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“Transition” is the dynamic process of changing state, going beyond, crossing over, and passing from one point to the next. The signification of the word is close to that of evolution, modification, mutation, and transformation, all of which are confined into a strictly restricted timeframe. Etymologically, “transitions” can be nothing else than temporary: they appear silently, burst, violently establish, and gradually disappear into reality. In their blinding momentariness, “transitions” bear with them the positive undertone of change and renewal, along with the hopefulness of that which is unknown. If the term “transition” recurs regularly in the contemporary vocabulary of architecture and design cultures, this repetition reveals a period characterized by overlapping and sequential changes. The word is without a doubt overused, but not without reason. Indeed, we find ourselves in an unusually extended period of consecutive “transitions”, overwhelmingly undefined in temporality and ambitions. As we are witnessing societies go through stark demographic, political, economic, and cultural changes, the intersecting problematics (e.g., ecological, digital, pandemic, etc.) form a rather complex topography of change, negatively charged by the instability of dilated time and the uncertainty of undefined destination. The word is employed with the confidence of a natural process, as if it were a storm, and while we affirm our existence in “transition”, we nod our troubled times away. Whether positively or negatively perceived, “transitions” form bridges between histories. Yet, what does it actually mean to be in “transition”? Can we define it as an autonomous and productive period whose importance could go beyond a starting and an ending date? How are “transitions” impacting and being impacted by human spaces, the built environment, and design cultures? What are some concrete, practical case studies that demonstrate how “transitions” could affect architecture and design cultures while emphasizing the role that these disciplines play in transitional processes? It is within this backdrop that we put forward the theme of “transition”—in all its simplicity and complexity.

La necessità del cambiamento di paradigma della mobilità nelle nostre città verso un modello meno dipendente dall’uso dell’auto è stato definito post-car city. Il libro, che raccoglie contributi di studiosi di numerose università italiane, restituisce un quadro di misure avviate per traguardare tale modello, valutarne la significatività rispetto alle diverse condizioni insediative e la applicabilità rispetto al quadro normativo di riferimento. Il Rapporto offre tre prospettive di dibattito: si interroga sull’efficacia e trasferibilità di modelli di integrazione trasporto e usi del suolo come i Transit Oriented Development e le politiche per sostenere la accessibilità di prossimità; discute del ruolo delle innovazioni tecnologiche e digitali e delle implicazioni socio-economiche e spaziali della loro diffusione e, infine, si confronta con le necessarie innovazioni normative per perseguire la transizione.

In the Israeli-Palestinian context there is an intricate territorial conflict based on two different and contrasting narratives of historical, cultural and religious belonging. In this clash, it is the state of Israel that holds power and exercises it through spatial, politicaladministrative and economic control over the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Since 1948 a continuous process of contraction of Palestinian Territories (PT) has been initiated, this by means of targeted policies such as the incessant construction of Israeli settlements, the declaration of military zones and the construction of by Pass roads etc. The research explores and analyzes the role that planning has played in the process of colonization of the PT, using planning techniques to achieve political objectives, by making the strong part prevails against the weaker one. Thus, this thesis aims, from one hand to demonstrate the ineffectiveness of planning system used by the Palestinian National Authority in areas of its sovereignty: it is done through the use of analytical and comparative methodology to study the planning system in the PT and its historical development and the descriptive method of the impacts of Israeli policy on Palestinian cities. From the other hand, by using the city of Jericho as a case study, the thesis elaborates the research issues and advices for better planning and management of the PT based on future scenarios of the political situation.

Within the framework of the International Student Challenge "UrbanFarm2019", a competition was set to redesign abandoned urban spaces in three Italian Cities (Belluno, Bologna and Conegliano). The book contains the full projects prepared by student teams "The Wanderers", "YS Design", "Green Senses", "Phoenix" and "Symbiosis" for the city of Conegliano.

This research aims to demonstrate if and how a Learning City can exist, and satisfy the requirement of a Healthy City, trying to give an operational meaning to this word beyond the current definitions and guidelines (OMS, OECD, UNESCO, ONU, MIUR) reflecting on the educational potential of space. The results of the research demonstrate a "healthy city” is above all a fully, inclusive and enabling, innovative and safe "usable and used" city by all its inhabitants. A malleable and transformable urban environment, not only a container of health or learning, but also as an instrument that creates them and allows the people to be not only recipients, but co-authors of their own processes of development and well-being in the full sense, in an emancipatory perspective. The research is therefore inscribed in the broad debate on what it means to be a "healthy city" as well as the particularly effervescent "innovative" learning spaces, "re-organizing” the priorities of the urban agenda. The research approach aims to overcome the limits inherent in the disciplinary and academic fields, often characterised by fragmentation and isolation, by moving onto other disciplinary domains, especially in the pedagogical sciences; re-center the city around the theme of learning, beyond the enclosures / standards/ disciplinary and exclusion devices produced by the contemporary city, from the beginning of the modern city. At the same time, the rhetoric of the Innovative Learning Spaces is replaced with projects / processes (of space and learning) based on the "Capability Approach" as a founding paradigm of the spatial and pedagogical choices (with the perspective for lifelong/wide/deep learning). In the III part of the work (chapter IV and V) explains the reasons why this could occur, opening learning spaces to the city and vice versa, from the perspective of widespread learning, with a series of reflections, ideas, research trails, case studies, and direct experience in the field as well as in the sphere of research & action. A possible methodology is introduced suggesting to elaborate the concept of "tactical counter-device" chosen as a tool that, by its nature, is able to “hack” and “dubug” space into an inclusive perspective, capacitative-enabling, "beta-permanent", open and incremental. Starting a new concept of learning, which guarantees different yet fair opportunities to all, ensuring everyone will have the chance to use and enjoy the city with respect to the development prospects chosen for each-ones own life and action projects, especially for all those categories of "disadvantaged" inhabitants to whom the city is hostile and inaccessible.

While ecosystem service knowledge has demonstrated to enhance decision-making at different levels, successfully managing the interface between science and policies is still a challenge. The thesis focuses on cities, and aims to explore the integration of ecosystem services in urban planning processes and tools. A preliminary review of recent urban plans reveals shortcomings in current practices and the potential benefits of a further integration. At the conceptual level, the problem of integration is addressed by building a framework that shows the entry points and pathways through which planning actions affect the supply and demand of urban ecosystem services. The framework is applied to systematise a fragmented scientific evidence, and to select a set of indicators that planners can use to assess the impacts of planning decisions. At the operational level, the integration of ecosystem service knowledge is tested in a real-life planning context dealing with the prioritization of brownfield regeneration scenarios in the city of Trento (Italy). Alternative scenarios are assessed based on the beneficiaries of two key ecosystem services, namely microclimate regulation and nature-based recreation, hence compared through a multi-criteria analysis that allows exploring multiple perspectives and balancing competing interests. The last part of the thesis frames the integration of ecosystem services in urban planning in the wider context of spatial strategies for sustainable urban development. The six main spatial strategies agreed-upon at the European level, including the 'green city' strategy supported by the ecosystem service approach, are compared with the recent development trends of 175 European cities. The results reveal factors that may hinder the implementation of the strategies, as well as potential conflicts and trade-offs that should be carefully considered when aiming at a truly-sustainable urban development.

The landscape of Sardinia is eminently zootechnical. It is a paradigm of the archaic mediterranean pastoral landscape, because the processes that have generated and maintained it through the centuries have been preserved. First of all, sheep farming, around which culture still spins the life of the island. The zootechnical landscape is defined by an analysis of the most interesting concepts proposed by various authors, and is dealt in analytical terms, trying to map a variable that expresses the probability of incurring a zootechnical landscape, and from a historical and cultural point of view, re-proposing the work of the geographer Le Lannou, for a subdivision of the land into macro-landscapes. Finally, it is evident that the zootechnical landscape evolves, along with changes in the zootechnical sector, towards new configurations that call into question the forest, and therefore forest landscapes.

This research aims at investigating the theoretical basis, the role, and the regularities of performing arts in the urban environment. References to theatre and dance are abundant in urban studies, but they serve almost exclusively as metaphors. Investigating the specificity of performing arts will also allow clarifying the performative aspects of every artistic intervention in urban space. Indeed, from ancient rituals to contemporary street theatre, an intentional and staged action plays a central role not only in the processes of sense giving and community building, or in what is today called "placemaking," but also in the "production of space." Three main conceptual tools are identified: the rhythmanalytical method, as sketched by Lefebvre; the trialectical logic, as elaborated by the Situationist International; and the category of liminality, as defined by Turner. The second section of the work, called "Atlas," while working as a repertoire of case studies supporting the theoretical text, is also intended to work autonomously by building a parallel discourse through images. That section aims to demonstrate how a range of performance interventions produce the city and underscore the notion that theatre is a requirement in the production – or building – of urban space and, as such, forms a continuum with architecture and urban design. The thesis is completed with a section of interviews with choreographers and directors who have dedicated their attention to performance in the urban environment.

