The regeneration of critical urban areas through the redesign of public space with the intense involvement of local communities seems to be the central focus of place-making. Recently, new expertise maintains that place-making could be an innovative and potentially autonomous field, competing with more traditional disciplines like urban planning, urban design, architecture and others. This book affirms that 'making better places for people' should be understood in a broader sense, as a symptom of the non-contingent limitations of the urban and spatial disciplines. It maintains that research should not be oriented only towards new technical or merely formal solutions but rather towards the profound rethinking of disciplinary paradigms.

1. Place-making Issues 2. Place-making in Urban Development Processes 3. Key Questions in Urban Development and Planning 4. Italian Experiences in Place-making 5. Developing Urban Places in European Cities 6. A Place-based view of Urban Planning, Urban Design and Policy-making 7. A Place-based Perspective on Urban Development

Pier Carlo Palermo is Full Professor of Urban Planning at Politecnico di Milano, Italy.

Davide Ponzini is Assistant Professor of Urban Planning (Ricercatore) at Politecnico di Milano, Italy.