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Temporary uses represent innovative and experimental solutions to give new life to disused facilities and spaces while conserving their historical, identity and environmental value. By offering the opportunity to assign new functions and meanings to abandoned places and create economic and social development, these practices can play a strategic role in promoting an integrated approach as a starting point for urban regeneration processes. Based on these assumptions, this paper aims to investigate how temporary uses of disused urban spaces can interact in a practical sense with formal planning systems and urban policies. To do so, it analyses a European project implemented in Rome aimed at fostering temporary activities in public space and reactivating several disused areas by directly involving the local community. The paper proposes a few observations touching on two issues: firstly, whether the temporary use of disused space can be a practical opportunity to not only re-design urban space but also establish a new governance model. Secondly, whether such practices can effectively address the needs and aspirations of citizens, as a precondition for improving quality of life in the city. • The paper analyses the spatial opportunities and the social implications of temporary uses in urban areas. • It investigates the strategic role of temporary uses in urban regeneration. • It analyses the EU project TUTUR, which aims to promote temporary uses, paving the way to new experimentation models. • It explores the potentialities and limitations of these practices and their possible transfer to other contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]