60
Urban Studies
REGGIO DI CALABRIA
Overview
Date/time interval
Syllabus
Course Objectives
Educational Objective
The course aims to provide students with theoretical, analytical, and operational tools to address public space design as a strategic lever for territorial regeneration, with particular attention to fragile, marginal, and evolving contexts. The goal is to develop an integrated, participatory approach that is sensitive to the specificity of local places and communities.
Qualifying Educational Objectives:
These objectives relate to the student's overall training as a designer aware of the territorial, social, and cultural context.
Understand the role of public space as a social, cultural, and ecological infrastructure in urban and territorial regeneration processes.
Develop an integrated and systemic approach to design, capable of considering the interconnections between spatial quality, accessibility to services, social cohesion, and collective well-being.
Develop a critical awareness of spatial inequalities and territorial fragility, recognizing marginal contexts as places of potential transformation and innovation.
Promote a design ethic centered on sustainability, inclusion, and the empowerment of local communities.
Specific Learning Objectives
The specific objectives are to provide a framework for the scientific debate and political strategies through the renewed interest in inland areas, which is characterized by a new perception of these places, recognizing their symbolic value and new use values.
These objectives relate to the concrete skills that students will acquire through exercises, workshops, and case studies.
1. Acquire tools for territorial analysis and interpretation of public space in villages and fragile contexts (morphology, uses, infrastructure, social relations).
2. Design micro-urban regeneration interventions at the local scale, using lightweight techniques, simple materials, and reversible strategies, consistent with the resources and identities of places.
3. Know how to activate and manage participatory processes, using listening methodologies, co-design, sensitive mapping, and self-construction to involve residents in the project.
4. Enhance the intangible heritage and the narrative dimension of the landscape, integrating them into the project proposal as elements that generate meaning and belonging.
5. Develop and communicate a comprehensive project proposal, consistent with the objectives of proximity, sustainability, and social durability, through graphic, narrative, and strategic documents.
Course Prerequisites
Knowledge and ability to read and interpret urban and territorial maps, aimed at project development.
Teaching Methods
1_ COURSE STRUCTURE AND TEACHING
Lectures: (hours/year in classroom): 10
Exercises: (hours/year in classroom): 15
Practical activities: (hours/year in classroom): 27
Other: 8
2_ AUTONOMOUS LEARNING OF THE STUDENT
Students are required to complete a total of 90 hours of individual work:
- In-depth study of the bibliography (theoretical part): 20 hours
- Test preparation (experimental): 35 hours
Exam preparation: 35 hours
Assessment Methods
The exam will consist of a review of the student's educational background and experiences. The exercises will be developed according to the thematic guidelines indicated by the instructor.
Periodic checks of the survey and graphic rendering process will be conducted to ensure the accuracy of the method and the appropriateness of the results.
The exam includes both a review of the theoretical training related to the topics covered during the course and an evaluation of the graphic works produced by the students according to the thematic guidelines indicated by the instructor.
Exam method: theory and practice.
Assessment method
• Project papers (individual or group) – 50%
Evaluation of proposed solutions, consistency with the context, ability to interpret social needs and local resources.
• Documentation and presentation of participatory activities – 25%
Quality of mapping and co-design tools, effective communication, ability to account for the participatory process.
• Final presentation and critical reflection – 25%
Completeness and clarity of the project proposal, use of effective language, and summary of the results achieved during the course.
Access restrictions:
Attendance is not mandatory but recommended. Attendance at least 70% of the course lessons is recommended.
Texts
Bibliography
Carrà N., (2024). Borghi nuovi. Paesaggi della contemporaneità, LetteraVentidue Edizioni, Siracusa (experimentation)
Carra’ N., Pultrone G., (2025). Leave no place behind. Politiche e strategie per la transizione processi e progetti di rigenerazione territoriale inclusiva, Aracne ed., Roma (theory)
Alberti, L., & Cortesi, A. (a cura di) (2023). Mappe e comunità. Cartografie collaborative per leggere e trasformare il territorio. LetteraVentidue. (theory)
De Rossi A. (a cura di, 2018), Riabitare l’Italia. Le aree interne tra abbandono e riconquiste, Donzelli, Roma
(theme year)
Ceschin, F., & Gaziulusoy, I. (2019). Design for System Innovations and Transitions. Springer.
