Syncretic design as solution for a new urban identity

The identity of places is the complex of tangible and intangible factors which generate that sense of belonging that every human being develops towards the space he lives in. These factors are identified as in cultural values, for instance related to the memory or nostalgia of a place, as in physical and concrete actions related to the direct experience of the space that surrounds us and the type of relationships that we interweave with it. Within an increasingly intercultural context as that of the contemporary city, the recognition and shaping of places that can act as catalysts for social integration processes, is of leading importance, if not extremely urgent. The coexistence between different communities within the wefts of the same urban fabric provides, in fact, as many difficult questions as interesting opportunities relating to the living conditions of the "new citizens" and their chance of integration (linguistic, cultural and social) with the urban territory and the rest of the community that inhabits it. The identity- making character of a place is therefore, an essential factor in the process of mutual understanding between the city and its people. The mixture between the physical and intangible space elements, sometimes even imaginary ones, that the human being projects on it can be crucial in the creation and enhancement of places that could work as symbols of integration and coexistence. These aspects are inevitably interesting for both the discipline of urban planning and social design.the first one has always focused on the analysis of the territory and the development of solutions able to solve conflicts of spatial order and not only. The design, understood in its role of observer of those social dynamics, if interpreted in the right way can help to define possible future scenarios characterized by an improvement in living conditions for human beings. This methodological scenario includes, moreover, the urban syncretic design whose purpose consists in this case in redefining the urban environment, both at a structural level and a perceptual one, in order to foster a preparation process of the interethnic and intercultural city able to recognize itself as such facilitating inside relations between "old and new citizens." On the basis of the above, this paper deals with the issue of urban identity in the contemporary city characterized by the presence of immigrants. Following the analytical reading of the phenomenon and its influence on the concept of identity, it proposes a project of interethnic space to be carried out through urban syncretic design