The demand for quality of public spaces has grown exponentially over time, and the number of new spaces has significantly increased.
Consequently, the relationship between public spaces such as parks, squares and streets and the quality of urban life has attracted a
lot of interest from policymakers, researchers, designers and citizens (Levine, 1984, Dixon, Levine, and McAuley 2006). Several critical
questions surround this public interest in the form and meaning of public spaces. How do the dimensions of architectural, urban,
technological, cultural and social nature intersect each other in defining the quality of public spaces? Taking into account the impacts
caused by the uncritical embrace of a rhetorical version of the concept of quality, how it can be theoretically defined? How can we
speak of "quality" when in the most of our cities there is polarization between areas of relative well being and innovation and areas of
unacceptable degradation? What does the smartness of public spaces consist of? How to catch the discrepancy between media
representation (digitalization and computation) of space and the materiality/imaginary of social processes? What kind of quality is
associate to social space re-appropriation by citizens' performances?
The aim of the project is to develop an analytic and interpretive framework on quality of public spaces, deeply innervated in the observation and analysis of both structures and material objects as well as social practices. The empirical field are some urban areas
appropriately chosen in Rome. The project is implemented as the part of an exchange project, from a comparative perspective, with the
Collaborative Research Centre CRC 1265 "Re-Figuration of Spaces" that is going to carry out the same research in Berlin. This collaboration is aimed towards co-building of research methods and results that are going to be shared through the planning of periodic and continuous events of scientific exchange.
This approach has a high potential for innovation regarding the relationship between the re-figuration of spaces on the one hand and subjective spatial experience on the other hand. Re-figuration in relation to the public spaces has hardly been systematically investigated up to now, while the quality of the social has not been addressed at all in research. The quality of the public space does not coincide with control or compliance with standards but can be conceived as a hybrid, ambivalent and above all relational multidimensional concept. To grasp such complexity in the project we have two orientations. The first is the research of the quality of public space that is 'hologramatic' or inclusive of peripheral, decentralized, marginal areas and subjects but also bearers of logical re-appropriation of public space. The second is to embrace the trans-disciplinarity of the concept of intrinsic quality to Re-figuration: a quality emerging from the exhausting negotiation from which arise the spatial structuration of social practice.
The innovation of the research towards we aim is to carry out empirical research in Rome in constant exchange with the international team that will carry out the research in Berlin. The research group in Berlin (which will carry out their part of research on their own budget) is a part of the collaborative research centre CRC 1265 "Re-Figuration of Spaces (https://sfb1265. en)". The CRC 1265 brings together researchers from the disciplines of sociology, architecture, urban planning, geography, media and communication studies with the objective to investigate the radical changes in socio-spatial orders since 1960.
This close collaboration will allow us to activate an international and trans-disciplinary project laboratory in which will be integrated different methodological approaches, data and forms of presentation to investigate global and contemporary space. The pooling of networks and events of scientific exchange such as thematic workshops, seminars, talks and exhibitions will allow a constant comparison between Rome and Berlin. Furthermore, the co-design of scientific publications and the definition of periodic workshops are offered as an opportunity to expand the target audience (scientific and policy) mutually and exponentially.
A further element of innovation is referred to the ways we intend to the public the results of the research. In addition to publication in internationally renowned journals, we propose to broaden the spectrum and the type of interaction with the potential public through other types of devices that are aimed towards reaching a wider audience, not only academic. In this regard, our proposal includes, as the relevant part of the project, the production of materials such as Urban scale maps, platforms to collect and distribute the outcomes of the project, visual and documentary material and, above all, their composition in conceptual and aesthetic research paths. Additional GIS (geographic information system) layers will be compiled in order to geographically represent the quantitative indicators and parameters that will be defined for each area of interest. A platform will be developed by using the open-source library, populated by open-access data while maintaining access to the working team for data exchange and communication.
The production of maps, cartographies and contemporary aesthetic languages is an innovative practice because it combines conceptual and aesthetic reflexivity (Lash 1984). Documentary images (Toti 2015, 2016) offer a detailed representation of material life and its context. They constitute documents for the analysis and interpretation of the forms and aspects of human interactions and they allow us to understand social and cultural history, imaginary, the different representations over time between persistence and changes (Ciampi 2015, 2016; Toti 2017). Documentary images are powerful heuristic tools with a strong communicative impact for the analysis of new phenomena and the exploration of the experiences of social actors through the evocation of sensations and memories, with the narrative and reflexive dimension (Harper 1988).
The Geomatic and Geodesy team led by Maria Marsella and Nomas-Foundation (Raffaella Frascarelli) will participate in the production and composition of creative material exhibition paths in addition to the group of sociologists.