space as well as the rebranding of town centres. Much of the recent research literature has highlighted TCM's effectiveness when judged against the intentions as those of recent regeneration programmes. Place marketing, retail and leisure development, surveillance measures and evening and night-time economies are all activities that involve TCM partnerships and initiatives. Consumption-based economic revitalisation and physical upgrading alone, however, are not sufficient for identifying the potential contribution of TCM within broader urban regeneration agendas. This paper examines the capacity of TCM to contribute towards the social as well as the economic and physical enhancement of local places and communities – that is, beyond its generall...