Securing a sustainable and reliable energy supply is one of the main topics of the environmental issues we are facing today. Energy transition to more sustainable energy systems is supposed to resolve not only the decreasing availability of fossil fuels, but also the environmental and social issues the actual energy systems entail. Renewable energy systems deal not only with economical and technical issues, but also spatial issues, which comes as implications of the low energy efficiency obtainable from the main renewable sources, that require large areas of installation. The blueprinting and implementation of sustainable patterns of life cannot overlook the territoriality they entail, and the echoes on local systems, which are tangible and quantifiable on the one hand, and intangible and elusive on the other hand. The research is aimed to understand the landscape evolution caused by the forthcoming renewable energy systems. Furthermore, consequent topic is understand how a productive energy landscape can be translated in a sustainable landscape, including the environmental and social issues here implied. Therefore, sustainable energy systems rely on a substantial local involvement, resulting in community-owned and managed energy systems, as a result of both, grassroot actions and mainstream energy policy.

Ecosystems contribute to human wellbeing though the provisioning of goods and services, also known as ecosystem services (ES). However not all ecosystems provide ES to the same extent and depending on physical characteristics of the ecosystems or their location within the city, ES flow differently. The consideration of ecosystems and ES in the planning practice can play an important role in coping with urban challenges, aside to their potential to ameliorate quality of life. Urban planning represents one of the tools administrations have to influence the distribution of ecosystems and ES in a city, and to determine the benefits they provide and, more specifically, to re-determine the number, the location and type of beneficiaries reached. Inclusion of the ES concept in the planning practice can lead to strategic the creation or restoration of Green Urban Infrastructures in a city to maximize the provisioning of a specific ES. Despite the awareness of advantages coming from the application of the ES concept in the planning, there is limited evidence about the application in the planning practice. Goal of this work of this work is to contribute to mainstream ES knowledge into practice. Towards the achievement of this goal, it is crucial to understand the extent to which the ES concept is currently included in urban planning, and to identify the type of information that can most effectively support decision-makers and planners in adopting ES knowledge, and specifically Ecosystem-based measures in their “everyday” urban planning. The work is organized in four specific objectives: i) to provide an overview of the current state of the art related to inclusion of Ecosystem-based measures in urban planning and discuss, and use it identify and discuss the main shortcoming and propose possible solutions. ii)0 to develop an approach to estimate the cooling capacity provided by Green Urban Infrastructures to support urban planning. iii) to test the application of ES assessments in two case studies. iv) to develop guidance to support equitable distribution of ES in cities. The ES concept represents a tool to understand the underlying links between ecosystems, benefits provided and human wellbeing: if effectively used and mainstreamed in the planning practice, can be one of the keys for more livable and equitable cities

The year 2015 will be another step toward diversity in Thailand due to the initiation for ASEAN Economic Community. Unfortunately, the urban neighborhoods who will be facing this population dynamic were left out of policy planning table. This is going against many literatures as scholars have been suggesting for more focuses on local community level where native and migrant will meet. These encounters could result in both social cohesion community or tension, separation that lead to social segregation. Various studies support that good-quality physical environments are significant stimulator for diversity, including space for interaction, amenities, cultural spaces, public infrastructure. Henceforward, this research is trying to address the neighborhood diversity. Through the cultivation of diverse neighborhood design principle (DNDP) factors from comparative case studies. We found 20 key factors essential for DNDP. In final part of the research we attempted to implement the DNDP in real neighborhood of Chiang Mai along with gaming simulation tools. Eventually, we learned that DNDP with the GS have the ability to promote mutual understanding among local stakeholders and prompt the acceptance of diversity concept that stimulate a powerful dialogue and leads to new local initiation for diverse neighborhood planning. And this is proved to be the fabric that can hold local society together by pushing the boundary of more active communication and breakdown stigma walls for good.

Sustainability while being definitely a new form of humanity, as it has been proposed and dealt with in many urban and landscape projects lacks often of an essential characteristic of the anthropic space: seduction. We believe that Sustainability has to find its own power of seduction if it is to compete successfully with the ambiguous but established charms of the unsustainable city. From all the above it is clear the importance of the ‘Aesthetic of Sustainability’ as fundamental for the success of a new model of green planning not just from an environmental and economic point of view, but, perhaps and most importantly, from a social and mental one. This research investigates the possibility to look at Sustainability and Aesthetics through the lens of evolutive processes and the complexity theory to inform a new Bottom Up/Self Organized approach as a possible morphogenetic process for sustainable city design. Often criticized as the theory of ‘out of control’ the complexity theory applied to the urban could instead be the enabler of a new paradigm where the notion of single authorship with intellectual ownership and his aesthetic language is substituted by the concept of a collective and a new aesthetics of choice where the Aesthetics of Sustainability is that action on the psyche, negotiating between personal subjectivity and collective subjectivity, as a form of knowledge, a process, and a tool for aesthetic creation that cannot be separated from the socius and the environment.

This research assumes as a specific topic of analysis the peri-urban landscape, an environment manifesting many contradictions among the traditional forms of cities, their actual patterns, and the permanence of a rural ambient. Current theories on sustainability propose the definition of a limit to the urban growth. It seems like the hypothesis of sustainability explicates itself through the postulate of the “compact city”, with strategies of densification, infilling, or re-compactation of the urban margins. Opposite to this, a sustainable approach to urban design consider the indeterminacy in terms of urban growth , the evolutionary patterns, and the predominance of open spaces of the peri-urban landscape. This research wishes to develop a theoretical approach to the project of the peri-urban landscape, defined, first of all, with a critical literature review approach through the idea of “network”. The question this research wishes to answer is: what conceptual categories and operational tools can be applied to the design of the peri-urban landscape, considering that cities develop different patterns of growth depending on the specific social and economic factors? The review defines the characteristics of a project in the peri-urban as evolutionary, progressive, and based on a network of interconnections and open spaces. One limitation this thesis is trying to address is the lack of a method accounting for the complexity of the city and its relationship to the wider territory. Envisioning scenarios of development for urban margins requires a focused understanding and description of the existing patterns at the macro-scale. Therefore, it could be proposed an analytical and a combined analytical-design model forward, based on the concept of networks. This is developed through the detailed study of a theory for the analysis named Space Syntax, and the exploration of the possible conceptual and operational relationships with typical approach of the Landscape Urbanism., Questa ricerca assume come specifico argomento dell’analisi il paesaggio periurbano, un ambiente che manifesta molteplici contraddizioni rispetto alle forme tradizionali di città, i pattern attuali, e la permanenza di un ambiente rurale. Teorie contemporanee sulla sostenibilità tendono a proporre la definizione di un limite alla crescita urbana. Sembra che le ipotesi di sostenibilità si esplichino attraverso il postulato della “città compatta”, con strategie di densificazione, infilling, o ri-compattazione dei margini urbani. Al contrario, un approccio sostenibile al progetto urbano potrebbe ugualmente tener conto sia della indeterminatezza riguardo alla crescita della città, e ai suoi pattern di sviluppo, sia della predominanza di spazi aperti nel paesaggio del periurbano. La ricerca ha lo scopo di sviluppare un approccio teorico al progetto del paesaggio periurbano, definito, prima di tutto, con una revisione critica della letteratura esistente, operata attraverso il concetto di “rete”. La domanda a cui questa ricerca vorrebbe rispondere è: quali categorie concettuali e strumenti operativi possono essere applicati al progetto del paesaggio periurbano, considerando che le città sviluppano diversi pattern di crescita in relazione a specifici fattori economici e sociali? Prima di tutto, questa revisione critica definisce le caratteristiche di un progetto nel periurbano come evolutivo, incrementale, e basato su una rete di interconnessioni e spazi aperti. Un limite, a cui questa ricerca vorrebbe rispondere, è la mancanza di un metodo che tenga conto della complessità della città contemporanea e delle sue relazioni con il territorio.. Prevedere scenari di crescita per i margini urbani richiede una comprensione e un’accurata descrizione dei pattern di crescita alla macro-scala. Viene quindi proposto un modello analitico e progettuale basato sul concetto di “rete”. Questo è sviluppato attraverso uno studio dettagliato di una teoria per l’analisi chiamata Space Syntax, e l’esplorazione di possibili relazioni concettuali ed operative tra questa teoria e l’approccio tipico del Landscape Urbanism.

Algunas ciudades históricas costeras, con cierto potencial de desarrollo turístico y arraigadas tradiciones culturales, necesitan una planificación adecuada para afrontar dicho desarrollo. La sobreexplotación de la franja costera impulsa el deterioro de los valores que la hacen diferentes de otros territorios, razón básica de su posible atractivo turístico. Así, bajo la consideración de que la cultura local y el paisaje están intrínsecamente unidos, influencian el evolución de dichas ciudades y territorios y pueden ser la base de un desarrollo turístico ambiental y socialmente sostenible, se plantea el análisis, en los casos de Agaete y Alghero, de toda forma de expresión de la tradición histórica local para componer la imagen contemporánea de su cultura, donde el paisaje sea el elemento articulador de los espacios en los que esta cultura se desarrolla, permitiendo la comprensión de su ordenación física a través del territorio y su posterior puesta en valor. Some coastal historic cities with certain potential of tourism development and strong cultural traditions need a proper planning able to tackle such development. Overexploitation of the coastal strip drives the deterioration of the elements that make it different from other territories, basic reason for its possible tourist attraction. Local culture and landscape are inextricably linked, influence cities and territories development and can be the basis of an environmentally and socially sustainable tourism development. So, with Agaete and Alghero as cases of study, analysis of all forms of expression of the local, historical tradition will set the contemporary image of their culture, where landscapes articulate spaces in which this culture is developed, allowing to understand its territorial structure and its subsequent revaluation.

