Collaborative Soft Mobility Planning for University Cities: The Case Of Pavia

One of the main aspects to describe the relationship between University and City is studying the material and intangible relationships (typology, unit of measurement, quantity) among the different elements, subjects and places involved and therefore analysing the role that the university system assumes with respect to the urban system. University City, in fact, means a specific urban structure characterized by the maximum expression of the relations system (social, environmental, economic) that can exist between university institution and administrative/political institution: in particular, the physical connections linked to the spatial location of university structures within the urban fabric. Historically, in Italy, universities were not organized in a specific building type but the extremely professional characteristics brought them closer to the city community and, consequently, allowed them to assume the same morphology of the urban fabric around. Some cities have emphasized their being University Cities over time, including Pavia. With just over 71,000 inhabitants and 22,000 university students in a ratio of 3.22, city and university have always evolved and transformed themselves in an organic, though often uncoordinated, way. The need to implement forms of sustainable mobility aimed at improving the connections between university and city center, useful also to trigger deep urban regeneration processes, carried to experiment a collaborative planning process between university, municipality and the main involved stakeholders. The main aim is to develop an overall strategy throughout the entire municipal territory and to define lines of actions (tactics) for the creation of a soft mobility network within the Pavia context as University City. The participatory process is implemented with the use of a Collaborative Planning tool based on Google functionalities. In the paper, authors describe the main elements of this project.