The core of the intervention area is under final estimations and will be precisely defined after the co-design of the NBSs and the zones of intervention. The location of the specific interventions related to the co-implementation of the NBSs is in about 20 vacant lots provisioned by the plans as part of the green infrastructure and public spaces in the four residential estates, namely Lev Tolstoy, Nadezhda 2 and 4 and Svoboda. The 2,5 km long axis of the Healthy corridor provides connection between Severen park and park Nadezhda and integrates important available territorial resources related to the major themes of the URBiNAT project – mobility, energy, water and nature.

ABSTRACT: Designed as social space according to CIAM principles in the second half of the 20th century, the open public space in the large housing estates in the periphery of Sofia was transformed for the recent 30 years due to the changing socio-economic, political, and cultural conditions. The broad open spaces have been adapting to the arising societal demands, changing lifestyles and mixed uses by accommodating competing or complementary uses, generating new activities or “waiting” update or re-design. The paper discusses the potential of integrating social dimensions and physical characteristics for sustainable management of open public space in large housing estates. Based on a case study approach developed within on-going research project, the paper summarizes the results from the set of conducted qualitative and quantitative methods, spatial analyses, and participatory activities in the URBiNAT Living Lab in Nadezhda district, Sofia. Urban open space is analysed as territorial asset and through the social practices thus revealing the complexity of overlapping roles, users, and audiences. The perceptions, attitudes, dreams, and aspirations towards public space as well as the motivations and liability to participate are studied from the perspective of pupils, citizens and district administration staff. The research findings outline the need for reinventing urban policy by integrating the right-based approach into all phases of public space lifecycle management, (re)considering traditional property and ownership paradigms, building new frameworks for participation and meeting local institutional efforts and bottom-up movements, establishing dialogue with diversity of actors, and providing flexible design that enables multiple interpretations and uses.

This report describes the variables explored in the first and second stage of the Local Diagnostic. In the first stage, it is requested that the cities provide secondary information of use to framing their specific relevant conditions. Such information will be helpful for further identifying the location and wider context for the implementation of healthy corridors, with the prospect of enabling real improvement of the quality of life for citizens.

This report summarizes the key challenges faced by the UACEG team during the implementation of activities in the URBiNAT co-creation process of the Healthy Corridor in Nadezhda district in Sofia. Important links between the healthy corridor plan and the changing planning system in-between two planning and programming periods have been discussed. Possibilities for integration and delimitation between the Plan and higher level planning instruments and between the territorial management instruments at local level are studied. A critical assessment of the possibility to coordinate phases and time frames, aims and thematic focuses, processes and results of URBiNAT project and the existing practices and administrative procedures of Sofia Municipality is made. Recommendations are suggested for improvement of interactions and communication between scientific research and introduction of innovations in spatial planning, as well as capacity building through action research and incremental incorporation of innovations.

The paper discusses the long-term urban planning impacts on the urban morphology and mobility patterns in the large housing estates designed and built at the periphery of Sofia in the period 1960-1990 and undergoing continuous transformations under the changing political, demographic, sociocultural and economic conditions in the country since 1990s. Based on a casestudy-based approach developed within ongoing URBiNAT research project (HORIZON 2020), and applying a set of qualitative as well as quantitative methods, spatial analyses (territorial mapping, behavioural mapping, quality of life survey), and participatory activities (cultural mapping, photovoice and walkthrough), the research undertaken in Nadezhda district, Sofia, outlines major urban challenges of the present day and claims needed changes in the planning approaches for building a healthy and socially inclusive urban environment.