Smart energy city (SEC) development is a component of the urban development initiative smart city, which has been a popular response to the global energy challenge in Europe during the past two decades. SEC development aims to increase the sustainability of urban energy systems and services. Since 2011, SEC development has been supported by the European Commission as part of the Strategic Energy Technology plan (SET-Plan) and through the European Union Programmes for Research and Technological Development (specifically FP7 and Horizon 2020). This, along with the promising vision of SEC development and considerable financial support by the private sector, has encouraged numerous European cities to initiate SEC projects. Successful implementation of these projects at the urban scale is crucial to achievement of urban energy objectives and sustainability of future urban development. The here presented thesis aims to support urban decision-makers towards successful implementation of urban scale smart energy city development in Europe. The study includes three stages. The first stage is dedicated to conceptual analysis. Within this stage, I conceptualized smart city through a keyword analysis of existing literature on the concept. Then, within the context of the smart city concept, I defined SEC development through literature review and expert knowledge elicitation. The second stage is dedicated to empirical investigation. Using the definition of SEC development, I distinguished and investigated 43 previously implemented SEC projects to identify common barriers that hinder successful implementation of SEC development. In addition, I proposed a new multi-dimensional methodology that allows a simultaneous prioritization of barriers against their probability, the level of impact, scale, origin, and relationship with other barriers. The third stage of the thesis is dedicated to learning methodologies that allow efficient transfer of knowledge from the past SEC experiences to the new SEC developments. I introduced the application of two learning methodologies that support decision-makers to predict barriers to the implementation of a new SEC project: case-based learning and decision tree learning. The former predicts barriers based on internal similarities between the new SEC project and the past projects. The latter uses the past projects and creates a predictive model for each barrier based on internal and external project characteristics. These models are later used to predict barriers to a new SEC project. Both methodologies were tested in a new SEC project, named SINFONIA. The conceptual analysis revealed that application of information and communication technologies, the collaboration of multiple stakeholders, integration of multiple urban domains, and sustainability evaluation are the constant characteristics (i.e. principles) of smart city and SEC development. It resulted in, to the best of my knowledge, the first multi-dimensional and comprehensive definition of SEC development, revealing its principles, objectives, domains of intervention, stakeholders, time and spatial dimensions. Furthermore, a list of smart energy solutions in each SEC domain of intervention was provided. The empirical investigation of the past SEC projects resulted in the identification of 35 common barriers to the implementation of SEC development, categorized in policy, administrative, legal, financial, market, environmental, technical, social, and information and awareness dimensions. The barrier prioritization showed that barriers related to collaborative planning, external funding of the project, providing skilled personnel, and fragmented ownership should be the key action priorities for SEC project coordinators. Application of case-based learning methodology resulted in identifying five past SEC projects that were the most similar to the SINFONIA project in terms of project internal characteristics. Investigating the barriers to the similar projects revealed that fragmented ownership is the most probable barrier to implementation of SINFONIA project. Application of the decision trees methodology resulted in generation of 20 barrier models, four of which showed a very good performance in prediction of barriers: lack of values and interest in energy optimization measures, time-consuming requirements by European Commission concerning reporting and accountancy, economic crisis, and local unfavorable regulations for innovative technologies. None of these four barriers were predicted to occur in the SINFONIA project. The application of this method in the SINFONIA showed a higher predicting power when a barrier was absent. The findings of the here presented thesis contribute to successful implementation of SEC development by supporting decision-makers in different phases of SEC projects. The results of the conceptual analysis contribute to a common understanding and foster the dialogue on the concept among various SEC stakeholders, particularly decision-makers and urban planners. The results of the empirical investigation lead to a better comprehension and evaluation of the barriers to the implementation of SEC projects in order to efficiently allocate resources to mitigate barriers. The proposed learning methodologies proved to be promising in helping decision-makers to identify similar projects to a new SEC development and to predict barriers to the implementation of new SEC projects. The thesis concludes that SEC is an outstanding urban development that can make a valuable contribution to the sustainability of urban energy systems. The specific characteristics of SEC development pose new challenges to the future smart and sustainable urban planning. Nevertheless, SEC development brings about unprecedented opportunities for integration and application of advanced quantitative techniques with current urban planning methods. This allows efficient knowledge transfer in not only intra-urban but also inter-urban levels in order to provide a collaborative, integrated and constructive movement towards successful implementation of SEC projects and sustainability of future urban development.

The aim of this research is to analyse, deconstruct and expose the current framework of climate change policies, in order to link climate change issues to their socio-spatiality, and to reframe the problem. The first question is how to move beyond the fetishization of CO2 which dominates the current climate change narrative. The market approach fostering carbon trading and financialization is widening the distance between real processes and the representation of climate change. The problem is limited to CO2 assumed as the Enemy, reducing the complexity of territories and practices underlying the carbon emissions trends. How, then, to embrace the socio-spatiality of injustice beyond the simplistic consideration of its geopolitical component? Indeed, the apocalyptic frame dominating the climate change discourse reflects the tendency towards a depoliticization of society through environmental issues. On the contrary, the mutually sustaining processes of spatial and capitalist uneven development are active in the production of climate change, as one of the contradictions emerging as a threat to the survival of the minorities and of the spaces of confrontation. The hypothesis of this research is that widening the perspective by exploring the situations of conflict can help avoiding this impasse. The struggles demanding the right to the city as appropriation are the most fertile terrain for the insurgence of different approaches to the environmental issues, including climate change.

In 1989 the young Dutch architect Willem Jan Neutelings developed a project for the area in between Rotterdam and the Hague that was going to face, in the following years, a huge increment of population and activities. In this context Neutelings proposed his personal reinterpretation of the urban form called “De Tapijtmetropool” or “Patchwork Metropolis” . The analyses of his work has been the methodological pretext to further investigate the different declinations of the figure of the patchwork in the urban discipline from its origins, mainly related with the work of “The Regional Planning Association of America” and ecologists such as Richard T.T. Forman, until today. Interpreted as a general manifesto or as the explanation of a specific territorial configuration, the patchwork discourse crosses many of the preeminent topics of the modernity – the figure of the fragment, the issue of the peripheral condition and the territorial layout of the contemporary city – but also many other metaphors and researches – cities in between , the territory as a palimpsests , the city territory , the città diffusa , the archipelago city – preserving and enriching each time its precious ambiguity. The thesis is articulated in four parts that assemble a circular story that opens and closes in the same sector of the Dutch territory. Starting with a new reading of the Neutelings’ manifesto (I) and finishing with the analyses of the political, social and territorial configuration of the Netherlands (IV), the research demonstrates retrospectively the presence of an implicit project, recognizing the elements and the typical working mechanisms of the patchwork model. The central part of this thesis (II-III) questions the operational validity of the patchwork metaphor for the urban discipline, aiming to transform the six-pages long article of Neutelings into a more coherent and grounded paradigm to interpret and design the contemporary territories. As a project of coexistence, the patchwork deserves a preeminent role in the contemporary urban discourse, for the willingness to seek an order, even if a weak one, in a territory which is apparently missing it and to address one of the most important themes of the entire Western culture: the relationship between the one and the multiple .

In the last two decades territorial competitiveness has profoundly changed the objectives of government intervention in the field of culture. No longer seen as a tool of social integration, Culture is now considered a tool for the economic revitalization of the city, especially in relation to chronic deficit of public finances. This depends mainly on the fact that the cultural heritage, as a scarce and irreproducible resource, is now the only economic good capable of competing on the global market, conquering niches in the "new new economy" and, at the same time, ensuring new forms of development, sustainable and able to unleashing positive processes at the micro-scale. Scientific literature on protection, conservation, enhancement and management of Cultural and Environmental Heritage, gives reason for these large-scale dynamics, exhorting to a general renovation of the sector. Researches carried out in order to respond to this instance often aim to the identification of physical, economic and human resources already present in a given region in the attempt to create a 'local cultural chain' functional and working. In Italy, the reference model for networking is Third Italy's industrial district, whose success is due to the close correlation between production, territory and local knowledge. The application of industrial district's organizational principles to cultural and environmental heritage has given rise to the 'advanced cultural district', now also applied to the more technical aspects of conservation, as demonstrated by the Regional Technology Districts for Cultural Heritage and Activities of Lazio and Tuscany. The identification of physical, economic and human resources already present in a region and necessary for the cultural district operation is, as in the industrial field, based on the analysis of cultural and creative clusters, i.e. the measure of the geographic concentration of businesses, suppliers, and institutions networks which operate in the fields of culture and creativity. The analyses developed in Anglo-Saxon countries in relation to the theme of the creative city, have had a wide spread, especially thanks to the works of Charles Landry and Richard Florida where creativity and culture are read as the principal agents of the economic transformation processes and, in some cases, as the ideal solution to all the contradictions and issues of urban. This, however, leads to a reductive and distorted view of the two concepts which, in their original meaning, have instead strong implications from ethical and civic point of view, so much important as to suggest possible links with the theme of the common goods and the historic urban landscape (as palimpsest of human-nature interactions in a given geographical area). The PhD thesis, entitled “The creative city. Cultural policies and urban regeneration between conservation and development”, focused on these relationships between creative city principles and landscape approach outlined by the European Landscape Convention in order to identify best practices for the development of innovative cultural policies and new urban regeneration tools. The research is characterized by a cross-cutting approach to cultural heritage which involves conservation technologies, cultural planning, urban studies and creative economy. In particular, the thesis faces and deepens many questions related to creative city and cultural districts in Italy leading to a theoretical model for the design of advanced cultural districts, consisting of: a benchmark methodology which explains, step by step, how to built an advanced cultural district, i.e. a district focused on cultural heritage, based on urban policies inspired to “creative city” theories and included in landscape planning framework; a "toolbox" of spatial, economic and social analysis and indicators that can be used to build the necessary knowledge on the future district’s territory as to draw a feasibility study. Finally, having Sardinia region as reference, the thesis offers a picture of programs and plans to which the methodology and toolbox can be applied, outlining potential impacts of the proposed theoretical model within regional programming and landscape planning.

