Phygital technologies for an open-air urban market during the pandemic crisis

Abstract

The pandemic crisis has definitively exposed the limits of a development model that the crisis of the new millennium had already amply demonstrated. Urban commerce has been heavily affected by the polycrisis, requiring innovative solutions to overcome it. In Saint-Germain-en-Laye (SGL), the problem was addressed through a relaunch project aimed at transforming the city centre of SGL into an open-air urban market through the pedestrianisation of selected areas and encouraging multimodality and multifunctionality of spaces and services assisted by digital technologies. The goal was pursued by leveraging the sense of community of the inhabitants and the ability to interpret their needs by a team made up of planners and designers from the municipal administration of Saint Germain-en-Laye and researchers in several different disciplines from the Politecnico di Milano. Overall, the experience was configured as a co-design activity aimed at experimenting with new ways of urban resilience for citizens and business keepers particularly affected by the effects of the pandemic.