The design of urban quality: innovative community facilites in support of strategies of urban renewal a methodological proposal

Currently, urban planning theory and practice is focusing on the renewal and enhancement of the existing urban settlements and no longer on enlargement and expansion of the city. Generally, cities are looking for the sustainable use of resources, paying particular attention to environmental and social aspects. The urban quality and collective well-being cannot be separated from the identification of a network, structuring of the city, of infrastructures and services that are not resolved in the themes provided by legislation. In fact, the characteristics, that transform a place into a liveable area, derive from a set of tangible and intangible urban endowments, that evolve continuously according to their type. Without a balance between the built environment and the consequent urban facilities and services, which are named as Standard Urbanistici (Urban Standards) by the Italian legislation, a town can go into crisis. In Italy, almost fifty years on from the issue of the Decree on the Urban Standards (DI no.1444/1968), currently in force, the problems relating to their planning are unresolved and, moreover, exacerbated: application methods, criteria for the users computing, land acquisition processes, raising funding to move from planning to implementation and management of the infrastructures. Noting the failure of attempts to define, a priori, a quantity of universally valid services, it is necessary to rethink the strategies and criteria for the provision of infrastructure. In order to meet the real needs of local communities, which are continuously changing, elastic and flexible facilities must be coupled also with a change in the method for their determination and verification. Consequently, a need for the redefinition of tools to interpret the social dynamics and to ensure and assess a changed concept of urban and environmental quality can be revealed, through the identification of innovative equipment and services. “The Urban Standards are and will be those specific services and facilities which the local community, over time, recognizes as basic and essential for the balanced structuring of the territory, and that are standard, i.e. constant, for its management” (Lr Lombardia no.01/2001). From an initial analysis of the current situation, on the basis of technical references, and from the best practices on services planning, a methodology was developed to evaluate the system of urban standards quantitatively and qualitatively, in order to fully understand what the priorities are and the benefits they can bring. The intent of the methodology is to define an innovative tool to support land use decisions and to implement the planning of services (Piano dei Servizi). From the application to the planning of services of different techniques, tools and models belonging to different disciplines, the methodology has been defined and integrated into the practice of traditional urban planning, thus becoming also a regeneration tool of the urban system. The methodology has been tested in various municipal systems, producing significant results, reflecting the identity of the places and their morphological, social, cultural and economic features. The conclusion of the work also tracks possible future developments, which can turn to an operational simplification of the methodology in order to guide the definition of legislation for new services planning. [edited by Author]