Cultural Heritage and Urban Regeneration. Towards Integrated and Experimental Perspectives

The EU places cultural heritage at the heart of member states’ strategies through policies that, in alignment with the European Agenda, integrate the protection and enhancement of tangible and intangible assets with initiatives in education, environmental sustainability, climate action, and digitalization. A conception of heritage that, over the past 50 years, has widened beyond conventional typological, chronological, geographical, legal definitions, and that today addresses global challenges related to economic crises and climate change. In line with the structural, territorial, integrated nature of urban regeneration, and with a comprehensive perspective on heritage that emphasizes the centrality of design for its protection and enhancement, the paper aims to contribute to the debate, supporting the reflection through case studies, by highlighting the need for convergence among all policies related to territorial government, prioritizing the enhancement and networking of common identity assets as a foundation for reconstructing the public city, improving urban quality, fostering the collective use of spaces. The emerging urban challenges underscore the urgency of implementing policies, strategies and tools that offer integrated solutions for environmental regeneration, social revitalization, cultural and economic valorization. This approach supports the creation of a new urban welfare, with the public city as a reference framework that embodies cultural identity and serves as an instrument for reconnecting physical continuity with social integration, as well as formal specificity with cultural identity.