During the 20th century, in Trieste (as in the rest of Europe) council housing estates were laboratories for translating Welfare State policies into large quantities of public spaces and equipment: houses, schools, playgrounds, sport facilities, health districts, parks. Today, going back to work in these contexts means reflecting on how this huge stock shows multiple problems. Here, poor spatial quality and lack of maintenance encounter an increasing demand for social and health assistance, due to the economic crisis, the changes in social structure, the proliferation of needs that often struggle to find answers in traditional public policies. Strong is the necessity to re-think the forms and meanings of spaces and services (from physical layout to management), in order to re-build collaboration between institutions and citizens.
Based on research and experiences of interactive urban design developed by the University of Trieste with the support of public and third sector actors, this contribution reflects on: the need to re-orient welfare policies from a quantitative, functionalist and abstract attitude to a solid integration with the qualities of their physical setting; the importance and the role of intermediate actors within processes of urban renewal characterized by bottom-up and top-down actions; how these processes invite to re-think the forms and scales of urban design solutions in relation to the emerging of new social and economic conditions and ways of living indoor and outdoor common spaces.
