Residual Urban Spaces and new Communities of Social Practices

Abstract

Can general urban strategies and contextual tactical actions cooperate, coexist and learn from each other? The paper discusses this general issue by structuring the theme into three parts: the first, a survey on Urban Acupuncture and Tactical Urbanism, in terms of cases and international reference literature; the second, the presentation of the Milan case, an operational experience that experiments in the field the cohabitation and reciprocal enhancement between the general plan (in which the Urban Regeneration has the leading role) and punctual tactical actions; the third part explores aspects and methods of coexistence and mutual learning between general urban strategies and local and contextual actions. A strong, but probably necessary, challenge, not only to restore credibility and operability to the general plan with a new framework regulation and a multi-scale and multi-dimensional approach thus allowing the community to deploy its daily, social and economic attitudes (the plan as an enabling scenario); but also to restore - with a newfound attitude to the care of places and through a homeopathic approach to the project and the process - value, meaning and quality to the fragmented and residual spaces that characterize the contemporary city.