Life styles and city of the future. The shaping of public space in Rome

In a globalized world the western cities must be measured with new challenges: different composition of the population, loss of sense for traditional public spaces, environmental issues and public health, crisis of local authorities. New tools are needed for operational and cultural renewal of the urban habitat and make the city - as stated in the "'global objective" of the EU Thematic Strategy on the Urban Environment -"[ ... ] healthier, pleasant and attractive places to live and to enable communities and local economies to flourish". Rethinking the city by assuming people's health as a fundamental parameter involves the consideration of a number of variables, so far neglected, that require the collaboration of experts from different disciplines in the search for complex solutions. Issues such as urban mobility, the design of public spaces and the fight against obesity are examples, which, if addressed in trans disciplinary perspective can lead to innovative experiments with great potential. Not only the amount of movement, but also the qualitative characteristics of the environment have direct effects on metabolism. The shape of space has therefore implications on the health and behaviour, making it the central theme of rethinking urban contexts and their landscapes. The paper presented to the International Conference “Changing Cities” aims to illustrate and demonstrate, through a case study on Rome, how the regular movement of people in the city requires structural strategies able to build networks of routes based on systematic itineraries (home-work-services). This research [1], based on the medical input connected with new spatial concepts regarding the public space aims at raising public awareness of body and space care; Inducing a cultural and political change; decreasing of chronic diseases through correct life style; changing the offer of public spaces; improving environmental and economic sustainability.