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Italy is one of the countries with the greatest historic heritage in the world, but also one of the most seismic. In this context an earthquake can cause significant damage. Usually, the vulnerability of a building is verified with indepth and expensive structural assessment, without considering spatial relations and local context. In this study a method is proposed for the assessment of Territorial Seismic Vulnerability, based on both building characteristics and morphological and spatial parameters. It is an urban-scale approach that allows an objective classification of buildings using an economical procedure. The method, based on the development of a geographical Multiple Criteria Decision Making model and on the participatory approach of the Analytic Hierarchy Process, has been tested in the study area of Garfagnana (Tuscany). The model can be a useful support tool for urban planning, allowing the optimization of public resources in the most vulnerable areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the relationship between urban spatial structure and land use fragmentation in the Functional Urban Area (FUA) of Milan to understand if and how the urban morphology influences the patterns of land use at the metropolitan scale. Using Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis, we find that the spatial structure of the urbanisation in the study area follows the traditional monocentric distribution in the south while multi-centricity characterises the north to the largest extent. Findings suggest clearly that different urban spatial structures lead to diverse patterns of land use. In particular, it appears that the degree of discontinuity of residential areas is lower in the presence of secondary sub-centres compared to the mono-centric distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first intervention of Social House at the national level co-financed by the Funds Integrated System (FIS) and the first one that has actually implemented the housing plan launched by the government in 2009 was born in Parma. The project was conceived for the realization of total 2477 accommodation, to be implemented in two stages, in relation to the availability of the areas. The end that has moved the initiative was to promote housing models based on economic and social needs of the community through the redevelopment Urban and Architectural. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Social Housing: Outlining new housing policy for Italy, is to propose more complex generational and social mix of residents in the quarter that was earlier designed for utilities and social uniform levels, and are to consider the city logically no longer centred on the development and expansion of the fragmented territory but rather a new concept of urbanity. In the consolidated city and the surrounding areas, the requalification and densification of the existing areas also becomes an opportunity for the conversion efficiency of a public property which is now obsolete. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The regeneration policy of the PEEP districts, can contribute to the enrichment of the theoretical framework formulated for the protection of the heritage of the Modern Movement. In 2011, the Municipality of Parma, showing a new awareness in relation to assets until now rarely considered, devices a specific field of study within its structural urbanistic plan. In the absence of a regulatory framework of reference, it is crucial to build up the appropriate frameworks of knowledge directed to operational decisions. This can be done by specifically dedicated archives to which to entrust with the definition of a body of rules of urban planning and housing tailored to the particularities of these settlements and to the real questions of transformation that can arise in them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among the experimental actions fostered so far by the Compagnia di San Paolo through its Housing Program, committed in handling the complex and fragmented housing discomfort issue, the Temporary Dwellings initiative represents a unique and innovative experience, as it actually offers the chance to activate a proper managerial direction around and about the real estate development processes. In particular, the Temporary Dwellings action is marked by two key aspects: a structured co-planning vision and projects selected through a requests for proposal system. The process in the whole aims on the one hand at reaching an high transparent level of decision making, while, on the other hand, at developing a continuous and mutual monitoring and matching activity between the Housing Program and the group of cross-curricular experts teamed up in the project: technicians, designers, managers, psychologists, contractors, and the other local stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The future redevelopment of the densely populated social housing complex, better known as «Diga di Begato», in Genoa, may constitute an important occasion for the wider process of enhancing the urban inland region. Recently, the Council of Genoa has promoted a study into the complex and the urban, territorial and social aspects that characterise it. The Author has been involved in the constructive and maintenance aspects of this complex. Observation of the relationship between technicians and administrators around the work table and during the concluding meeting has led to a better understanding of the situation that will be useful for the development of a shared strategy. This has been developed as a result of the many individual problems that have been identified but also in relation to present values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The building lease is a new tool available to the government to finance public 'cold' infrastructures which allows to spread the investment over several years. Some major projects have recently been funded with this solution which can be used for both new works and for interventions on the existing buildings. The use of the building lease on existing assets (such as renovations or restorations), however, is still very rare, because of the need to «sale and lease back» the building concerned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the Italian cities have been in crisis through the last decades, not being able anymore to guarantee the needs and expectations of their