(experimentation)
Sitography
https://www.consilium.europa.eu/it/policies/the-eu-budget/long-term-eu-budget-2021-2027/
https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/eu-budget/long-term-eu-budget/2021-2027/whats-new_it
EU Cohesion Policy 2021_ 2027
https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/2021-2027_en
https://www.agenziacoesione.gov.it/lacoesione/le-politiche-di-coesione-in-italia-2014-2020/programmazione-2021-2027/?lang=en
http://www.programmazioneeconomica.gov.it/2018/08/21/strategia-nazionale-delle-aree-interne/
Other teaching materials
- Handouts and materials provided by the instructor.
- Thematic reading lists and other resources for further study will be recommended during the course and made available to students.
Contents
1_DESCRIPTION
The Design for Public Space (Urban/Coastal) course addresses the design of collective space as a strategic tool for territorial regeneration, the construction of local identity, and the promotion of social cohesion. Public space, in its various configurations and scales—from the square to the waterfront, from urban voids to the edge of a village—is explored as a living, accessible, and dynamic place, capable of sparking new relationships between people, communities, and the environment.
The course focuses on micro-urban regeneration processes in villages and inland areas, where public space represents a crucial resource for countering marginalization, abandonment, and social fragmentation. In these contexts, we experiment with a design approach that is attentive to the local scale, slow-paced, and simple materials, capable of enhancing territorial specificities and activating latent energies.
The course promotes design approaches geared toward the active participation of local communities and strengthening their empowerment. The design of public space is understood as the outcome of a shared process, in which residents become co-authors of the transformation of the places they inhabit, through activities of listening, co-design, self-construction, and care.
Public space is thus explored not only in its physical dimension, but also as a field of social, educational, and cultural experimentation, where new forms of coexistence and territorial resilience can be generated. The course aims to provide students with design, critical, and operational tools to intervene in local landscapes, with sensitivity to the fragility and potential of marginalized territories, and with the aim of producing shared, accessible, and lasting value.
2_COURSE PROGRAMME
The course program is implemented in the first semester, with 12 weeks of activities that include lectures, seminars, applications, exercises, and midterm tests.
The course will address the quality of urban space, the presence of services and infrastructure, and the integrity of the landscape as territorial determinants capable of promoting human well-being, economic growth, and social cohesion. The debate on the nature of inequalities has highlighted how the most fragile territories and neighborhoods constitute a limit to people's growth and development, and how inequalities are often concentrated in places lacking opportunities and where the degradation of physical space stigmatizes local populations. The course focuses on integrated territorial development actions, recognizing that every human, social, and economic activity cannot be separated from the physical context in which it occurs.
The topics covered will include:
Public space as a territorial lever
- Public space and local regeneration
- The role of public space in processes of social cohesion, identity, and resilience.
- Critical reading of marginal territories: depopulation, abandonment, latent resources.
Case studies of village regeneration
- Micro-regeneration and low-threshold design
- Lightweight strategies for fragile contexts
- Temporary, reversible, low-impact interventions at a local scale.
- Simple materials, essential construction techniques, sustainability.
Community and participatory processes
Co-design, listening, and community empowerment
Tools for participation: exploratory walks, workshops, mapping.
The role of local communities as co-authors of the project.
Experimentation: designing with the identity of places
The experimental part of the course is dedicated to exploring the methods and design strategies best suited to regeneration processes in inland areas and small villages, understood as complex territorial systems characterized by cultural landscapes with strong identity-building value. The design approach is based on a thorough understanding of the context—physical, social, and symbolic—and on the valorization of the tangible and intangible heritage of places. The dimension of proximity becomes an operational criterion: we work on accessible, everyday public spaces capable of fostering relationships, a sense of belonging, and new forms of coexistence.
Strategies for Proximity – Final Project
The final project will focus on designing a micro-urban regeneration project in one of the villages of the Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria, selected for its marginality, landscape value, and regenerative potential.
Students will be asked to:
-Analyze the local context and its vulnerabilities/resources;
-Implement participatory reading and sensitive mapping tools;
-Develop lightweight, site-specific design strategies, with attention to materials, reversibility, and long-term management;
-Propose solutions capable of enhancing local identity, stimulating community initiative, and generating lasting impacts on collective well-being.