Liveable urban open spaces for health and wellbeing. Towards the Careggi Campus landscape masterplan for Florence University-Hospital

Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation (ASTI) is a series of peer-reviewed books based on important emerging research that redefines the current disciplinary boundaries in science, technology and innovation (STI) in order to develop integrated concepts for sustainable development. It not only discusses the progress made towards securing more resources, allocating smarter solutions, and rebalancing the relationship between nature and people, but also provides in-depth insights from comprehensive research that addresses the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) as set out by the UN for 2030. The series draws on the best research papers from various IEREK and other international conferences to promote the creation and development of viable solutions for a sustainable future and a positive societal transformation with the help of integrated and innovative science-based approaches. Including interdisciplinary contributions, it presents innovative approaches and highlights how they can best support both economic and sustainable development, through better use of data, more effective institutions, and global, local and individual action, for the welfare of all societies. The series particularly features conceptual and empirical contributions from various interrelated fields of science, technology and innovation, with an emphasis on digital transformation, that focus on providing practical solutions to ensure food, water and energy security to achieve the SDGs. It also presents new case studies offering concrete examples of how to resolve sustainable urbanization and environmental issues in different regions of the world. The series is intended for professionals in research and teaching, consultancies and industry, and government and international organizations. Published in collaboration with IEREK, the Springer ASTI series will acquaint readers with essential new studies in STI for sustainable development. ASTI series has now been accepted for Scopus (September 2020). All content published in this series will start appearing on the Scopus site in early 2021. /// Abstract of the paper - Spatial fragmentation and congestion have become increasingly apparent in cities, also due to the functional specialization of open spaces. Such phenomena also affect the accessibility of the public realm and therefore urban liveability. With this in mind, it seems necessary to turn public open spaces into dynamic and flexible places that can induce wellbeing and develop a shared identity. Urban open spaces that relate to hospitals and universities play a double role in terms of the specific functions of care, research, learning, innovation, and the overall liveability of the city in which they provide collective services. The ongoing “Careggi Campus” research deals with the case study of Florence University-Hospital as an important part of the broader urban network of public open spaces. In this complex, over twenty thousand people per day use the fragmented and cluttered open spaces, which clearly fall short when it comes to accessibility and liveability. The research aims to produce a landscape masterplan focused on transitioning from a street-based model of mobility and accessibility towards a people-based network of liveable places. In this context, accessibility is a complex driving criterion for landscape design to investigate how the hospital’s open spaces could perform as a high quality network and sustain health by providing wellbeing and fostering lifestyles changes. A main topic of research is how this collective system can host the existing wide variety of permanent functions and spontaneous uses without creating conflict and dysfunction. As the new Urban Sustainable Mobility Plan promotes an innovative vision for public transport, active mobility and intermodal parking lots, rethinking hierarchies between the active mobility of vehicles and people within the University-Hospital could lead to a sustainable transformation of its landscape.