Fare spazio, dare spazio in urbanistica

Abstract

The editorial introduces the special issue Fare spazio, dare spazio in urbanistica, developed from the Urbanpromo 2025 seminar held in Florence. It frames the two expressions as complementary disciplinary postures: fare spazio refers to the need to open margins of interpretation, adaptation and action within and beyond statutory planning, while dare spazio points to the recognition of plural actors, practices and needs that shape contemporary urban transformation. The text argues that the relationship between plan, project, institutions, practices and regulation is no longer reducible to a linear sequence from vision to implementation. Rather, many relevant transformations occur in an intermediate field made of rules, knowledge, coordination devices, governance arrangements and situated forms of public responsibility. The editorial presents the structure of the issue, organised around three questions: how to make space, who occupies space, and which mechanisms regulate space. Through these questions, the special issue explores planning as a regulated practice of opening, capable of enabling just, recognisable and verifiable transformations without weakening the public role of urban planning.