URBAN PLANNING

The course of Urban Planning has the general objective of providing students a reference framework relating to the major themes of planning, intended as a discipline of connection between different knowledge.
The course offers a training path divided into three major thematic segments, through which students will be asked to deal with the main issues, problems and opportunities that concern the contemporary city (climate change, energy, place identity, city and territory resilience, social equality), its process of change and the main techniques that historically have marked the fundamental evolutionary traits.
The aim is to provide adequate historical-cultural and technical-practical knowledge of urban planning, with the aim of teaching students the fundamental principles and tools to read, interpret and act on contemporary urban contexts.

The Urban Planning course aims to allow students to acquire a critical approach to the discipline, enabling them to:

- identify, formulate, (and partially) contribute to solving the problems it deals with, using appropriate methods, techniques and tools (and updated enough to respond to contemporary requests);
- know and use the most suitable tools and forms of representation for each design reference scale;
- distinguish the different approaches and methodological-operational aspects of the discipline;
- consider, albeit in an elementary form, the aspects concerning the technical feasibility, and the potential consequences (social and economic) of the project intentions.

No specific requirements are required

The didactic path foreseen for the AY 2020/2021 will be divided into 3 thematic macro areas, within which the following general topics will be treated, each of which will be divided, according to the type, relevance and complexity, into a specific group of lessons:

Area 1. - How to read the contemporary city: problems, issues and transformation scenarios.

In this first thematic area, considered as introductory to the relationship between urban planning and the city, the main characteristics that qualify contemporary urban systems, such as morphology, economic organization, infrastructural system and governance systems of urban development will be studied in depth. The specific contents of the lessons will aim to provide students with the following skills:

1. Recognize the different types of urban fabrics.
2. Recognize the different elements that characterize an urban context.
3. Identify urban governance and management systems.
4. To characterize the quality and intensity of urban nodes.
5. Identify the main issues / problems / opportunities of an urban system with respect to the territorial context of reference.

Area 2. - Urban planning and its relationship with the city in evolution:

The second thematic area will deal with deepening the processes of development and organization of urban contexts, referring to the panorama of fundamental experiences from the birth of the discipline to today, with particular attention to those that have most oriented the physical transformation and the requalification of fabrics and areas urban (reuse of abandoned areas, new residential settlements, localization of shopping centers, insertion of transport infrastructures, redevelopment of degraded areas, etc.). These processes will be read in the light of the theories of complexity: the conception of the city as a complex system will constitute the reference framework for reading the strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and risks of the different types of urban to answer questions such as

1. How and why have urban forms and morphologies evolved?
2. What were the consequences of the evolution of urban management tools and models and what were the spatial and socio-economic consequences of these?

Area 3. - Urban planning practice between analysis and design: measures, techniques and operational tools.

The final area of the course proposes to provide the minimum tools necessary to approach the urban / territorial project with particular reference to the transition that traditional operating processes are experiencing, in terms of methodologies, actors, technologies and administrative / regulatory tools.
In support of these aspects, the basics will be provided to read, measure and interpret the Italian territory and city in operational terms, with particular reference to the most widespread cartographic supports in the Italian administrations and to the working tools to approach the project and respond to the following questions

1. What major operational transitions are taking place in the contemporary city today? How can they be guided?
2. What is the role of planning and planner in this transition?

Lynch K., The Image of the City, MIT Press Ltd, 1964.
Yin J., Urban Planning For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons Canada, Ltd, Mississauga, 2012

The final assessment exam will be in the form of presentation of an individual work.
Part of the final evaluation will also consist of a midterm presentation designed to qualify the ability to return - in terms of recognition of standards, morphology and concepts - the knowledge acquired on a specific topic that will be assigned during the course.

Considering urban planning as a discipline that heavily affects practices of everyday life, the course will be organized in part by theoretical lessons concerning the history and development of the discipline and its principles, and in part by practical activities to be carried out in the classroom (real or virtual), where students will be given the opportunity to decline theories, concepts and processes in real urban contexts, so as to be able to fix the indications received.
Students will also be asked, as an individual weekly work, to read short essays that will serve to introduce the theme of the next lesson, reserving space for a short collective discussion in order to bring out points of view and critical issues on the topic

English

oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Cities, infrastructure and social capital" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development