Enhancing Spatial Imaginaries of Metropolitan Renaissance: A Regional Design Approach

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the contribution of Regional Design (RD), as an imaginative and creative practice aimed at the co-production of actual and future visions, to the construction and diffusion of spatial imaginaries (SI) concerning the present and future of our metropolitan cities. Despite recent studies on the performance of RD, an in-depth understanding of the interrelations between RD and SI has not yet been achieved. In order to fill this gap, the performance of RD in enhancing spatial imaginaries is approached by analysing its capacity to make the region visible, providing moments of insight and institutionalising certain imageries through processes of SI resonance. The application of these notions to the case of the Metropolitan City of Florence, by tracing the evolution of multiple spatial imaginaries and the challenges brought by the pandemic, reveals the opportunities and weaknesses of RD for grasping and even changing spatial imaginaries within processes of defining shared visions for the future of cities and regions.