Activities Research & public engagement

Research & public engagement

PracticEUA Chair directly builds on the already implemented “Regional Design methodologies for implementing the European Urban Agenda - ReD4EUA” Module that, in turn, was built on the previous successful experiences of the research project “AREA VASTA 2.0. A new form of localism in Italy: challenges, risks and opportunities for spatial planning across local boundaries” funded with 300.000 euros by the Ministry of Education, Universities and Research within the framework of the prestigious SIR Programme (Scientific Independence for Young Researchers, the Italian version of ERC Starting Grant), which allowed the applicant institution to be recognized as a leading research centre in Regional Design at the European level. As a result, the ReD4EUA has represented its ancillary spin-off in terms of teaching and research activities concerning the implementation of the EUA in urban areas and attracting EU research activities.

In particular, the experience gained within the module has led professor Lingua to Coordinate the University of Florence research team within the frame of the project “ESPON METRO - The Role and Future Perspectives of Cohesion Policy in the Planning of Metropolitan Areas and Cities” (ESPON Targeted Analysis). The project provided evidence on how 9 EU Metropolitan Areas can contribute to achieve specific objectives of Cohesion Policy (CP) through their policies, giving advice on how CP should take them into account within the new context of the post-pandemic era, in the light of new challenges and emerging issues.

Moreover, the issues of the just and green city are crucial within the research project co-coordinated by Professors Valeria Lingua and Nicoletta Setola “Quartieri Sani Hub - Healthy and inclusive neighbourhoods for the communities of the metropolitan city of Florence. Strategies and planning scenarios for an healthy city of proximity and for the active aging of population”, aiming to explore the opportunities̀ to define design scenarios and policy guidelines for improving the spatial and environmental conditions of public spaces, with a focus on health houses and the promotion of active aging and healthy living within the metropolitan city of Florence.

The present Chair continues along this path, by focussing on innovative teaching activities able to involve the civil society, and goes further by proposing and enlarged view on the topics of the Urban Agenda for the EU in the light of recent challenges.

Within this framework, the PracticEUA Chair proposes a reading of the Urban Agenda in the light of the New Leipzig Charter 2020 and to the connected operational document, the European Territorial Agenda 2030, namely the reference framework for territorial development in the European Union agreed by the Ministers of the EU-Member States responsible for territorial development on December 2020 under German presidency.

The Chair will offer students and practitioners skills to move toward the implementation of these policy documents within the local contexts of neighbourhoods, cities and regional areas, in order to answer to the call of the EU Territorial Agenda 2030 for “a sustainable future for all places in Europe”. The Chair’s contribution to this claim is based on enhancing reflection, providing best practices and producing place-based innovative spatial planning and urban regeneration solutions aiming to develop:

- a Just Europe, that offers future perspectives for all places and people through a better balanced development utilizing Europe’s diversity as a driver for fuelling change based on distinctiveness and local identity and fight inequality between places

- a Green Europe, that protects common livelihoods and shapes societal transition by promoting and healthy environment, characterised by better ecological livelihoods and climate-neutral and resilient towns, cities and regions,

The research activities of the Chair are developed and disseminated in partnership with the AESOP TG on Regional Design, an international research group in the framework of the Association of European Schools of Planning – AESOP, aiming to explore new paths for planning at the regional and metropolitan level, in a context of governance rescaling in which spatial planning policies and practices, still traditionally anchored to rigid administrative boundaries, are now challenged to be reinvented. Processes of defining and redefining sub-regional boundaries call for spatial visioning and design for shaping the boundaries of urban regions, providing pro-active knowledge of their characteristics and trends and conceiving shared visions of their spatial development.