USER

Edited on 28/07/2025

01/05/2012 30/04/2015

Closed
  • Action Planning Network
  • Participative governance
  • Climate action
  • Disadvantaged neighbourhoods
  • Participation
  • Urban renewal

A core USER idea is that the design of urban public spaces and the main goals of urban planning are challenged by rapid changes in how cities are used. New trends in how public spaces are used, what the new users’ needs are, increasing malfunctions and conflicts among uses, etc., are challenging the way the city is usually “produced”, designed and managed.

Summary

Timeline

Project launch
Project completed

Partners

Lead Partner : Grenoble - France
  • Copenhagen - Denmark
  • Dresden - Germany
  • Krakow - Poland
  • Lisbon - Portugal
  • Lublin - Poland
  • Málaga - Spain
  • Pescara - Italy
  • Riga - Latvia

Introduction

Changes and conflicts in using public spaces

 

A core USER idea is that the design of urban public spaces and the main goals of urban planning are challenged by rapid changes in how cities are used. New trends in how public spaces are used, what the new users’ needs are, increasing malfunctions and conflicts among uses, etc., are challenging the way the city is usually “produced”, designed and managed. This approach entails a process of users involvement as a crucial dimension of public spaces planning and management. Indeed “users experience” is one of the main inputs to understand how the spaces are used and what kind of conflicts are taking place. The USER project will work on the three main aspects that, according to us, constitute a "good public space":

 

a) Friendlier and more interactive social-public spaces by solving malfunctions and conflicting uses,

 

b) Safer public spaces in a friendlier city

 

c) Cleaner, better-maintained and upgraded public spaces for a more efficient city.

 

Articles

  • Articles

    Layers of the old Piraeus station: connecting stories, place and data in Daring Cities

    We can hardly hear each others’ voice as we head West in the Piraeus port. On our right, tall buildings loom over us, echoing the noise of the traffic on the left. Trapped between the infinite flow of

  • Articles
    Badia del Vallès mass housing estate in Barcelona (ES).

    Shaping cities together: seven URBACT Good Practices reimagining the city through collaborative planning

    In cities throughout Europe, local authorities are working on urban planning that respond to local needs, whether affordable housing plans or green urban regeneration.

  • Articles
    Group of people

    Mesta >> mestom: Reactivos culturales

    Kulturno dogajanje v mestih in krajih je pogosto zgoščeno v središčih, medtem ko je v stanovanjskih soseskah in na obrobjih manj tovrstne ponudbe. Po drugi strani pa se umetniki in ustvarjalci pogosto