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The current Covid-19 pandemic has interested the whole word, changing habits and use of places and cities. In the lockdown period, cities and public spaces became completely empty and new urban landscapes substituted the previous ones, transforming the private in public. Children, young and elder people were those who mainly had problems: to them, real life was negated at the time of their life in which this is more important. In Italy, the second country after China which was interested by the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, the reopening of all the public spaces happened after 2 months of closure. This allowed again "in presence" social interactions, although in respect of the physical distance, confirming the importance of these places for all people. Starting from these premises, the aim of this paper is to present the results of a study carried in the framework of the Horizon 2020 research project Urban Maestro, New Governance Strategies for Urban Design, of the ISMed-National Research Council post Covid research, and of the INU Community Public Space, the last two initiatives coordinated by the author. The objective is to identify the relationships between theory and practice of the Charter of Public Space after 10 years of its creation, and verify its validity, in particular, in this Covid-19 emergency period. The Charter of Public Space was adopted during the second Biennial of Public Space held in Rome in 2013 and presented at the Quito Habitat 3 Conference in 2016. In those events many principles were used for the New Urban Agenda discussion concerning quality of public spaces. To achieve the goal of the research, an original method of analysis was created and about thirty case studies were collected, nine of which will be illustrated in this paper. The cases were selected because they follow many principles of the Charter and are then characterized by quality of design and flexibility of use. Accordingly, the update of some principles of the Charter was necessary to meet the new Covid-19 pandemic needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Placemaking, in the sense of 'the art of making places for people', to paraphrase the definition given in By Design: Urban Design in the Planning System, 'includes the way places work and such matters as community safety, as well as how they look. It concerns the connections between people and places, movement and urban form, nature and the built fabric, and the processes for ensuring successful villages, towns and cities'. The city thus becomes the outcome of complex intersections created by a number of operators who modify the system for different reasons. It becomes necessary to identify a microsystem within the macrosystem of the city able to make the urban variants intelligible: place is at once porous and resistant, a receptor for complex interactions. The concept of place, in the sense of a space endowed with unique features that is fundamental for establishing the identity of the contemporary city, is meant as a key concept of urban design. We illustrate the environmental, historic, symbolic, urban, perceptive, anthropological, sociological and psychological characteristics, extending as far as virtual place and non-place. The extension of the concept of place is that of place identity which is considered ≪not in the sense of equality with something else, but with the meaning of individuality or oneness≫. The concepts of both place and identity will be illustrated in the article with reference to texts produced by architects, urban planners, sociologists, geographers, environmental psychologists, anthropologists, historians and philosophers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article uses the PlaceMaker method of analysis and design of urban landscapes. The method is a key resource for assessing the identity of places and measures for its enhancement, reconstruction and design. By using different tools for analysis and interpretation of places and questionnaires administered to their users, PlaceMaker finds the identity material that the city has available and how to decompose and re-compose it for its sustainable project transformation. Pedestrian-intensive areas, in particular urban, cultural and historical poles of attraction, increasingly bear the imprint of globalisation, conveying messages that have developed in an uncontrolled manner and are aimed at conveying their users' patterns of thought and action. The presence of a dense mixture of contrasting elements and perceptions can detract from the image of a city. This article presents a synopsis of an experiment carried out in an historic axe in London - Oxford Street - where globalisation is in danger of levelling out the beauty of the area in favour of widespread genericity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on several kinds of perceptions including visual, sound, and smell which contribute to people's knowledge on urban environment. She states that one of the significant elements of visual suggestion is represented by some contemporary architecture that the main objective is aesthetic. She says that sound perception in places has no boundaries and emphasizes space rather than objects. The author mentions that smell arouses emotive sensations and directly involves cognition.