From public space to consumer space, or vice versa? Re-semanticizing places through design.

This paper analyses methodologies and approaches of transdisciplinary design and identifies co-design practices and processes of re-establishing communities’ sense of belonging to representative places for public life, encounters, collective experiences, debates, and protests within villages. Historic villages are currently facing significant depopulation phenomena which, in rural and inland areas, can be attributed to the lack of job, relationship opportunities, essential services, and tiring or often unremunerative agricultural or craft activities. But in urbanized villages, what could be the cause of the abandonment of residents? The Borgo San Giuliano in Rimini exemplifies some of the dynamics that underlie it: once a vibrant fishing-artisan community, it has transformed into a space dominated by tourism, eroding local identity. This shift highlights public spaces no longer as resources of the local community, but as consumer goods, increasing gentrification and loss of social ties. Strategic and community design plays a critical role in re-establishing a balance between inhabitants and place, enabling participatory processes that make residents protagonists in the shaping of their environment.