The publication regards the activity developed by our firm about the project of the public space in the historical city between 2005 and 2022, from the competition for the requalification of Piazza Roma in Berbenno to the completion of the works in Piazza Libertà and in the historical center of Lissone. The outcome of this selection represents the base for the construction of an atlas-in-progress that aims to tell a research trajectory and its application in the reality and, at the same time, to formulate several classifications through the multiple expressions of this theme. Public space is, according with José Luis Sert, the center of the urban life, the place where the city begins and where new accumulations of relationships and sensations can be placed. Despite the importance of these values, the actual scenery shows how “the heart of the city” is often characterized by situations of underutilization, abandonment, scarce quality. Architecture can be also in this field a still useful and effective tool, acting not only as an antidote to the decay of the urban space and as a limit to the social disaggregation, but also as a device that can nourish the sense of belonging through the rescue of memory and the enhancement of the differences.

Matteo Moscatelli