Liveable school surroundings: italian tactical urbanism for community-friendly public spaces

In recent years, the design of public spaces surrounding school buildings has gained growing attention in urban planning and child-friendly city agendas. This paper examines the role of tactical urbanism in creating more Liveable School Surroundings (LSS) and introduces the LSS framework as a new lens for interpreting school-adjacent spaces as threshold environments where safety, autonomy, sustainable mobility, social interaction, and play converge. Methodologically, it develops a 12-indicator evaluation grid structured around four dimensions and applies it to a systematic comparative analysis of 30 interventions implemented in Milano, Bologna, and Torino. The analysis provides new empirical evidence on the effectiveness of tactical urbanism in this domain. Findings show that tactical interventions can rapidly enhance perceived safety and social interaction, often outperforming permanent solutions in terms of spatial reconfiguration and activation, while revealing limitations in the domains of play, climatic comfort, and cycling integration. The comparative analysis also reveals the modest scale of Italian initiatives compared to international programs, underscoring the need for stronger governance and long-term planning tools. By positioning tactical urbanism as an experimental device and a strategic lever for school-centered public space regeneration, the study offers an original contribution to international debates on child-friendly planning and proximity-based urban policies.