Picture by Elettra Bastoni.

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In 2020 City Space Architecture implemented a parklet in front of its operational headquarters in the Porto-Saragozza neighbourhood, via Curiel 13/d, in order to develop some placemaking activities by promoting community engagement, creating cross-disciplinary learning spaces and engaging an intergenerational audience and different social groups, with special attention to the elderly and young people.

The design, implementation and management of the parklet is part of A-Place. Linking places through networked artistic practices, co-funded by the Creative Europe program of the European Union. City Space Architecture is partner of A-Place, read more here.

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A parklet is a public space, for non-profit purposes and open to all, it can be used for free for events and initiatives for the neighbourhood.

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BACKGROUND STORY

As a response to the pandemic, City Space Architecture (CSA) got involved in a local project named “Strade Aperte” (Open Streets), initiated by a number of Bologna-based grassroots organizations together with architects and designers, in order to suggest small-scale projects to reclaim the public land for greener, pedestrian-friendly and socially inclusive purposes. CSA’s parklet was included in the list of actions of “Strade Aperte” to be presented to the Municipality.

Regrettably, the process of obtaining a permit of the local government, even with the support of the “Strade Aperte” project, took a long time (from May to September 2020). City Space Architecture also asked to sign an agreement to co-create the parklet and get institutional suppport on this initiative. Bologna is the first Italian city that approved in 2014 a 'Regulation on collaboration between citizens and the city for the care and regeneration of urban commons'. Read more about the Regulation here.
According to the administrative procedure, our request was published on the website of the Municipality, for public evidence, here. Unfortunately, the Municipality of Bologna rejected our proposal to co-create the parklet. However, the Municipality granted permission but asked to pay a fee for the occupation of the public land, from September 30th to November 30th, specifically for the area hosting three parking spots where the design proposal of parklet was implemented.

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City Space Architecture is a proud partner of the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences for the European project From Prevention to Resilience: Designing Public Spaces in Times of Pandemics, developed in cooperation with leading international Universities, such as Harvard University, The Bartlett at UCL, University of Sydney, and with high level professional organizations, such as UNStudio, Pakhuis de Zwijger, The Beach, and with PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency.

This project will explore and investigate the question: how can design interventions in public space for the 1.5-meter society also contribute to strengthening social and ecological resilience?

Through a combination of desk research, expert sessions with an international community of practice and research-through-design interventions, this research project aims to go beyond the purely practical prevention approach and explore how Covid-19 measures can be linked to making neighborhoods more resilient, both socially and ecologically.

Photo by Edwin Hooper on Unsplash.

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Two months ago, on 8-13 February 2020, we participated in the 10th World Urban Forum in Abu Dhabi as an exhibitor, and in collaboration with 16 global institutions we promoted the exhibition 'PUBLIC SPACE IS VITAL FOR AN EQUITABLE URBAN FUTURE' - read a full report here.
On April 7, while about 40% of global population was under coronavirus lockdown, we announced our brand new initiative '2020: A Year without Public Space under the COVID-19 Pandemic', that we are jointly developing with The Chinese University of Hong Kong, School of Architecture.

The initiative is curated by our Founder and President Luisa Bravo and by our Board Member Hendrik Tieben, Associate Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where he is also Associate Director of the School of Architecture and Director of the M.Sc. in Urban Design program, in cooperation with many academic scholars and researchers affiliated to leading Universities and non-profit organizations, including - but not limited to - the A Cidade Precisa de Você (Brazil), Centre for the Future of Places, KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden), co+labo radović, Architecture and Urban Design Laboratory, Keio University (Japan), College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning, & Orville Simpson Center for Urban Futures, University of Cincinnati, (USA), Consortium for Sustainable Urbanization (USA), Department of Architecture, University of Thessaly (Greece), I-AUD, Meiji University (Japan), Observatorio Ciudadano por el Derecho a la Ciudad y Espacios Públicos de Guayaquil (Ecuador), Public Space Research Group, Center for Human Environments at the Graduate Center of City University of New York (USA), QUT Design Lab, Queensland University of Technology (Australia), Research LAB for Urban Settlements and Landscapes, Graduate Institute of Building and Planning, National Taiwan University (Taiwan), RMIT University, School of Art, CAST - Contemporary Art and Social Transformation Research Group (Australia), Urban Design | Public Space, Department of Urbanism, Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) (The Netherlands), Urban @ Parsons, The New School (USA), Urban Relational Informatics Lab, The University of Auckland (New Zealand), Urban Commons Lab, University of Washington (USA), Urban Synergies Group (Australia).

