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Aim of the paper is to illustrate the main results of a study concerning some of the best practices of public spaces in Italy, starting from the Charter of Public Space which was adopted during the second Biennial of Public Space held in Rome in May 2013, adopted by the Naples Commune in June 2013 and presented at the Quito Habitat 3 Conference, during which many principles were used for the New Urban Agenda discussion concerning quality public spaces. In order to comprehend the relationship between theory and practice and verify the validity of the Charter after 10 years of its creation and, in particular, in this sanitary emergency period, about 30 case studies were collected, of which two in the Mediterranean area will be illustrated, namely Genoa and Palermo waterfronts. To achieve this goal an ad hoc database was created - the QPS-D@ taC + - Quality Public Space D@ta Collection plus - to analyse the cases. Accordingly, the updating of some principles of the Charter conclude the paper. The Charter is composed by 50 principles that are a sort of guidelines for livable and sustainable public spaces. All the principles are related to the achievement of the urban quality: «Public spaces are a key element of individual and social well-being, the places of a community's collective life, expressions of the diversity of their common natural and cultural richness and a foundation of their identity. The community rec- ognizes itself in its public places and pursues the improvement of their spatial quality» (principle 7). Furthermore, as the paper is going to illustrate, the increasing distinctiveness of the Mediterranean territories also observed in the Palermo, Genoa, and the other waterfront cases, made necessary to update the Charter to better focus on the Mediterranean peculiarities.

Multiple kinds of crisis more and more occur simultaneously, making difficult to resolve challenging urban conditions as different risks are overlapped and involve social, economic, environmental, health and liveable topics. Furthermore, any place is different and has its peculiarities with respect to material and immaterial characteristics and, for this reason, has different times and modalities to face crisis. In line with this concept, risks are also different among them and e.g. resilience to environmental risk is different from resilience to economic one. To achieve a sustainable adaptation and regeneration of the places affected by multiple risks it is important to study the questions by many points of view and using suitable urban methods. Starting from these premises, aims of this study, carried out in the framework of the "PRIN2020 20209F3A37" research project, within the ISMed-CNR Unit with the author's responsibility, include the following. First, to define and identify what are the kinds of risk and the main kinds of overlapping among them in sites. The identification of risks requires an accurate analysis of places, while the possible overlapping could require a certain degree of uncertainty, being difficult priorly know the periods in which the different crises will occur. Second, to identify what are the main places which are - or could be - subjected at multiples risks. Main places include: historic places in poor state of maintenance; historic places with mass tourism; public spaces; places interested by earthquake or other environmental disasters; and places characterized by isolation for many reasons. Third, to propose an original and ad hoc method to comprehend what are the better and sustainable solutions in terms of adaptation and regeneration of different kinds of places interested by multiple crisis. The observation concerning the method also in relation to the mentioned topics will complete the paper.

Nello scenario post-crisi attuale, che ha visto la sensibile riduzione delle risorse pubbliche per i progetti di rigenerazione urbana, in molte realtà urbane italiane e non solo, stiamo assistendo alla crescita di una serie di pratiche urbane micro-spaziali che stanno ridisegnando gli spazi urbani. In questo quadro generale, particolarmente significative risultano le esperienze di rigenerazione avviate a Palermo in cui lo spazio pubblico urbano risulta essere l’esito di pratiche informali avviate dagli abitanti e, successivamente, “riconosciute” dalle politiche urbane ufficiali dell’Amministrazione comunale. In particolare, il contributo presenta l’esperienza di Piazzetta del Mediterraneo, un'area abbandonata dello storico mercato di Ballarò nel Centro Storico di Palermo e che le narrazioni dominanti descrivono come un'area marginale caratterizzata da fenomeni di microcriminalità diffusa e precarie condizioni socio-economiche. Nello scenario post-crisi attuale, che ha visto la sensibile riduzione delle risorse pubbliche per i progetti di rigenerazione urbana, in molte realtà urbane italiane e non solo, stiamo assistendo alla crescita di una serie di pratiche urbane micro-spaziali che stanno ridisegnando gli spazi urbani. In questo quadro generale, particolarmente significative risultano le esperienze di rigenerazione avviate a Palermo in cui lo spazio pubblico urbano risulta essere l’esito di pratiche informali avviate dagli abitanti e, successivamente, “riconosciute” dalle politiche urbane ufficiali dell’Amministrazione comunale. In particolare, il contributo presenta l’esperienza di Piazzetta del Mediterraneo, un'area abbandonata dello storico mercato di Ballarò nel Centro Storico di Palermo e che le narrazioni dominanti descrivono come un'area marginale caratterizzata da fenomeni di microcriminalità diffusa e precarie condizioni socio-economiche.

Mobility and accessibility are - in different forms and meanings - strictly connected to achieve sustainability of new project interventions. At neighborhood scale, the design of public space can contribute to the sustainable mobility, creating places of quality in which slow mobility is favored. Accordingly, the research titled "Public spaces. From principles to good practice" was carried out by the author in the framework of both "Urban Maestro. New Governance Strategies for Urban Design" Horizon 2020 research project and the INU Community "Public Space", the latter coordinated by the author. The Urban Maestro Project looks at the ways European cities are being designed and financed, focusing on innovative ways of generating and implementing urban spatial quality. Among the objectives, this project has the comparison of the experiences in Europe to international practices. The Community Public Space has the objective to collect best practices of public space in Italy, starting from the Charter of Public Space, adopted during the second Biennial of Public Space held in Rome in 2013. To these ends, 30 Italian case studies were collected to identify best practices and verify the validity of the Charter. Starting from these premises, the methodology and main results of this research will be illustrated. To collect the data of the case studies the QPS-D@taC - Quality Public Space D@ta Collection - method was created. The illustration of Piazza Goldoni in Trieste, the Bike path along the Nera river in Narni, and the Railway Station square in Padova, which resolve in different way the topics of both sustainable mobility and accessibility, will complete the paper.

Aim of this paper is to present the results of a research carried in the framework of: the Urban Maestro. New Governance Strategies for Urban Design Horizon 2020 research project, the ISMed-CNR post-Covid researches and the INU Community Public Space, the latter coordinated by the author. The Urban Maestro Project - coordinated by the UCL and in partnership with UN-Habitat - "looks at the ways European cities are being designed and financed, focusing on innovative ways of generating and implementing urban spatial quality". Among the objective, the project has the comparison of the experiences in Europe to international practices. Accordingly, the author, as a member of the Advisory and Support Group, shared the Italian good practices in the public space field. The Community Public Space has the objective to collect best practices of public space in Italy, starting from the Charter of Public Space which was adopted during the second Biennial of Public Space held in Rome in 2013. The Charter is composed by 50 principles that are a sort of guidelines for liveable and sustainable public spaces. In order to comprehend the relationship between theory and practice and verify the validity of the Charter after 10 years of its creation and in particular in this sanitary emergency, about 30 case studies were collected (UN Habitat, 2013; Garau, Lancerin, Sepe, 2015). The ISMed-CNR research titled "Analysis and design of contemporary territory: identity, health and liveability for resilient and sustainable places" with the author's responsibility is aimed at identifying the factors and elements which make healthy and liveable a place - in the aforementioned 30 Italian case studies, and more in general in the world, - through ad hoc methodologies of urban analysis and design.