Convergenze negli spazi pubblici Figitali: rendere le comunità più intelligenti

Today urban challenge is about designing public spaces by taking into account the augmented meaning of new digital citizen and cities. New ways of digital communication, a broader network of digital information and the open data naturally affect physical city space, transforming it into something new we can call “phigital” space. How is the boundary between virtual and real public spaces?; are digital native citizens the key factor for shaping smarter and sustainable places? How planners can enable smarter communities? This article claims that the traditional concepts of the space and place have to be improved with new initiatives. Digital communities are growing and becoming “place-maker”. Digital interaction are new development drivers of smart city spaces. The phigital spaces are not common public space as we usually think but these belong to a wider open network where interaction among people and between people and space are more “sense-able”. Throughout the analysis of some experiences held in the world, this paper tries to propose and define a new concept of public space where people keep their central role but where virtual interaction empower them to design new sustainable cities and communities.