Urban quality and project for the public space

The paper presents the results of a research work on the topic of the project and the public space’s quality, as part of the larger research program of the University Sapienza “The city over the city. Urban regeneration processes and housing policies. Building up public-private relationship”, funded in 2012 . The work was developed through an initial analysis of the urban policies in some cities, identified as best practices, deployed on the theme of public space by some city governments in Europe (Copenhagen, Lyon, Barcelona, Saint Etienne), and a second step of comparative evaluation with some programs (Punti Verde Qualità, Programma Urbano Parcheggi and Centopiazze) deployed in Rome in the 90s. The objective of this work was to verify: - the methods, the procedures, the planning framework and instruments within these policies are implemented, and the scale of intervention (from the widespread policies in large areas to the specific interventions in the neighborhoods); - the stakeholders, the methods of found finding and the public-private partnership; - the procedures for the design control and management, implementation of the building and maintenance phases of public space; - the strengths and weaknesses of each program. The analysis results have been systematized, identifying exportables solutions and new, possible, operational references (guidelines) useful to overcome some of the problems detected in the case of Rome (marginal role of the public entity, absence of intervention quality controls, lack of guidelines and design guidance, technical and organizational failure in the decentralized administration structure, etc.). The final work has provided a project experiment on one specific area in Rome: Mandrione, identified by the general planning instrument as project areas for public space enhancement (local centrality). On this area, has been proposed an intervention model which simulates the application of the identified guidelines, with the aim of suggest a possible virtuous process from of design and procedural point of view.