Quartieri sani e inclusivi a Firenze: un nuovo approccio scientifico agli spazi pubblici urbani. Healthy and Inclusive Neighbourhoods in Florence: a New Research Approach for Public Urban Spaces

The built environment in which a community lives is an important determinant of health and well-being (Barton & Grant, 2006). The approach of health as a driver of built environment design treats people’s psycho-physical well-being as an input of the design process and not only as an expected outcome, enriching the right to accessibility and usability with the promotion of healthy behaviours (Oyuela et al., 2018). Through a different approach it is possible to influence built environment features for the benefit of health and equity (WHO & UN Habitat, 2020). Starting from that assumption, “Quartieri Sani Hub” research project revalues urban spaces as physical infrastructures able to nudge healthy habits in different users. An action research based-work was implemented in two case studies of the city of Florence, to understand how the “Quartieri Sani Hub'' theoretical approach reaches citizens' needs and frames the design contexts. As a result, the paper focuses on the health approach embedded in the research project, reporting the following aspects: permeability and relationship of the public spaces in proximity to the “Case della Comunità”, as an impactful factor for the accessibility of the whole neighbourhood; product and service design features, as well as the user engagement, as touchpoints towards inclusive and healthy behaviours. Finally, the paper highlights the impact of these results on the accessibility and inclusion concepts from a design research perspective.