One knot to untangle when regenerating contemporary cities regards the possibility of institutions to recover cognitive, evaluative, and negotiating skills to respond to the social demand for quality of life. With reference to urban planning and design tools, confirming the centrality of the well-being and health issues may constitute a useful call to overcome an exclusively quantitative approach to planning standards in favour of a qualitative/performance-based approach. One pioneering experience was developed in the frame of the associated Municipal structural plan of the Municipalities in the Bazzanese Area, in Emilia Romagna: despite the failure implementation, it provides inputs to innovate planning processes and techniques.
Keywords: Health and well-being; planning standards; performance-based approach