In the neighbourhood. Spatial Design and Urban Activation

Neighbourhoods of contemporary cities are ‘hypersensitive’ and ‘fragile’ areas where dismantling and transformation processes generate fragmentation and displacement. Reconstruction and re-occupation of urban spaces guided by residents are becoming increasingly frequent in these places; inhabitants, claim local references to their identity and their daily lives. This book presents some reflections on the role of design discipline in this fertile and proactive context, proposing specific research methodologies and intervention strategies in close relation with the resident population, building new skills, creating original synergies, and new processes of inclusion and social innovation. The research done at the Design department in the Politecnico di Milano aims at generating future scenarios of hybridization of functions, places, activities that will provide an answer to the future development of neighbourhoods.