Dual temporalities of urban space. Leisure as collective agency in urban transition.

This contribution reframes leisure as an active condition capable of generating spatial, social, and ecological transitions within contemporary cities. The hypothesis stems from the profound reorganisation of everyday life observed after events such as pandemic lockdowns, during which unprogrammed uses of time reshaped collective behaviours and perceptions. Within this framework, leisure becomes a form of civic agency: a shared and self-organised temporal dimension that activates public space and produces new modes of coexistence. Urban voids are interpreted as communicative signals, as latent spatial conditions that invite inhabitants to rediscover places through collective actions. These residual or underused areas become fields for temporary appropriation, generating new relations, micro-transformations, and emerging forms of the urban commons. The practices of Bruit du Frigo, Raumlabor, Campomarzio, and Orizzontale demonstrate how design can operate as an open and participatory process. Micro-architectures, temporary devices, and collective rituals transform leisure into a shared project, fostering conviviality and strengthening local communities. These experiences show that public space, when activated by everyday creative practices, can become a generator of transition. This contribution proposes a critical mapping of practices in which leisure acts as a driver of urban regeneration, constructing an operational framework that systematises national and international cases. The mapping functions as a synthetic device that highlights enabling conditions, governance structures, and replicable methodologies. The aim is to reposition leisure as a motor of transition, a flexible, bottom-up practice capable of reimagining the city as a co-produced, adaptive, and relational space.