Redesigning “schools squares” for a public city: a proposal of classification and intervention

The conquest of new public spaces is one of the main options in processes of urban regeneration. It seems essential in contemporary cities, since our life occurs more and more indoors and in private contexts, reducing the role of public and outdoor activities. Among cultural-based urban regeneration projects that operate within those spaces waiting for an improvement of the existing public functions, schools can play a particularly prominent role, as well spread and symbolic institutions with an educational mission for young people. From this perspective, the paper discusses how school squares, namely the urban areas close to the entrance of schools, can be designed and regenerated to produce a real public space where the city meets the school and vice versa. The paper presents a methodology to classify different typologies of school squares, based on an extensive analysis on over 600 school squares, located in the provinces of Milan, Turin and Varese. On the basis of such classification, some guidelines are discussed in order to propose a strategy to redesign these symbolic spaces and to conquer them as public areas.