Public Space-Led Urban Regeneration. The Identity and Functional Role of Rocco Petrone Square

The article addresses the issue of urban regeneration guided by the ‘reinvention’ of the functional role and the ‘enhancement’ of the identity role of public space. It is a strategy capable of promoting assets and resources that interface with public space because it encourages interaction between existing structures and living communities. The urban regeneration strategy assumes public space as an element that can foster perspectives, not only of urban-ecological and morphological-functional quality, but also of urban sustainability, equity, social and cultural inclusion and revitalization, efficiency and local economic development. The specificity of place and interaction with its context is taken into account to prepare interventions capable of returning livable and recognizable environments to cities based on the needs of their users. The case study of Rocco Petrone square, a public space that currently has no particular peculiarities, located into the Sasso di Castalda Municipality (Italy) is examined. The “Urban and Functional Redevelopment of Rocco Petrone Square” project has different phases: consideration of the design context; evaluation of design requirements; and identification of design goals. These are followed by: the selection of the design concept and the proposal of the design intervention. It is intended to reorganize and redefine the configurational features and promote its role as the center of social life through a mix of compatible uses, services, and activities with strong cultural, symbolic, communicative, ethical, identity, pedagogical, and inclusive connotations. This means making, not only the project area well-structured and usable, but also the context environment ecologically balanced and enjoyable in an aesthetic sense.