How can we plan better cities for all?

Our proposal focuses on how to transform public space to develop a more inclusive and accessible city for everyone. People have always built and will continue building cities as living spaces, and those who live in them have the right to demand places where they can meet each other, play, dream and relax. After studying some good examples of public space design, we recognize two important key concepts: what is an urban space and what is an urban place. The relation between people and urban spaces creates places with a new set of shared-values that generates further value for places themselves. Public place design has a key role in urban transformations and in defining urban identity: it aims at having a better cohesion among all the renewal interventions in a city, improving impacts on the health and welfare of urban citizens and including people within design processes. Public life actually is a key factor in urban development to improve public space quality and today this goal is an urgent challenge for every city. To redesign urban places is also a key factor to develop a city for all that is inclusive, more liveable, which promotes equal opportunities and is accessible to everyone. So we need to focus on three different design approaches that set the transformation of public spaces in better places to live: first, to remove every kind of barrier (not only the architectural ones) that cannot contribute to a further city development; second, to re-think the relation between buildings and the city to plan better mobility changes that allow everyone to go everywhere and not only to have access to some buildings; last, to consider people not only as tourists but also as citizens with their specific needs in their everyday life.