Spatial accessibility as a driver to build an inclusive and proactive city

Abstract

Providing the largest number of persons the possibility to actively move and contribute to their own well-being also depends on the spatial accessibility to urban environment. From this perspective, the present article addresses two main questions: To what extent can the physical arrangement of public spaces play a key role in enabling individuals' capabilities to lead a healthy life, and how can accessibility affect urban regeneration. Accessibility is here understood as a fundamental right of citizenship and as a prompt to set the reflection on sensorial/cognitive/motor disabilities within a broader frame, covering many fields of urban agendas: Social justice and health, sustainable mobility and Universal Design, and nature-based solutions. COVID-19 distancing measures have further emphasized the importance of these issues, stressing the need to make urban spaces walkable and usable for the most vulnerable citizens. The research Proactive City, developed at the University of Trieste (IT), offers input into this debate. The outcomes of design workshops in the Italian region Friuli Venezia Giulia, as well as of collaboration activities with the Regional Administration, provide technical and methodological recommendations to rethink "accessibility for all", not as synonymous with special solutions addressed to persons with disabilities but as an overall approach to envisaging any urban transformation and policy.