Climate change is directly or indirectly affecting cities, regions or even nations in multiple ways. Impacts are exponential and repetitive with increased instability of climate pattern, socio-ecological systems, increased inequalities and distribution of resources. It is therefore necessary that social and economic hubs and potential resource rich region should become the catalyst that encourages the focus on climate change policies. Despite having various international and national climate change frameworks and forums it is unclear how international, national and even local governments develop response actions to climate concerns and integrate them into different spatial scales. Developing and mainstreaming effective response actions to climate change into numerous sectors, cross-sectoral policies is a complex issue which has plagued policy makers at different spatial scales and on different policy arenas. In order to efficiently integrate and sensitizing society towards climate change issues, decision makers and different stakeholders have to develop insightful information bases, share awareness of climate change risks, vulnerability patterns and finally develop response actions at all level of policy preparation through policy integration, implementation or structural reforms. This study contributes towards understanding climate change risks and perception within spatial planning policies at local level. This has been undertaken by investigating, testing or developing real spatial planning policies, vulnerability assessment frameworks and decision support systems that aim to improve current spatial planning tools intended at building climate resilient living spaces. This study was divided into three main stages 1) To develop and test an assessment framework to track integration of climate change issues into spatial planning, 2) To identify hot spots of climate change at urban/regional levels by applying spatial vulnerability assessment tools and 3) To apply eco-system based adaption responses to climate change in an urban region and identifying barriers. Drawing the case study from India, in the first stage, an attempt was made to understand how spatial plans in India are incorporating climate change issues and identifying potential gaps. Spatial plans across various cities in India were examined with the help of a review framework that was developed upon Moser and Loer’s (2008) work on ''Managing climate risks''. The second stage presents a climate change vulnerability assessment framework and its working methodology at local spatial scale, considering three main components: exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity. The vulnerability assessment framework was applied to an urban area in India, namely, Bangalore and a hill district of Eastern Himalaya namely Darjeeling. In the final stage of this study, ecosystem services based adaptation responses within spatial planning was studies to understand how it can increase adaptive capacity and address climate changes issues. The results of this study identified key concerns to climate change issues and its integration in India. The policy analysis shows that the role of spatial plans to integrate climate change issues at local levels like urban areas and regions in India are still limited. Local policies and spatial plans shows low level of awareness, moderate level of analytical capability and limited action responses to integrate climate change issues at local level. Spatial policies in India are still limited to physical and economic issues and undermine the issues of climate change. The application of vulnerability assessment framework demonstrated that it successfully provided a spatial assessment of climate change vulnerability patterns. The spatial pattern of vulnerability identifies areas requiring urgent attention to adaptation action, enabling policy intervention and prioritizing action. At the same time an analysis of the perception of people also confirmed the results of vulnerability assessment at local level. Finally the results showed how ecosystem services based response actions when applied within spatial planning can play an important role to mitigate the effects of climate change and adapt to local climate concerns with least negative repercussions. The findings of this study creates a platform for discussion on decision making process and the potential aspects where climate change issues can become a part of spatial planning policy. Climate change mitigation and adaptation for short terms may fulfill objectives for current climate scenarios but may impose externalities in future. So, policy makers and local development organization need to carefully narrate future climate resilient scenarios. This study is the reflection of the interrelationship between the existing information bases, knowledge gaps, policy preparation practices, analytical capability, participation and technological innovation in climate change integration at local spatial scale.

2013/2014 E’ evidente come l’urbanistica e il progetto urbanistico debbano ora misurarsi con una ‘nuova questione urbana’ (Secchi 2010), delineata dalla sempre più urgente sfida ambientale, dai problemi legati all’accessibilità e mobilità e dalle diseguaglianze sociali sempre più accentuate (Secchi 2010). Oggi la questione ambientale, determinata da fattori antropogenici e dal surriscaldamento globale, solleva nuove incognite e interrogativi a cui l’urbanistica è chiamata a trovare risposte. L’impermeabilità dei suoli, l’inquinamento dell’acqua, del suolo e dell’aria, il clima urbano, lo smaltimento dei rifiuti, il deterioramento del ciclo delle acque sono conseguenze dirette dell’urbanizzazione dei territori; a peggiorare il critico equilibrio ambientale, gli impatti dei cambiamenti climatici incidono sul bilancio qualitativo e quantitativo delle risorse naturali, aggravano la vulnerabilità del territorio agli eventi atmosferici e mettono a rischio la sicurezza - e l’abitabilità - delle città. Studi recenti suggeriscono come i sistemi urbani, vulnerabili e al tempo stesso responsabili di questi fenomeni, debbano mettere in atto misure di difesa per far fronte alle conseguenze legate al cambio climatico. La pianificazione territoriale e la progettazione urbana, per la comprensione panottica delle risorse naturali e ambientali, giocano un ruolo rilevante nel rendere il territorio urbanizzato meno vulnerabile e più ‘resiliente’. Non vi è dubbio che l’urbanistica debba assumere un atteggiamento proattivo e propositivo di fronte a questa situazione, intraprendendo azioni che adattino gli spazi urbani agli impatti dei cambiamenti climatici, rivalutando l’efficacia delle proprie politiche in un orizzonte di più ampio respiro. La crisi ambientale sembra allora mettere in gioco nuove prospettive di ricerca e di azione su cui la disciplina deve tornare a riflettere. Se ogni crisi e questione urbana ha portato alla luce nuovi temi (Secchi 2013), oggi allora si presenta un’opportunità, per l’urbanistica, di ridefinizione degli obiettivi disciplinari e l’ipotesi di un nuovo campo di indagine, riflessione e progetto per la città. Un’occasione a un ritorno alla cura del territorio, a una presa di coscienza dell’irreversibilità dei processi progettuali sull’ambiente (e sul sistema climatico) e sul bisogno di agire, in termini di adattamento, sulla città esistente. Oggigiorno sembra che l’urbanistica abbia acquisito queste responsabilità e il concetto di ‘rischio’ legato agli eventi ‘naturali’ correlati agli effetti collaterali del cambiamenti climatici fa parte oramai del palinsesto disciplinare. Oltre alla riduzione delle cause che determinano i rischi del surriscaldamento globale, i piani di ultima generazione hanno avviato processi di trasformazione urbana in grado di accogliere, adattandosi, le conseguenze dei cambiamenti climatici all’interno di un progetto olistico che tiene assieme le varie ‘questioni urbane’. Se le strategie di mitigazione e le relative politiche urbane di riduzione delle emissioni di gas ad effetto serra hanno ormai ampiamente individuato chiare e sperimentate modalità di attuazione e realizzazione anche all’interno della disciplina urbanistica, quelle relative all’adattamento agli impatti dei cambiamenti climatici restano tuttora abbastanza vaghe e indefinite. Le soluzioni intraprese dalle città europee si muovono in differenti direzioni: quelle maggiormente condivise sembrano essere accomunate da concetti quali ‘resilienza’, ‘intelligenza’, ‘eco’. Però, all’interno della disciplina, questi concetti hanno difficile traduzione e rischiano di diventare dei concetti facilmente fraintesi, come è avvenuto in passato per la ‘sostenibilità’. La ricerca è strutturata in due parti. La prima è volta a ricostruire lo stato dell’arte disciplinare riguardo i temi dell’adattamento delle città ai cambiamenti climatici. Senza pretesa di esaustività, l’obiettivo consiste nell’individuare presupposti teorici e culturali, direzioni e modalità intraprese all’interno del dibattito disciplinare. La seconda parte, invece, riveste un carattere principalmente operativo e si muove a partire dalle letture di casi in cui il progetto degli spazi aperti affronta le problematiche climatiche in maniera propositiva, traducendo le esigenze di sicurezza e abitabilità in occasione di rigenerazione urbana. Infine all’interno della sezione ‘Apparati’ vengono riportate alcune parole chiave per il progetto climate-proof e un repertorio dei dispositivi spaziali che agiscono per favorire l’adattamento degli spazi pubblici agli impatti collaterali dei mutamenti climatici. XXVII Ciclo 1982

The research deals with river basin planning considering both the relations between water, wetlands, and landscape, and the crisis caused by a design approach still conceiving water infrastructure elements – i.e. dams, water supply and treatment, and flood prevention systems – as separate and unrelated to the receiving water system, to its wetlands, and to landscape with its environmental, cultural, historic, and human features. Particular attention is given to artificial reservoirs and coastal wetlands insomuch as they represent nodal points of drainage basins, as they reflect territorial dynamics of water, and as they are cybernetic organisms representing a deeply interconnected socio-environment. The study examines two cases: the Boadella-Aiguamolls de l'Empordà system in Catalonia and the Cuga-Calich system in Sardinia. The research centres on the processes of review and structuration of landscape-water infrastructure relation, organizing its content based on multiple territorial layerings, within which complex issues – like flood risk, poor quality of water, low efficiency of water supply network, degradation of environment and landscape, or social denial of waterscapes – become driving forces in the definition of potential planning strategies rather than being mere outcomes.

