Pubblic Spaces in a Develop Country: Not to Be Formally Planned

The paper starts from the idea that the concept of informality could be related to urban planning, not only as a survival strategy for the urban poor in terms of housing and working, but also as a cultural approach for planners and inhabitants in terms of design and living of public spaces. These observations are based on a research Program of Relevant National Interest (PRIN 2009) titled Public spaces, mobile populations and processes of urban reorganisation, by the research unit of the city of Turin, Italy. We proceed doing some in-depth interview about the relations between urban populations and doing some direct observation of some significant public spaces in the City Centre, in the San Salvario district and in the quarter of Barriera di Milano. From the research generally emerged that public spaces are acknowledged as weak space for socialization, to which certain thoughts on the role of commerce and new media are linked. In summary we identify some different approaches: public space as a relational space, "cappuccino" space, weak sociality space, new relational spaces and a new type of public space: the "District Houses". What they mainly have in common is that neither of them is really planned on a technical point of view. So, we can recognize a sort a new informal cultural approach of urban planning practices about public spaces.