New forms of relationships between university and city: Padua, the UnicityLab project, and the idea of an Urban Centre

UNICITYLab (2019-2022) has been an interesting three-year experience of interde-partmental and interdisciplinary cooperation taking place at the University of Padua, that sought to study and analyse the forms and effects of the presence of a pluricentennial university in a medium-sized city. The UNICITYLab activities – beyond the exploration of the characteristics and conditions of the context –have been devoted to a crucial ex-amination of the relationships between the two chief institutions in the City and their mutual policies to cope with emerging problems. It results in a lack of information about processes in progress or institutional and non-institutional networks; a general misun-derstanding about issues to manage; no awareness about the need of cooperation. UNICITYLab has worked to present evidence of the situation and the need to put for-ward proposals for an innovative and incisive action, with the definition of a different role from the past, proactive, open, and collaborative, in the system of local relations. The organisation of a new place for discussion, collaboration, and co-planning, which we call the “Urban Centre” in a simplified way, currently seems to be a feasible solution.