inhabitants, due to the lack of fundamental services, mobility, places of aggregation and attraction. The housing growth since Second World War, answering almost only to the needs of speculation and revaluation of landed revenue, produced anonymous and degraded suburbs, contributing to cancel a fundamental part of our communities' history and culture. The crisis of the cities has clashed with the architectural one. Through sustainable regeneration, identified by the Italian architects as the greatest opportunity for revitalizing the cities and develop the country, we need to sustain interventions based on high architectural quality, besides innovative energetic, environmental and social requalification standards. It is now as never fundamental to extend the city effect from the centre to the far end suburbs, upgrading the public element, integrating the services and proposing new polarities able to interact in a synergic and propaedeutic way with the city centre. Within these settings, involving public agencies and resources with private companies and capitals, the new conversion, development and alienation of the public real estate (valued more than 400 billions €), represent a unique chance to redefine and regenerate the cities, apart from being an extraordinary opportunity to drop the debt and rationalize the local government expenses. To provide powerful infrastructures, aimed cultural policies, sustainable and environmental developments plans, are the biggest challenges to make our cities the most important investment on our future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the experience and activities of the National Centre for Town Planning Studies of the National Council of Engineers (CNI), and AUDIS, the Disused Urban Areas Association, the author proposes some suggestions to emerge - with small steps - from the tunnel of the crisis. First of all, do what is necessary. Simplify the planning regulations and procedures. Measures to take in the short term and at no cost: town planning reform, taking up the Lupi-Mantini proposals previously discussed and shared in the last legislation by Commission VIII of the Chamber on the Territory and Environment; a new law on the landholding system, the proposal developed by CNA (National Confederation of Artisans and Small and Medium Enterprises), CNI, ANCE (Italian National Association of Construction Companies) and Tecnoborsa. Secondly, do what is useful: quality and innovation in urban redevelopment projects. The AUDIS Charter on urban regeneration; the Quality Protocol for Roma Capitale. Thirdly, something extra: targeted projects for start-ups. Social Housing. The city to be scrapped. The renewal of residential assets. The divestment of state-owned properties. The reuse of obsolete industrial buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses aspects of the enhancement and alienation of public property assets in Italy. It explains the proposal of the National Association of Construction Companies (ANCE) for the redevelopment of decayed urban fabric or urban renewal through the creation of a task force that could work alongside and help councils. It also cites the level of planning in the initiative SITdA with the theme of energy saving and social eco-housing.

An interview with INU Italy president Federico Oliva is presented. When asked on the effects in the absence of a preventive urban appreciation strategy, he cites that the absence of a rational alienations will result to economic damage for cities for the State. Oliva states that requalifying the suburbs is an absolutely essential requirement to improve accessibility. He also explains the role of city planners in urban reforms and in managing appreciation strategies.

The metropolitan area of Bari today has one million inhabitants. New regional legislation and the institution of a Strategic Plan have begun a process of urban transformation based on an innovative model of a compact, integrated and sustainable city. After the framework agreement with ENEA (the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development) in 2010 to implement projects to upgrade its building heritage, Bari is a candidate for the «Smart Cities & Communities » project and will launch its candidature for European Capital of Culture 2019. This text will analyse examples of valorisation of Bari's public building heritage with a focus on case studies of major strategic importance, with the aim of identifying possible ethical-aesthetic values in the relationship between the dynamics of urban transformation and architectural quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present economic context, property development is the most realistic opportunity to give new life to Italy's rich historic-artistic heritage. This article describes the planning, economic and social implications of the procedures for authorising development, which involve public administrations in an important decisionmaking process prior to the more typical phases of the actual project. The impossibility of divesting these properties has stimulated legislation that in turn initiates complex operations, which have effects not only for the property, but also in the regional context, involving the urban planning, construction, social and economic sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Milan's urban growth was heavily influenced by the structure of the rail network for transporting goods and people. The great railway yards that used to service the industrial system have now lost their raison d'être after the relocation of industrial plants and the tertiary sector dynamics took over the city. These have become large abandoned brownfields or soon to be abandoned, totaling over 1,300,000 square meters, located mainly along the urban belt surrounding the city walls, often in densely built environments. Since 2005 these areas were the subject of several agreements between the City of Milan, State Railways SpA (FS) and the Lombardy Region, to examine various scenarios and the feasibility of their conversion, as confirmed in the draft of the new Territorial Government Plan (PGT), which identifies the Areas of Urban Transformation. Scenarios and assumptions that, in the current revision of the PGT, must approach the strategic role of this rich heritage from an environmental regeneration and valorization perspective extended to urban and metropolitan scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]