The role of design in supporting the continual emergence of hybrid spaces of interaction within the city

The high connectivity of people, things and ideas provided by ICTs has started a transformation of the physical aspect and the social relations of the city by creating hybrid spaces of interaction largely influenced by human factors. By assuming a human-centered perspective and providing tools and mental approaches suitable to tackle complex systems, the design has been contributing to this process. However the deep correlation between public spaces and social exchanges letting emerge new interaction patterns makes forewarn that, if aware, the design of hybrid public spaces would arguably lead to a sustainable development of future cities. It means dealing with complexity and at the same time with the participation of an increasing amount of people with different levels of expertise. So open and flexible tools derived from several disciplines are needed. As an example of what design for next would be, the paper shows some possible design frameworks.