Phygital public space approach: a case study in Volpiano

Today an important challenge is opening: designing public spaces by taking into account the augmented meaning carried by “new digital citizen and users”. New ways of digital communication, a broader network of digital information and the open data naturally transform also the physical space into something new we can call “phygital” (Momentum 2012). The usual way to read urban spaces could be improved with new digital technology. How is the boundary between virtual and real?; what if people overcome easily these boundaries? The phygital spaces are not the common urban spaces as we usually think but a place-based network of interaction among people. Throughout a research experiment carried out by Polytechnic of Turin in collaboration with the Municipality of Volpiano (TO), this paper proposes a community planning strategy where people keep their central role and virtual interaction empower the design of a new sustainable city space.