The design of public space plays a central role in the fight against the climate crisis. The growing number of public space transformation projects in European cities reflects their potential to increase urban quality of life, drive forward the mobility transition and make the built environment climate-fit. These three aspects are interconnected through the notion of design quality. Considering the climate crisis, incorporating climate adaptation measures is no longer optional in good public space design. At the same time, such measures can enhance the user experience and improve the quality of stay. – two characteristics encouraging active forms of mobility. However, public space transformation projects often undergo intensive, complex and long-lasting planning phases, that frequently involve substantial design changes. To prevent these changes from diminishing design quality, it is necessary to understand them precisely – particularly how and why they occur. In this study, we further develop existing research on decision-making processes within the city administration of Graz by examining the design implications of these decisions. We approach an in-depth understanding of design changes during the planning phase by investigating the development of eight public space transformation projects in Graz – from competition to implementation. This investigation is based on students work from the elective course “Spaces of Mobility” in the Architecture program at Graz University of Technology. In this course, students analyzed planning documents (in particular competition entries) and the implementation of the corresponding projects. By comparing the results of these analyses, we identified patterns in the changes to the designs that reveal key design-relevant elements of the local planning culture, such as priority setting and action routines in the planning process. Consequently, we were able to identify measures to prevent loss of design quality during the planning phase. Applying these measures can contribute to developing a planning culture that enables climate-resilient and adaptive design of public spaces, promoting the mobility transition.
Bauer et al. (Thu,) studied this question.