NATiURB: Nature for inclusive and innovative urban regeneration
Nature for Innovative and Inclusive Urban Regeneration (NATiURB) was held at IULM on June 17
On Friday, June 17, Nature for Innovative and Inclusive Urban Regeneration (NATiURB), a two-day public event hosted by the Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Foundation and, on its second day, by our University, was held at IULM. This was the first international conference held by URBiNAT: a five-year European Union project funded by Horizon 2020 under the "Showcasing nature-based solutions in cities" program, which focuses on the regeneration and integration of underserved city neighborhoods
The project's interventions focused on public spaces and the co-creation, with citizens, of new social and natural relationships within and between different neighborhoods. In fact, URBiNAT aims to co-create so-called Healthy Corridors, nature-based solutions (NBSs), precisely, which in turn integrate a large number of micro NBSs (e.g., shared community art projects, green walls, native urban forests).
Each city involved in the URBiNAT project (Porto, Nantes, Sofia, Siena, Brussels, Nova Gorica, Høje-Taastrup, Khorram Abad) serves as a Living Lab for the implementation and evaluation of these solutions.
During the day-long conference organized at IULM and coordinated by Guido Ferilli, associate professor of Cultural Economics and director of the Observatory of Cultural Industries and Complexity at the University, twenty sessions were held to promote discussion of concepts, methodologies and practices under development. The sessions were divided according to the five themes that constitute the main objectives of the project:
1. Co-creation of NBS for sustainable cities
2. Innovative public spaces for inclusive cities
3. Transforming governance for innovative cities
4. Engaging citizens for healthy cities
5. Changing the economy for equitable cities
This second day, specifically scientific in nature, aims to welcome contributions from the scientific community as well as from practitioners and social movements.
Cities are, in fact, at a crossroads: from a traditional model of development they are moving toward a process of urban regeneration that must promote sustainable, inclusive, healthy and innovative change in dialogue with citizens and nature, and this is the direction that URBiNAT intends to promote.