Urban regeneration and public space. The case of the Urban and Metropolitan Centrality of “Torre Spaccata” in the Municipality of Rome

This contribution focuses on the relationship between urban regeneration and public space, emphasising how the development of new sustainable, inclusive and resilient strategies and multi-scale, integrated planning tools, based on innovative operational references, can help to raise levels of urban quality, energy efficiency and resource circularity, counteracting the effects of climate change, environmental degradation and socio-economic marginalisation. Starting from an analysis of the complex socio-political framework and a number of design and regulatory references that integrate a new model of eco-sustainable cities into planning, the contribution identifies the various forms of contemporary public space as the element capable of improving biodiversity, promoting ecological and energy transition, and restoring the quality of the environmental matrices of air, water and soil through natural solutions, triggering a new urban metabolism. Through the application of an iterative and interscalar methodology to the “Torre Spaccata” Urban and Metropolitan Centrality, located on the eastern outskirts of the Municipality of Rome and subject to the Urban Project procedure, the paper proposes a reflection on the need to experiment with new design strategies, tools and implementation mechanisms capable of subordinating the design of empty spaces to the demands of sustainability, defining new settlement models and public spaces characterised by innovative forms, functions and materials, in search of a balanced and co-evolutionary relationship between man, city and nature. In this perspective, it highlights the potential and limitations of the proposed experiment, emphasising the capacity of public space to transform natural habitats into green infrastructure, creating continuity for fauna and flora, enhancing existing archaeological and naturalistic features, and raising the levels of settlement and environmental quality, social inclusion and economic growth.