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Description of the initiative
Social distance dictated by COVID-19 health emergency affects access to public space and with it creating a range of impacts on different levels. While global lockdown is destabilizing economy and challenging country leaders, at the human level the pandemic is generating isolation and loneliness, with a significant raise of helplessness and fear. Everyone is asked to stay home and rearrange daily routines and work activities in indoor domestic spaces, looking at the world from behind a window.
People are dying alone, numbers are increasingly high. Outdoor physical activities are no longer allowed. Many governments seem to lack proper strategies to manage the risk of massive contagion. In the Global South the poor living in informal settlements have scarce access to water, washing hands could be dangerously impossible.
What is the future of public space? How can we face this unprecedented emergency and get prepared to its consequences, in specific regard to health disparity? Public space restrictions will stay in place after recovering from the pandemic?
Is there something we can do now all together?
We, public space scholars and activists, believe that we can build social and health resilience by establishing an open environment for discussion and learning, while taking advantage of technology and virtual platforms that many can currently access for free. As the pandemic moves across different continents and urban conditions, we can share experiences from places where the virus had hit earlier or where recovery will start first.

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Follow updates on The Journal of Public Space, on the dedicated webpage.

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We are very proud to announce that City Space Architecture has been awarded with a grant from the Creative Europe program of the European Commission for the project A-PLACE. Linking places through networked artistic practices.

The purpose of A-Place is to design and implement art-centred place making activities that cut across disciplinary, cultural and geographic boundaries. Over the next four years (2019-2023), a series of actions (i.e. performances, installations, debates, and video and photography productions) will be carried out in six European cities: Barcelona, Bologna, Brussels, Lisbon, Ljubljana, and Nicosia. This site-specific research will examine the role of artistic practices as a catalyst for connecting and strengthening communities.

A-Place partnership includes nine organisations from six European countries, three schools of architecture – School of Architecture La Salle, Barcelona (Spain); Faculty of Architecture, University of Ljubljana (Slovenia); KU Leuven, Faculty of Architecture (Belgium); one Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Portugal), three multidisciplinary groups focusing on arts and community engaged urban interventions – Alive Architecture (Belgium), prostoRož (Slovenia), and Urban Gorillas (Cyprus); and two cultural agencies specialised in film and video art – Screen Projects (Spain), and City Space Architecture (Italy).

A-PLACE is dedicated to strengthening the bonds between people and places. 

The website of A-PLACE is: http://www.a-place.eu/

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As we previosuly announced, City Space Architecture was selected to be as an exhibitor in the 10th World Urban Forum in Abu Dhabi, on 8-13 February 2020. The World Urban Forum (WUF) was established in 2001 by the United Nations to address one of the most pressing issues facing the world today: rapid urbanization and its impact on communities, cities, economies, climate change and policies. The Forum is a high level, open and inclusive platform. This was the first time that an Arab country hosted the world’s most important conference on cities and human settlements. The theme of WUF10 in Abu Dhabi was 'Cities of Opportunities: Connecting Culture and Innovation'. 
City Space Architecture partnered with 16 global institutions to promote the UN Sustainable Development Goal 11 - Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable, with a specific interest on target 11.7 - By 2030, provide universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible, green and public spaces, in particular for women and children, older persons and persons with disabilities. 
The title of the exhibition was: PUBLIC SPACE IS VITAL FOR AN EQUITABLE URBAN FUTURE, and highlighted the following keywords: care, belonging, inclusion, diversity, innovation, culture, safety, prosperity, health, well-being, universal accessibility, entrepreneurship. 
City Space Architecture partnered with The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Healthbridge Foundation of Canada, Block by Block, Project for Public Spaces, University of Auckland, Columbia University, Federal University Rio de Janeiro, Auckland City Council, KTH Centre for the the Future of Places, IHC Global, Consortium for Sustainable Urbanization, Sustasis Foundation, Global Utmaning, Public Space Research Group (PSRG), Ukrainian City and Regional Planning Research Center, General Assembly of Partners (GAP) Older Persons. For more pictures and information check the event on our Facebook page.

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