Can Urban Regeneration improve Walkability? A space-time assessment for the Tintoretto area in Brescia

In recent years, shared programs have shown that one of the most critical challenges to promote sustainability in the contemporary city is mobility. The actions on physical context can be divided into two correlated themes: (i) the urban regeneration of existing city with a particular focus on public services for each urban unit and (ii) the planning of their accessibility. Nevertheless, if the correlation is clear and generally recognised in theory, an evaluation of how the urban regeneration projects can contribute to achieving sustainability goals in technical and ordinary practice still struggles to consolidate. Hence, the contribution aims to observing and evaluating the effects of local urban regeneration projects from a people-and-climate perspective, highlighting the pros of integrated urban planning and mobility management approaches. The paper presents an assessment framework that consists of a GIS-based time-space analysis of the walkability scenarios of public open spaces. It maps the urban spaces’ pedestrian permeability in a cells grid, which is applied to an algorithm able to measure the isochronic curve of access time. The approach proposed is applied to the case study of the urban regeneration project of the Tintoretto tower unit in Brescia, which is analysed in two temporal instant, ex-ante and ex-post. The results’ framework reflects on the proactive importance of measuring public space’s systemic regeneration strategies towards "projects people-and-climate oriented".