Un disegno partecipato. Il futuro prossimo per la progettazione di spazi pubblici di qualità

Il testo analizza come l'emergenza pandemica abbia trasformato radicalmente il dibattito urbanistico, restituendo una centralità strategica allo spazio pubblico come elemento essenziale per il benessere sociale e ambientale. Gli autori esaminano il superamento delle vecchie concezioni di pianificazione a favore di un approccio olistico e partecipativo, dove il coinvolgimento diretto della cittadinanza diventa fondamentale. Viene presentato il progetto "FUORI" della Città di Torino, un'iniziativa che mira a riqualificare aree periferiche attraverso metodologie di ascolto attivo e co-progettazione. Nello specifico, l'attenzione si focalizza sulla rigenerazione di Piazza Crispi, intesa come un caso studio per testare nuove forme di flessibilità e inclusione urbana. Questa esperienza dimostra come la collaborazione tra istituzioni e consulenti possa tradursi in documenti di indirizzo capaci di generare comunità e sostenibilità. The scientific debate on the future of cities and the many forms of transformation of urban contexts has intensified with the experience of the pandemic. It highlighted how, among the qualifying factors of the new post-pandemic urban contexts, the quality of urban public space has assumed a new centrality. Since 2020, with the obligation of physical and social distancing and the restriction of daily life to the domestic space, cities have had the opportunity to redefine the interaction between the subject (individual or collective) and the object (space and its tangible elements), rediscovering the value of public space due to its numerous impacts—environmental, social, cultural, and economic—on the quality of urban living. This new centrality has opened a lively debate within the urban planning discipline regarding the adoption of a placemaking posture based on community involvement, environmental rules, and spatial flexibility, viewing the public city as a holistic and collective project rather than just a system of specific facilities. Reflecting on these prompts, the contribution describes the experience “FUORI-l’esterno pubblico della città” (OUTSIDE-the public exterior of the city) conducted by the City of Turin within the “Torino Cambia” project. Supported by the Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo, this initiative aims to bring the spatial and material quality of public spaces back to the center of city planning, as they generate community, environmental sustainability, inclusion, and public well-being. Through this experience, the City of Turin relaunched the design of two urban public spaces, Piazza d’Armi and Piazza Crispi, located in two peripheral areas, testing a new methodology rooted in active listening and co-design. Specifically, the contribution focuses on the redesign of Piazza Crispi. After a theoretical introduction on the relationship between the pandemic crisis and public space, the second part describes the participatory process that accompanied the writing of the Preliminary Design Document (Documento di Indirizzo alla Progettazione) and the drafting of the document itself, in which the two authors participated as consultants to the Municipality.