Within the last few years, there has been increasing attention towards climate change and strategies enabling climate neutrality and biodiversity development. Green spaces are one of the main elements in achieving these ambitious goals. Their role has become increasingly relevant in facing climate change, especially considering that Europe aims to be the first continent to be climate-neutral by 2050. In doing so, recently, the European Commission adopted different regulations with a specific focus on the role of green spaces, introducing strategies and activities for sustainable development. The article investigates the role of green spaces in urban planning, considering three main perspectives in dealing with them: (i) the nature of their property, (ii) their ecological nature, and (iii) their social and public nature. After describing green spaces as crucial for contemporary urban development, this article will introduce a potential planning tool enabling the combination of the three different ‘natures’: the Urban Greening Plan. The article presents the two case studies of Barcelona and Paris, which have already adopted this instrument. The article highlights the potential of Urban Greening Plans to restore nature and biodiversity while engaging different stakeholders in co-creation processes for more sustainable development. It also critically introduces a variety of open questions that require further investigations and analyses.

In Italy, the number of buildings that have fallen into disuse is huge. Moreover, the normative and regulative framework promoting the public portfolio’s re-use and revitalisation is still unclear and ambiguous. Nevertheless, over the past decade, these buildings have become fertile ground for innovation and creative experiences led by civic actors. The rise of this new category of civic actors plays an important role, both in terms of the institutional dynamics and the kind of initiatives and practices they undertake. Although they act in different manners, they share similar patterns of behaviour validated through an in-depth analysis. This research pinpointed that, regardless of the diverse operating contexts, institutional performances can be successful only if certain kinds of conditions are considered. This paper has a twofold aim: (i) to establish an analytical framework for analysing the emerging streamlined phenomenon of revitalisation processes in unused public buildings, (ii) and to critically discuss these processes, providing key insights into behaviour and institutional civic actors’ performances, as well as the necessary conditions for successful revitalisation. By doing so, this paper aims to enhance our understanding of civic actors and their role in revitalisation processes, contributing to discussing and identifying crucial factors for achieving a successful outcome.

In Italy, the number of buildings that have fallen into disuse is huge; also the normative and regulative framework promoting public portfolio’s re-use and revitalisation is still unclear and blurred. Nevertheless, in the last ten years, these buildings have become fertile ground for innovation and creative experiences by civic actors. The rise of this new category of civic actors plays an important role, both from the institutional side and the kind of initiatives and practices they process. They act in different manners but according to an in-depth analysis they share similar patterns of behaviour. What has emerged is that, although the different contexts, where they operate, the institutional performances might be successful if only certain kinds of conditions are taken into consideration. Based on some basic features, civic actors and their dynamics with public administrations are analysed to understand conditions that allow revitalisation processes to be successful in unused public buildings.