4. Re-thinking Urban Open Space as a Tool for “Normality”

Each crisis opens new scenarios in which the concept of normality must be completely reviewed and redefined also in terms of resources and opportunities that can help design a future with a strong adaptive connotation. While the pandemic emergency has exposed our weaknesses on the one hand, on the other it has brought out our ability to react, to build positive dynamics starting from traumatic events. In other words, we had to adopt resilient approaches. Even in more strictly scientific terms, the pandemic has led us to adopt new schemes, to use new resources. It is precisely by sharing this approach, also experimented in recent research experiences, that the authors propose a series of considerations in which the urban open space is conceived as an articulated system able to provide not only an important reserve of space, compared to the more restricted living dimension, but also a tool to ensure a kind of “normality”. The criticalities linked to social distancing represent, for the authors, an opportunity to experiment with differentiated modes of use, to imagine “places in which to regain trust in others and re-establish a civic sense of belonging, for example through activities of “controlled” social aggregation, counteracting the loneliness of the new modes of living and working and guaranteeing a space of release from the spatial constraints of urban residences” (LAND 2020). The idea is to define a model that works on a new quality and livability of urban open spaces, but especially on their relationship with neighbouring rural contexts, transforming each area into a spatial/functional element of an articulated network of open spaces that meets ecological-environmental, health and social needs.