Co-designing Socio-Cultural Hybrid Spaces: methods and transformative practices

Culture-based urban regeneration can be interpreted as a vector of transformation capable of generating value not only in terms of physical redevelopment of spaces, but also in terms of social co-hesion and sustainable development. This contribution highlights how Socio-cultural Hybrid Spaces (SCHS) can be co-designed as enablers of new forms of publicness, inclusion, territorial trans-formation, and community resilience. Situated at the intersection of institutional policies and grassroots initiatives, these spaces serve as experimental platforms where social innovation, cultural production, and civic engagement converge. Within this framework, the OSMOSI research project investigates SCHS as proximity-based urban devices and infrastructures for territo-rial regeneration. This contribution provides an overview of the participatory strategies underpinning the project, situating them within a broader theoretical and operational context. Through the case of Open Casello, it highlights how participatory strategies, interdisciplinary academic frameworks, and SCHS can activate co-designed services, collaborative governance, and plural community-driven transformations.