In an attempt to make concrete linkages between neighborhood change and the boundary-making paradigm, this field and historical study of a New York City'€™s neighborhood, addresses the influences of displacement, housing- abandonment and resettlement in Super-gentrification processes on 1) the types of institutions that emerged to represent different class interests; 2) the types of social groups that came to inhabit the neighborhood; 3) the pattern of that evolution over time; 4) the particular goals, values, and morals that such community organizations evolved; and 5) the social status displays carried out in cultured consumption in housing and leisure. Employing a multi-methodological and theoretical approach, the study follows the evolution and development of neighborhood change over forty years through the analysis of social groups and their community organizations (looking at archival documents for the past and by in-depth interviews, shadowing and ethnographic observation for the present time), census data analysis, archival/documental research, and visual data. Community organizations emerged, on the one hand, to represent different class interests - improvement, mandated, ideological -€“ and to emphasize liberal progressive values, on the other. This emergence followed historical and geographical patterns of accelerating gentrification. The study argues that four waves of gentrification showed up across the time and tended to concentrate in four different neighborhood areas, where the incoming groups formed parallel boundary shifts. Accordingly, I found that different waves of gentrification were associated with the emergence of different types of Gentrifiers over time, and this had to do with the changing role of post-industrial cities within the American economy, the processes of government/local institution interventions in the neighborhood housing market, the changes in class interests, morals and ideologies, and the increased aestheticized re-scriptings of neighborhood housing choices and lifestyles. Such aesthetic appreciation operated for gentrifiers as a visible marker of social status. As residential displacement, the disappearance of "old"€ local stores, and their replacement of upscale shops entailed forms of social inequality that enhanced the lifestyle of new waves of gentrifiers (raising housing values and rents) while, at the same time, forced out morally (by alienation) or practically (by displacement) long-term residents, who helped produce the neighborhood socio-cultural fabric. Diversity and aesthetic appeal seemed to underlie the motives of wealthier, well-educated newcomers to move into the neighborhood. Interestingly, those have not been changing throughout the different waves of gentrifiers who came to inhabit the community in the last 40 years. However - during the process of Super-gentrification -€“ I found that the more they populate the neighborhood, the more it becomes homogenized and less richly diverse, still quite progressive but in a different way. I would say, in a privileged progressive way. Despite the fact that the moral order of these institutions has always been the one of community solidarity, culture, education, and growth, I observed at the same time the playing out of the most common paradox of gentrifiers. The desire of diversity and the producing of difference. This is, I believe, the central problem of gentrification: the balance between, or the combination of, pleasure and power. Balancing pleasure and power is a social, political, and moral problem. It brings together many of the concerns about gentrification, the desire for (and the loss of) diversity, and expresses the central thesis of this study.

Cities and space matter for social justice, for it is more and more determined by spatial injustices. The attention on the spatial context, I argue, is inevitable for promoting social justice in general, since it may represent an important source of inequalities. If we want to deal with (in)justices, it is necessary to define which policies should be put in place and which citizens they should to address. It is needed, above all, to try to understand how the urban context relates to the individuals, how it supports or limits their development. The capability approach provides an useful theoretical framework for analysing this relation and for evaluating Urban “QualityOfLife”, not only for the measurement’s sake, but potentially also as a tool for evaluating urban and territorial policies, in terms of their effectiveness in increasing the capability sets of people. In this work I propose a decision-aiding tool grounded on the capability approach for the assessment of the (in)justices in space, in terms of the distribution of “urban capabilities”, which are those determined by the relations between the individuals and the distinctively urban and territorial features and phenomena. The tool is devised as an aid for urban planners in order to orient urban development policies and to increase the urban opportunity set, by analysing "urban handicaps”, which are “missing freedoms" in terms of spatial, urban and territorial factors limiting people's capabilities.

La finalità della ricerca è l'individuazione di uno strumento urbanistico per governare il territorio metropolitano che garantisca la successione efficace ed efficiente delle azioni nelle quali si articola il processo di pianificazione strategica. All'interno della ricerca, da un lato si indaga lo sviluppo storico-culturale che ha caratterizzato in Italia il concetto di area metropolitana, individuandone i contenuti e le operazioni che portano alla perimetrazione del suo territorio. Dall'altro lato si approfondisce il tema della pianificazione strategica come strumento fondamentale per il governo delle città metropolitane intermedie. Si è proceduto all'approfondimento del dibattito culturale e scientifico sul tema delle aree metropolitane, nell'esperienza di pianificazione strategica sviluppata in ambito internazionale e successivamente il dibattito politico che si è sviluppato nella realtà italiana sul concetto di area metropolitana, evidenziandone gli aspetti condivisi e le diverse tipologie di approccio per ottenere una perimetrazione utile al piano di governo del territorio. Ovviamente, nel processo di analisi, un ruolo dominante è stato assunto dal quadro istituzionale e normativo che si è sviluppato ed è tuttora in corso sul tema delle aree metropolitane. Alla tematica relativa alla definizione delle aree, si è sviluppato un consistente approfondimento sui requisiti che devono essere posseduti da un piano strategico costruito sulle esigenze di un'area metropolitana. E' stata individuata l'area metropolitana di Bologna quale area oggetto di studio approfondito, ripercorrendo le vicende che hanno animato il dibattito sulla nascita della Città metropolitana delimitata dalla Provincia. A tal proposito, si è sviluppata una riflessione sui contenuti innovativi e promozionali del piano strategico, valutando gli effetti che il Piano Strategico Metropolitano in corso di elaborazione sarà in grado di produrre sulle dinamiche territoriali e socio-economiche dell'area bolognese., The purpose is the identification of a planning instrument to govern the metropolitan territory. The document should ensure the efficient sequence of actions which make up the strategic planning process. Within the research explores the historical and cultural development that has characterized Italian metropolitan area, identifying the operations that lead to the delimitation of its territory. It also examines the issue of strategic planning as a fundamental tool for the government of intermediate metropolitan cities. The research has proceeded in the deepening of cultural and scientific debate on the issue of metropolitan areas in the experience of strategic planning developed in the international arena. The basic themes were the selection of references useful in discussing the theme of metropolitan areas and methods for the construction of a strategic plan in the territorial governments of large areas. It then analyzed the political debate that has developed in the Italian reality, highlighting the shared aspects and the different types of approach to get a perimeter useful to the plan of government of the territory. Of course, a dominant role was assumed by the institutional framework that has been developed and is still in the progress on the issue of metropolitan areas. It also has developed a substantial deepening of the requirements that must be possessed by a strategic plan built on the needs of a metropolitan area. Then the metropolitan area of ​​Bologna has been identified where the subject of extensive study area, retracing the events that have enlivened the debate on the emergence of the Metropolitan City bordered by the Province. In this regard, it has developed a reflection on the content of the strategic approach, evaluating the effects of the Metropolitan Strategic Plan being developed, it will be able to produce territorial and social-economic dynamics to the Bologna area.

This PhD research focuses on the Italian case and analyses the possibility of integrating energy planning with spatial planning, the effectiveness of plan implementation mechanisms, and the prospect of replacing public-led interventions with market tools. Recent innovations in the legislative framework support the inclusion of energy saving and climate change adaptation and mitigation goals in plan implementation procedures.

