The paper is focused on the ability of urban design to create the physical framework for urban life. This is an analysis of the experience of the city through body and senses where the citizen is the main element of the public space. The influence of urban conditioning in environmental sustainability, comfort, habitability, well-being and everyday life of the inhabitants is analized. Urban design as a tool to build up urban vitality and to construct cities and urban spaces for human relations. This is a search and compilation of urban design theories and tools that consider the inhabitant a citizen and not just a pedestrian or a client and that make us aware of being part of a group, both social and natural. A healthy, bioclimatic and environmentally sustainable urban planning is required to strengthen the senses and the well-being and to enable human relationships in urban open spaces.