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

  • Podcast with Thiago Ferreira - Plasencia

    PODCAST: Plasencia (Spain): "It's about being close to each other"

    How can a historic city facing population decline reinvent itself for the future? In this episode of Residents of the Future, URBACT Lead Expert Tiago Ferreira travels to Plasencia, Spain, a city

  • Articles

    Da visão à ação: como as cidades da rede URBACT Metacity cocriaram os seus Planos de Ação Integrados para um Futuro Digital Centrado nas Pessoas

  • Articles

    Ako budovať a posilňovať otvorenú samosprávu - inšpirácia z Mesta Banská Bystrica

    Na začiatku decembra sa v historickej budove Radnice v Banskej Bystrici konala záverečná konferencia siete URBACT s netradičným názvom „Platforma lídrov stredu“. Poďme sa spoločne pozrieť na to, čo