La finalità della ricerca è l'individuazione di uno strumento urbanistico per governare il territorio metropolitano che garantisca la successione efficace ed efficiente delle azioni nelle quali si articola il processo di pianificazione strategica. All'interno della ricerca, da un lato si indaga lo sviluppo storico-culturale che ha caratterizzato in Italia il concetto di area metropolitana, individuandone i contenuti e le operazioni che portano alla perimetrazione del suo territorio. Dall'altro lato si approfondisce il tema della pianificazione strategica come strumento fondamentale per il governo delle città metropolitane intermedie. Si è proceduto all'approfondimento del dibattito culturale e scientifico sul tema delle aree metropolitane, nell'esperienza di pianificazione strategica sviluppata in ambito internazionale e successivamente il dibattito politico che si è sviluppato nella realtà italiana sul concetto di area metropolitana, evidenziandone gli aspetti condivisi e le diverse tipologie di approccio per ottenere una perimetrazione utile al piano di governo del territorio. Ovviamente, nel processo di analisi, un ruolo dominante è stato assunto dal quadro istituzionale e normativo che si è sviluppato ed è tuttora in corso sul tema delle aree metropolitane. Alla tematica relativa alla definizione delle aree, si è sviluppato un consistente approfondimento sui requisiti che devono essere posseduti da un piano strategico costruito sulle esigenze di un'area metropolitana. E' stata individuata l'area metropolitana di Bologna quale area oggetto di studio approfondito, ripercorrendo le vicende che hanno animato il dibattito sulla nascita della Città metropolitana delimitata dalla Provincia. A tal proposito, si è sviluppata una riflessione sui contenuti innovativi e promozionali del piano strategico, valutando gli effetti che il Piano Strategico Metropolitano in corso di elaborazione sarà in grado di produrre sulle dinamiche territoriali e socio-economiche dell'area bolognese., The purpose is the identification of a planning instrument to govern the metropolitan territory. The document should ensure the efficient sequence of actions which make up the strategic planning process. Within the research explores the historical and cultural development that has characterized Italian metropolitan area, identifying the operations that lead to the delimitation of its territory. It also examines the issue of strategic planning as a fundamental tool for the government of intermediate metropolitan cities. The research has proceeded in the deepening of cultural and scientific debate on the issue of metropolitan areas in the experience of strategic planning developed in the international arena. The basic themes were the selection of references useful in discussing the theme of metropolitan areas and methods for the construction of a strategic plan in the territorial governments of large areas. It then analyzed the political debate that has developed in the Italian reality, highlighting the shared aspects and the different types of approach to get a perimeter useful to the plan of government of the territory. Of course, a dominant role was assumed by the institutional framework that has been developed and is still in the progress on the issue of metropolitan areas. It also has developed a substantial deepening of the requirements that must be possessed by a strategic plan built on the needs of a metropolitan area. Then the metropolitan area of ​​Bologna has been identified where the subject of extensive study area, retracing the events that have enlivened the debate on the emergence of the Metropolitan City bordered by the Province. In this regard, it has developed a reflection on the content of the strategic approach, evaluating the effects of the Metropolitan Strategic Plan being developed, it will be able to produce territorial and social-economic dynamics to the Bologna area.

This PhD thesis provides design strategies to control changes produced in mountains places and landscapes following constructions of roads. Strategies are based on the activation of unexpressed potentialities in places, although compromised, characterized by presence of roads. With the term unexpressed potentialities we refer to functions, attitudes, uses which, during the process of road realization, have not found an appropriate design solution. Topic of the thesis is to demonstrate that these design gaps can be properly addressed by an architecture project, obtaining two results: create a link between places, landscapes and roads and consolidate the participation of architecture discipline in a field (roads production) in which, today in Italy, it is less integrated than others. Changes in mountain landscapes are characterized by morphology and orography of the territory crossed: the factor that most influences in this direction is the verticality of the space. This specificity is discussed in the thesis through the analysis of road segments, infrastructure nodes or other specific situations, divided according to the topography in which there are: high gradients, slope or bottom of valleys. Specific characteristics which correspond to the three different orographic situations are explained by an interpretative study of the cross section, highlighting the potentiality of the space related with its vertical dimension. Most study cases belong to the geographical area of Trentino Alto Adige, an Italian region characterized by mountain landscapes. Some study cases are taken from other Italian regions or known experiences of the international context. The proposed strategies are developed through study of architectural projects, joined by devices that interpret the vertical (overlapping, slope and difference in altitude) of the spaces, reproposable in cases of mountain road. All strategies can be applied at any step of road production, from concept to design to construction. In addition, and we assume that this is the most frequent case, can be applied ex post, when the road is built, intervening to change situations already in place.

“[…]Landscape” means an area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors; […]Acknowledging that the landscape is an important part of the quality of life for people everywhere: in urban areas and in the countryside, in degraded areas as well as in areas of high quality, in areas recognised as being of outstanding beauty as well as everyday areas[…]”. The starting point of this research is the innovative definition of landscape, given by the “European Landscape Convention”, that draws the attention to the need of: - examining the territory as a spatial and temporal continuity; - considering the territory transformations as a value; - giving equal dignity to ruined territory, refusing the idea that only beautiful landscape deserve to be protected. Among the several and diverse European studies on infrastructure and landscape relation, the research focuses on marginal areas created by the infrastructure for mobility (road and highway) in the landscape. These areas are lacking a clearly defined function, they are not anymore part of the landscape, but they have not become part of the infrastructure. These areas are defined as infrastructural refuses. The attention is shifted from the design of the road and from the aesthetic of mobility to the new spaces created by the infrastructure in the landscape. Moreover, the research tries to analyze the infrastructural refuses only ex-post, when these spaces have already been created by the construction and use of a road, or theoretically created in-fieri by an infrastructure project that has overlooked these areas, forgetting to design them, or simply not taking into account their existence. The first part of the research is devoted to define the identity of the infrastructural refuse through the critical analysis of the main theories of the protagonists of the international debate supported by the identification of literature related to the topic. The infrastructural refuse is then described through analytical tools (morphology and perception) that show the effects of infrastructural transformation focussing mainly on mobility infrastructure transformation in Trentino Alto-Adige. The case study analyzed is the trunk road 12 on the stretch called Tangenziale di Trento, and more specifically the transformation caused by the junctions close to urban areas. The Tangenziale is a great artery of traffic that often cuts through the surrounding areas leading to real marginal areas. The research then proceeds to the definition of refuse as a value and tries to highlight its potential for transformation mainly by analyzing the strategy of recycling. Different types of re-use of infrastructural refuses are described: the artistic-temporary use, the daily spontaneous use by the population, and finally the illegal use. The research analyzes the mobility infrastructural refuses: outlining possible transformations, design, re-inventions; illustrating the unexpressed features of the places; re-drawing with different connotation signs that have lost their original meaning; eventually reaching the “operatività dello scarto”. Negative actions like abandon, refuse, waste can become occasions to re-shape and re-think the landscape. The results of the research show the possibility to re-think the infrastructural refuse spaces as a reserves of soil, suggest alternatives to the mentality of the compensation and mitigation, calling for the evolution of the protocols of mobility infrastructure design.

2010/2011 Lo spazio della strada è da sempre uno dei luoghi dotati di maggiore vivacità all’interno delle strutture urbane; questa sua costante importanza è dovuta soprattutto al frequente mutare delle sue caratteristiche formali e spaziali, così come alla sua capacità di accogliere differenti funzioni. Ma dalla fine del XIX secolo uno dei caratteri che dalla sua nascita l’hanno caratterizzata, essere uno spazio necessario per la vita quotidiana, dove ci si può incontrare e interagire, è venuto progressivamente ad impoverirsi, fino a mancare. Se un tempo la strada era considerata come uno spazio collettivo, oggi la crescente disparità nel rapporto tra auto e pedoni ne fa un luogo conteso e, per questi ultimi, spesso non agevolmente “abitabile”. Mediamente il 30% del suolo pubblico all’interno dei centri urbani europei, è occupato dalle automobili; in alcuni casi, soprattutto nelle città americane, le superfici allestite o progettate appositamente per le automobili e da esse occupate sfiorano percentuali che si avvicinano al 60%2 dello spazio aperto fruibile dai cittadini. L’aumento della superficie territoriale “sacrificata” alle necessità di circolazione e sosta dell’automobile è cresciuto in modo direttamente proporzionale al ruolo acquisito da questa modalità di trasporto, causando problemi rilevanti non solo ai pedoni, ma anche a coloro che ogni giorno rimangono bloccati nel traffico, sopraffatti dall’inquinamento dell’aria e acustico, preda della tensione causata dagli ingorghi, come ci viene narrato in tanti film, come Il sorpasso di D. Risi o American Graffiti di S. Lucas3. Intraprendendo un percorso di lettura riferito allo spazio delle strade come fenomeni urbani, ai modi d’uso dello spazio strada e ai progetti informali di riappropriazione dello stesso da parte dei suoi diversi utenti, anche attraverso modalità non codificate e non istituzionali, ho immaginato di individuare e seguire, tra le molte possibili, quelle tracce generate da “procedure multiformi, resistenti, scaltre e ostinate che sfuggono alla disciplina senza essere tuttavia al di fuori del campo in cui essa si esercita”.4 Ciò ha significato compiere un esercizio che permette di capire come differenti gruppi e individui agiscano, nel momento in cui i modi d’uso di uno spazio appaiono a una parte consistente dei suoi utenti come non totalmente adeguati, se in modo dialettico o (più spesso) in contrapposizione alla struttura esistente degli spazi della città contemporanea. Comprendere le dinamiche di questo tipo di situazioni e di pratiche, azioni, progetti di trasformazione può permettere di individuare e definire modi innovativi di intervento sullo spazio della strada, facendo diventare (o tornare ad essere) questo luogo uno spazio abitabile esterno, prolungamento e complemento di quello interno domestico; un luogo in cui eventi auto-organizzati, nuove forme di occupazione del suolo pubblico ed esperienze di microprogettualità diffusa innovative mettono in luce la vitalità e il grado di flessibilità di questo manufatto e degli spazi che con esso si relazionano. L’osservazione di queste azioni ha permesso a questa tesi di porre in luce strategie e processi 27 attivabili per favorire una nuova configurazione del rapporto tra strada e città, assegnando un ruolo importante, nella definizione di questo spazio, ai suoi protagonisti. XXIV Ciclo 1981

