A Model of Innovative Participation in Urban Regeneration Processes of Venues Born from a Collective Vocation: Parma Città d’Oro Experience

In Italy, participation is an emerging practice in the urban regeneration processes of public spaces. However, the experiences of the last few years leave some perplexities regarding their effectiveness, suggesting the necessity of codification. The end of urban sprawl led cities into a crisis scenario marking the beginning of the urban regeneration and Zero Land Consumption season. During this phase, the focus shifts from full spaces to empty ones and the existing city becomes the only possible context for intervention. In this scenario, the Urban Strategic Design (USD) tool integrates the enhancement in terms of urban identities attractiveness with the design of a cycle-pedestrian mobility network, leading to public spaces, urban parks and the historic center. This methodology provides to public authorities a support to operate on the settlement with the possibility to foresee scenarios to be shared through an oriented participation process. The USD methodology finds its ultimate validation in the project and the journey of sharing for the city of Parma. The first opportunity was, in 2016, the exhibition of Parma Città Futura (Parma Future City), combined with a participatory process of 10 roundtables with experts on the city's issues. Five years later, in 2021, the initiative Parma città d’oro (Parma golden city) represented a further validation of the experimental model on the city. The update of the urban projects was the basis for a participatory process articulated on two converging levels: the discussion with experts and the involvement of the citizens. The public discussion adopted an innovative tool, the Civil Atlas of Architecture, which represents a census of Parma's historical heritage born from a collective vocation. From this participatory design process emerged the importance of integrating two levels of involvement: a top-down participation with the experts, who offered guiding contributions, and a bottom-up participation with the population.