Experiences of Participatory and Shared Co-Design: The Metaplan Method for a “Possible City” in Calitri (AV), Italy

Participating, in common usage, means taking part in a collective activity, intervening in a specific act or process. Participatory and shared planning involves the collaboration of various stakeholders in a community (citizens or social groups, administrators, technicians, etc.) who, through spaces and moments of discussion and elaboration, are involved in the conceptualization of a project that aims to translate into a proposal what emerges from the workshop activities. This article intends to present the experience of participatory and shared planning through the Metaplan method, carried out as part of the project called “The Possible City”. This experience originated from the proposal of students from the art high school in Calitri (AV), supported by school teachers, to rethink, through a redevelopment project, degraded places in their territory, transforming them into new urban spaces that are aggregative, functional and accessible to all, thanks to a participatory and shared process involving citizens. The phases of the process involved the school community of Calitri, the municipal administration, representatives of local associations, merchants and especially children, the elderly and people with disabilities, expanding forms of participation to entire the entire community through workshops, interviews and surveys aimed at understanding the history of the places, their function and community expectations. The Metaplan method, based on the visualization and organization of ideas in a structured manner, also lends itself to being enriched and perfected through the integration of new technologies, pedagogical approaches and inclusion strategies.