The dissertation is framed within the topics of regional governance and Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). Compared to its relationship with governance the SEA may be defined as a set of rules, principles, techniques and tools with the function of supporting the decision making process. The evaluation process is strategically relevant when applying the principles of environmental sustainability to regional and urban planning. SEA is a fundamental instrument for the environmental integration during the elaboration and adoption of plans; SEA offers an opportunity to bring about a real change of attitude and culture at strategic levels into strategic decision-making process; SEA, according to the Directive 2001/42/EC, provides the most adequate opportunity to integrate different regional planning methods. The dissertation mechanisms of regional governance, defined as the process involving the formation and implementation of decisions. The objective of this study is to analyse the relationships between the various stakeholders and governmental institutions, with the aim of defining in what terms, with reference to regional governance, the theoretical principles of sustainable development (in terms of managing the relationship between natural resources and economic development) can be applied to the planning phases. The main aim is to build a framework for sequential activities in the planning process, of a new model of governance able to relate to different levels of government, from a political level to a local level. The Sardinian case study contains some interesting aspects of planning and evaluation processes currently under way, which could be exported and developed further. However, it does suffer from several inconsistencies which are highlighted by the Directive 2001/42/EC. The innovative aspect of the research project, respect to the current planning situation of the SEA and the planning procedures, consists in the creation of a Protocol for the integration of the two approaches related to the construction of the plan and the activation process of SEA. In particular in the construction of system to accompany and support the government in adapting the plans, and secondly to support local authorities in the definition of strategic choices. Don’t exist in Sardinia a guidance for SEA process of general plan, This Guidance is intended to be valid for all plans from regional to urban plans by defining a decisional process where the SEA is part of the plan, creating a process more inclusive of aspects of environmental and public consultation. The involvement of consulting the public and authorities with environmental responsibilities is the goal of the new model of the assessment process.

The concepts of governance and sustainable development on which the thesis is based, are present in the literature with various meanings and are often misused in everyday language, so as to be regarded by many as words full of rhetoric, ambiguous, devoid of any real content, used to express everything and nothing. The likely cause of this misuse is that they are concepts related to complex systems and processes, in terms of problems and implications, with a variety of people involved in different ways and whose number has increased over time. While the concept of sustainability in the administration of the territory goes beyond the protection of the environment by including economic and social development as well as the environmental dimension, the analysis of the territorial governance processes requires the reconstruction of behaviour of the multiple participants, called stakehorders, which act in these processes. An important governance tool, useful in guiding the plan of action to the paradigm of sustainable development, is the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). Compared to its relationship with governance, the SEA could be defined as a set of rules, principles, techniques and tools with the function of continually supporting the decision making process in order to generate consensus on actions to be taken and, above all, to ensure that such consent will last over time and become a network of stable relationships that can ensure continuity and consistency in the planning process. Governance, evaluation and planning are “inseparable concepts”, recalling Abdul Khakee’s article, written in 1998. Using these considerations as a starting point, the aim of the thesis is to highlight, in terms of issues, the question of relationship between governance, planning and evaluation . At different levels of government (regional, provincial and local), through the analysis of case studies, the thesis identifies, in an original way, for territorial governance problems and possible solutions. It define, in particular, procedural requirements for a SEA fully integrated in urban and territorial planning process with the creation of a procedural Protocol.

The strong forces of transformation and change characterising our contemporary society, pose considerable challenges to control and stability that used to be two common features of the urban project. Traditional instruments used for describing and representing reality are no longer adequate for analysing an ever changing, complex world, rapidly aggregating, dissolving, and reassembling itself. This situation can be understood and analysed in the light of the functionalistic paradigm that influences and gives shape to methods of knowledge, analysis and planning traditionally used in urban contexts. This paradigm builds on an conception of reality organised according to a hierarchical and centralised order, steered by heavy and rigid codes, often interpreted as formal rules used as instruments in spatial projects. The approach appears to be inadequate for analysing and confronting contemporary realities in urban contexts in our contemporary world, that are characterised by less formality and increased flexibility. In this perspective, this thesis reflects on the possibilities of introducing approaches and methods that would include and integrate dynamics that are generally excluded from the urban project discourse. The research takes on an open and constructive approach to informal aspects and phenomena in urban contexts, and aims at exploring if and how some processes can become catalysts capable of enriching the conceptualising, prospecting and planning of urban space.

The research was born from the need to explain the contribution of the researches and the empirical experiences, regarding the social capital, in the town-planning field. They defined a practical and methodological tool for the intervention in the urban ambit both concerning the design (urban but also public policies design) and the management of local urban phenomena. Within this study the social capital is considered as a subset of the often abused abstraction of Urban Life Quality. After demonstrating the relation between social capital and urban regeneration/requalification the next step is to explain how this contributes to the creation of public development (both in a qualitative and quantitative sense). The research proceeds with the analysis of the definitions given to “social capital” by the various disciplines (political science, economics and sociology) in order to underline the multiform genesis which has been caused and highlighting, moreover, the great presence of contradictions between disciplines and authors. After ascertaining that the concept of social capital results worn-out and not much usable in the urban field, there is the proposal of a new concept such as that of “Risorsa Civica” (Town Resource). As it deepens its roots in the original conception of “social capital” and recovers its function, the “Risorsa Civica” places the social capital in a revised role of the town and of its organization and equipment.

The thesis is developed from an analysis of how the territorial systems can revitalize their economy and development through the instrument of strategic planning and territorial governance concerning the landscape. In particular it will be considered situations in which the strategic tools of economic, social and cultural redevelopment involving the city – river system. It will be studied the dynamics, evaluated the policies and the processes to understand the outcomes and to work out a local development strategy with an application on a real case study: the Alto Ferrarese. The local development strategy will be based on the assumption of the landscape as a category for the urban and territorial planning and for the cultural, social and economic sustainable development, as defined from the European Community. It will be an approach to the landscape problems in a perspective of territorial development, aware of the cultural value of the transformation process, starting with: - the recognition of local identity values and their development; - the identification of the dynamics of the historical evolution of the landscape, considered as rules for the transformation, to placed as a foundation for future development strategies; - the involvement of all stakeholders, first of all the population , and of all disciplinary fields necessary to the definition of the development strategy, in order to ensure an improved quality of life and of the environment; - the creation of a system of connections and collaborations between all the resources (environmental, social and economic) in order to enhance the overall territorial system. The theme of thesis, carried out into the Economics PhD ("Urban e territorial development” curriculum) arises from some reflections on the territory of Ferrara, paying special attention to its distinctive river system. The rivers, more than any other territorial element, play a fundamental role in the processes of urban and territorial development through relationships that encourage through: - linear connections, - cross-connections, - net connections. It is note the tendency in recent decades to promote green paths within the territory: greenways, greenstructure, green corridors and ecological networks etc. not only as a guarantee for the biodiversity, but also as a landscape structures able to regulare the tendency to an uncontrolled expansion of urban peripheries that led, among others, the phenomenon of the urban sprawl. The cities benefit from the river, which flowing along the territory connects spaces, situations, sometimes becoming the space for events, identifying itself with the structure of the territory. The waterways can in fact be understood as axles: - structuring axes: able to articulate and connect the territory; - development axes: getting in the planning processes and economic development dynamics, - discovery: encouraging a structured and sustainable land use. The rivers are the bearers of cultural and landscape values and opportunities for economic development. The transformation and regeneration dynamics organized on ecological networks structures, and then aimed at enhancing the environment, imply the need for a more sustainable use of the territory. The promotion of responsible tourism, aimed at the knowledge of the area and the rediscovery of the environment, becomes a central element of the development of the local economy, according to the idea of sustainable development of the landscape. The methodology of work is organized on three levels: a) critical reading and in-depth study of thematic literature to identify and define the basic aspects of the dynamics and strategy for development and territorial transformation in order to acquire a knowledge of the theoretical aspects and legislation on the subject; b) analytical reading of case studies. Each case study proposed coincides with an urban redevelopment project realized on a territorial system "city-water" c) development of a strategy for the Alto Ferrarese: after the analyses of the different context, and on the base of the results obtained, the objective is to define "guidelines" for a regeneration and redevelopment strategy through a process of territorial development and sustainable economic, for a specific territory : the Alto Ferrarese.

