Good public spaces need more than good design

At the symposium, held at the University of Milan on 24–26 June 2026, researchers and practitioners explored how public spaces can contribute to environmental sustainability, social inclusion, public value and long-term urban and territorial development.

Three themes stood out

The growing complexity of managing urban green and public spaces.

Several contributions emphasized that parks, playgrounds, streets, and other public spaces should no longer be understood simply as physical assets requiring technical maintenance, but as multifunctional socio-ecological spaces that require strategic, adaptive, and collaborative management.

Research on green-space equity in Malmö, for example, demonstrated the importance of considering both the distribution of green space and socioeconomic conditions when evaluating equity. Other research showed how staffed playgrounds can contribute to social cohesion, education, health, and intergenerational interaction, while also highlighting the importance of long-term organisational support and professional expertise.

Participation and collaboration: recurring concerns.

The symposium highlighted that meaningful participation requires more than simply inviting citizens to consultations.

Research on Nature-Based Solutions found that inclusivity, trust-building, adaptability, and reflexivity are essential for engaging marginalized groups, while participation can become tokenistic when it is not supported by appropriate institutional structures and long-term resources.

Similarly, studies of street-level bureaucrats and civil society associations showed how frontline professionals and community organisations can act as important bridges between municipalities and residents.

There is a gap between strategic ambitions and everyday management.

Research from the Netherlands identified a “tactical gap” between sustainability goals and operational implementation, alongside limited use of data and weak organisational learning.

Other contributions examined how governance arrangements, contracts, institutional structures, and managerial discretion shape the capacity to maintain and adapt public spaces. The symposium therefore emphasized that successful strategic management depends not only on good plans, but also on organisational capacity, professional skills, funding, data, and the ability to learn and adapt over time.

Key take aways

1

Public-space management is fundamentally about people and relationships, not only physical infrastructure. The quality of a park or public space depends not just on its design or maintenance, but on how people experience it, who can access it, how communities participate in its development, and how professionals work across institutional boundaries.

2

There is a tension between long-term strategic ambitions and short-term organisational realities. Many contributions showed that sustainability, resilience, and inclusion require long-term thinking, while budgets, political cycles, procurement systems, and staffing arrangements often encourage shorter-term decisions. Strategic management therefore requires institutions capable of maintaining continuity while remaining adaptable.

3

The importance of bridging research and practice. Several contributions explicitly sought to translate research into practical tools, governance models, training, or management approaches. Overall, the symposium presented public spaces as strategic assets whose environmental, social, and economic value can only be realised through collaborative governance, professional capacity, continuous learning, and sustained investment.