Apprendere nel-LO spazio pubblico. I servizi per l’educazione tra interno ed esterno.

The design of the “welfare space” is today recognized as interesting analysis field among urban planners, due to the different needs of the general public and individuals and limited investment resources on the part of administrations. Several factors like the need of limiting land use, the economic crisis affecting administrations’ budgets and hampering the dynamism of the private sector, together with the need for “room” for the various and different current practices, influence the perspective of urban planners on urban services. “The careful search for the physical and real dimensions of individual and collective well-being” (Secchi, 2005) could well take into account either a new concept or a transformation of urban facilities and “excipients” (Officina Welfare Space, 2011), which are crucial to improve living conditions, especially where city living gets “difficult”. Certainly, planning an urban texture promoting and strengthening social relations is a matter of quantitative (standards) and qualitative thinking. In particular, the new concept of community and the influence of space on the creation of social relations (Giddens, 1990) must be taken into account as far as areas with no distinct collective landmark and in which spatial proximity does not imply social integration (Cremaschi, 2008) are concerned. Integrated planning approaches are needed, combining different planning levels, competences, stakeholders and mere architectural aspects. Among all those traditionally connected to the idea of “welfare space”, education facilities could well still be considered “one of the few urban areas which can still retain the ‘socialising’ features […] of Italian squares in the past”. (Giagnoni, 2008). The paper features planning analysis for the requalification of a social housing district in Udine, in which the scarce usability of urban areas, together with the lack of proper housing management and upkeep, resulted in social difficulties and alienation among residents. The plan for a new crèche, physically connected to socio-cultural micro-services and open to shared use, ensuring the access of various kinds of users to the same facility, is an “inclusive” proposal. Its aim is that of binding together open spaces which are now difficult to manage and social groups which are now separate.