Over the last few years, academic research and international aid organizations have been underlining the important role that the small towns of Sub-Saharan Africa have in promoting development in the surrounding rural areas and in reversing the polarization trend of major urban centers. Nevertheless, defining the particular characteristics of these towns—which the majority of African population lives in or refers to—and analyzing the relevant transformations that they are experiencing are still unsolved issues. Moreover, until now, policies, programs and projects related to African urban development have focused mainly on major urban centers, while small towns have an almost complete lack of planning on how to accommodate people coming from the surrounding rural areas and how to provide them with services. The aim of the research is to define a conceptual and methodological framework to support the spatial planning activity of local administrators and technicians in Mozambique small towns. To reach the objective of a spatial planning process that results from the thorough comprehension of this particular typology of human settlement, the research was based mainly on the analysis of case studies: Caia and Sena, two vilas rurales situated in a rural district in central Mozambique along the Zambezi River. Together with literature review, a field research was conducted by the author in the district of Caia that consisted of the analysis of already existing data and documents, direct observation, interviews with institutional and non-institutional actors, and a household survey in Sena. Afterwards, a SWOT analysis was used as a tool to manage such a greatly varied amount of information. The research process allowed to identify the main features of the small towns, that are here denominated as “rural towns”, and to understand the major trends related to the “rur-urbanization” process. The rural town is defined as a hybrid settlement pattern in which persisting elements of the rural world melt together with emerging urban characteristics. Vilas rurales, in fact, are traditionally rural contexts characterized by a dominance of vernacular settlement patterns and architectures. The socio-economic and cultural features of the towns, as well as their physical structure, are rapidly changing as a consequence of the ongoing “modernization”. The risk is that a rapid and uncontrolled urbanization process could threaten the natural, economic and cultural bases of the small towns without adequately replacing them. Thereby, some suggestions follow on how spatial planning can contribute to the sustainable growth of the rural towns. The central idea that is proposed herein is to preserve the rural characteristics, which are widely present within the rural towns, and to integrate them with the emerging “urban” features. This strategy aims to support the subsistence activities adopted by the majority of the population and to outline a spatial planning process that responds to the specific characteristics of this typology of human settlement by culturally appropriate means. The thesis consists of three parts. The first part presents the results of the literature review. The origin of the debate on small and intermediate urban centers of Third World countries in the late 1970s is presented in Chapter 1 while Chapter 2 actualizes this debate, also in the light of major processes occurring at global level and affecting African small towns. Chapter 3 stresses the big gap in urbanization theory and practices related to small towns of Africa and focuses on their characteristic of being predominantly vernacular settlements in which a “deculturation” process” is taking place as a consequence of the imposition/adoption of western cultural models. The second part of the thesis presents the analysis of case studies. The research methodology is outlined in Chapter 4. In Chapter 5, Caia and Sena are contextualized within their macro-institutional and regional contexts. Then, an analysis of the rural towns is proposed at the local level. Chapter 6 offers a snapshot of the emerging lifestyles in Sena through the results of the household survey. The rur-urbanization process is described in Chapter 7, first by analysing the spatial evolution of Caia and Sena from a historical perspective and, then, by proposing four key topics that identify the main features of the rural towns and describe the major trends related to the rur-urbanization process. The third part of the research, Chapter 8, presents the conclusions. First of all a definition and an assessment of the rural town is offered. Moreover, a conceptual framework is presented that relates key topics, risks, planning principles and actions related to the spatial planning activity in the rural towns. Finally, a methodological framework is proposed that translates the conceptual framework into more operational terms by outlining a spatial planning process aimed at the rural towns.

In the Veneto Città Diffusa, the decentralized urban landscape of the Veneto Region, Northeast Italy, the economic growth of recent decades brought about increased urbanization and agricultural intensification. The process of change has been accompanied by the extension and/or maximization of centralized services of drinking water, irrigation, waste water and drainage to meet greater demands for the provision and disposal of water. Accordingly, the structure of a formerly poor rural landscape has been adapted to support an affluent industrialized and urban one. However, all this has had detrimental side effects, which, in time might seriously compromise the quality of life in this landscape. On one side, the transformations that occurred have in fact given rise to unexpected problems of drought, flooding and pollution of water; and recent changes in climate patterns have further intensified these risks. On the other side, the long term fine grained carrying structures of the landscape fabric –like roads, field ditches, stream and river corridors, dirt roads, paths etc.-, as the very basis of the landscape’s unique ecological diversity, and once used to convey the area’s flows now risk general extinction. The existing road system is also increasingly under pressure to intensify traffic that creates congestion, pollution and unsafe conditions. From a planning and design perspective, this calls for adequate methods and tools that can help designers to tackle the needs for more sustainable water flows as well as the needs for a recovered ecological integrity (including spatial intelligibility) of this urban landscape. This can be of a great importance also for a better understanding of other territories of urban dispersion which are spreading especially over the European and –although in very different forms- the American continents. The present research aims to contribute to the planning and design answers to these urgent problems. For this purpose, the urban landscape of the Veneto Città Diffusa was approached with principles derived from an Integrated Water Management approach (IWM) that, recently, has been successfully applied in the urban context as an alternative to the technocratic approach of maximizing flows. Storage of water is the key principle, for it can bring about decentralized storage, which means new and different water flow management and spatial arrangements. This can ultimately be obtained through the placement and implementation of small scale and decentralized infrastructures. By focusing on the interrelation between flow patterns and spatial arrangements in a small portion of the Veneto Città Diffusa –i.e. the case study landscape- the study has elaborated and confirmed two specific closely related assumptions. The first assumption is that the recent loss of landscape diversity and the increasing problems of flood, drought and water pollution of the Veneto Città Diffusa are closely related and ascribable also to the processes of centralization of the water flows that accompanied the area’s economic growth. The changes of flow patterns and spatial arrangements of the case study area that happened over the last decades were systematically observed in a threefold area-flow-actor perspective. Insights into the present arrangements of irrigation, drainage, drinking water and waste water at the scale of the Consorzio di Bonifica Valli Grandi e Medio Veronese waterboard also accompanied the investigation. The diagnosis showed that the centralized systems arranged to perform greater inflows and outflows, draw heavily on resources and often risk exceeding the region’s ecological carrying capacity. Moreover, the centralized arrangement often conflicts with the decentralized character of the settlements. No synergetic relations have been developed between the man-made water system and the existing pervasive fine grained elements of the landscape. Instead, this rich capital asset has been left behind and even neglected. And such forms of negligence have ultimately brought about a massive loss of biodiversity, accessibility and spatial intelligibility of the local landscape. This leads to the second assumption that has been researched: in the decentralized urban landscape of the Veneto Città Diffusa, answers that design measures can give in response to increasing water-flow dysfunctions and loss of diversity can be based on decentralized water storage systems that make use of the existing fine grain structures of local landscapes –ditches, streams, land depressions, former pits, hedge-rows, dirt roads, paths etc.- and promote a local-based utilisation of resources (resilience), while fostering a stronger local identity, biodiversity and accessibility for more coherent spatial arrangements. Building on the Ecological Conditions Strategy conceived by Tjallingii (1996), a set of guiding models was developed. In the models, the principles of Integrated Water Management were tuned to those fine grained landscape elements that still structure the low plains of the Veneto –the built lot system, the agricultural field system, the road system, the stream system and the excavation site system. Principles and models of integration and decentralization drove the exploration of design options for different levels of decentralized management of water in the case study area. The creative design process of learning produced a useful toolbox of design models. The design exploration also proved that the dispersed urbanization of the Città Diffusa can be made suitable to accommodate modern integrated and decentralized water systems that, by re-activating the existing carrying structures, also contribute to recovering the landscape. Decentralized urbanization can actually be an ally in the search for sustainable and legible settlements that also reuse and recycle water locally. Designing an integrated water system that fits with the Città Diffusa and contributes to the ecological integrity of this urban landscape remains an important challenge. The tools that can be of practical help to designers and decision-makers who are willing to undertake this challenge were investigated and worked out. Nonetheless, the way to realize the outlined strategies is complex and affected by uncertainty. In this context more research is needed to investigate the effects of decentralization at the level of the region on one side, and on the other side to investigate how these integrated systems can be set to fit present institutional and market frameworks. In conclusion, the study generated concrete proposals for one or more pilot projects that will be extremely important to creating consensus in the decision process during the testing of models and strategies.

This dissertation examines the concept of sustainable energy within a urban design context. In essence, the research aims to answer the question: “what role does the city’s built environment morphology play, if any, in the sustainability of its energy system?”. To answer this question, I first derive an operational definition of sustainable energy in the post carbon era: maintaining the capability to provide non-declining energy services in time. Providing non-declining energy services, in an urban design context, depends on urban morphologies ability to save and conserve energy, be efficient and produce energy from renewable sources without decrease the level of energy services. In other words we can think of a more sustainable energy urban built environment as one that saves energy, is efficient and produces energy from renewable resources per unit of throughput, with energy sustainability measured by urban morphologies energy performances and throughput measured by land unit. This is a normative framework. It can only indicate relative levels of sustainable energy of urban morphologies. Within a specific urban system this framework can allow us to measure which part of the city produce more sustainable energy urban patterns. To employ this framework I utilize a Spatial Pattern Oriented Modelling approach. The energy performance of an urban morphology metric comes from its basis in the international debate on urban energy sustainability, its ability to account for a specific aspect of sustainable energy and the possibility for its derivation from the spatial pattern analysis. Drawing from the large research based on exploring the role of the urban morphology on urban energy system, I derived several spatial patterns indicators that assess the influence of urban morphology on energy performances of urban settlements. These spatial patterns metrics, combined, enable the exploration of sustainable energy within a given urban morphology configuration. I apply the framework to a case study area located in northern Italy between Alps, the transect Trento-Pergine-Valsugana, utilizing data from different sources and exploring the possibilities given by a high-resolution 3D spatial database, a LiDAR survey, and by a geolocalized human activities database, internet 2.0, for the urban morphology analysis with focus to energy. The Principal Component Analysis is used to estimate the correlation between different spatial patterns indicators while a ranking system, based on arbitrary thresholds and classes, is used to visually compare the scores of different sustainable energy performances of urban morphologies.