Urban regeneration plays a very important role in the evolution of cities, which have been home to the majority of the world’s population for some years now. It is one of the best ways to improve the daily lives of many persons. Transformations can only have positive results, however, if they are properly planned, implemented and managed. This is the weak point of regeneration policies in general, and of Italy’s in particular. Indeed, national and local administrations have often displayed a limited capacity for guidance that has instead led to an urban sprawl. This, in turn, has led to housing that is frequently disconnected from major mobility infrastructures and services and an excessively intrusive bureaucratic micro-management that inevitably delays project completion.
The PNRR on the one hand, and major events on the other, are important drivers of urban regeneration. First and foremost because both accelerate investments and also impose rigid time constraints: the former associated with securing financing by advancing project proposals and the latter – which for Italy include over the short term, the 2025 Jubilee Year, and the 2026 Milan/Cortina Winter Olympic Games – strictly ruled by scheduling. Moreover, such occasions facilitate action at multiple levels: the regeneration of a city should not solely concern the housing component but also all associated services, from mobility-related to utilities, while encompassing areas devoted to work, culture, socialization, sports and so forth.
It would then be advisable to consider transformative processes that ripple concentrically beyond urban perimeters to suburban areas. In other words, city services cannot and must not be designed strictly for residents but expand to include the categories of “city users” and tourists, each of which comes with their own demands but also brings resources and energies that can contribute to renewal.
After all, urban regeneration, in addition to having an impact on daily life, can also contribute to the redefinition of a city’s identity, which can no longer be simply “generically” Italian but rather express specific territorial traits, and precise strategic choices can make that possible. This is the case of Milan, which has come to be known as a city of science, innovation and universities. The successful redefinition of its identity was certainly made possible by the combination of a vibrant economic fabric and some specific urban features, such as a relatively contained surface area and fluid mobility. In any case, it is important to point out that the effects of these processes are “glocal” in nature: they impact concretely on the territory while at the same time generating new networks of national, international and global relations. In this way shaping the perception of those who live there, visit there or even just hear the city talked about.
From a social standpoint, not to be neglected is the need to address the economic imbalances that urban regeneration can cause – from gentrification to changes in the economic fabric of entire neighborhoods – placing particular attention on the redistribution of benefits across the territory and the society. Countering social fractures between the city and suburban areas, without neglecting the hinterlands, is also essential in order to avoid sending the message that the advantages of transformation are reserved for an elite few.
The PNRR, major events, and urban regeneration are also all linked by the temporal dimension of the development. The effects and potential benefits of each intervention cannot be fully assessed for a decade, which makes the planning stage all the more important. For planning to be successful, decision-makers must begin by listening to and involving all stakeholders, not least to avoid the abovementioned social fractures. In launching truly ambitious projects, effective strategy that takes its cue from real needs is just as important as financing. Those real needs cannot depend solely on the availability of funds. Equally important, what these projects will leave behind becomes an essential factor in producing a valid project. Finally, the intermediary phase of construction and management is more likely to be successful if it can make the transition from being “extraordinary” in nature – as major events and the PNRR inherently are – to being ordinary “business as usual”. Projects must regularly involve institutions, administrations and citizens in dialogue as well as new models of management capable of going beyond urgency.
Italy’s rich and variegated patrimony of public domain real estate can play a pivotal role in this scenario, but there is a need there for restoration and reassignment of function. On the one hand, spaces should be opened to the citizenry; on the other, new facilities and more targeted services – linked to tourism and leisure activities in general – should be created without further consuming the territory. All of this could, in the end, provide an armature for the socially, economically and ecologically sustainable regeneration of urban areas.