OVERVIEW

The course analyzes the processes at the origins of the urban fact under its multiple declinations (the urbanization process) and the tools for its formation and transformation (the urban planning and the construction / transformation tools of the city).

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The teaching is aimed at acquiring awareness of the transformation processes that affect the city and the territory and of the methods developed by the discipline to analyze and govern them. The module provides basic knowledge regarding urban planning theory and practice as well as the skills and knowledge of the urban planning and introduces the reading and interpretation of the contemporary city.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

The detailed training objectives refer to the following skills that the student will have to acquire:
• Interpret and analyze cities, urban and territorial systems at different scales and according to multi-disciplinary approaches (taking into account that urban planning is formed at the confluence of many disciplines: urban geography, urban and regional economics, sociology, political science, archeology, anthropology, statistics, demography as well as of course architecture).
• Acquire analytical skills in relation to the processes of formation and transformation of cities and urban and metropolitan regions through the historical reconstruction of the social, economic and technological conditions that are at the basis of the urban phenomenon.
• Master the structural mechanisms of urban and territorial plans through the knowledge of their historical evolution from the nineteenth century to today.
• Know the technical methods and understand the formal languages ​​used by the plans to represent the structures of cities and territories and govern their transformations.
• Interpret the design value of the normative structures, drawn and written, through which the plans regulate the transformations of the city and the territory and know how to apply them in a responsible and conscious way.

PREREQUISITES

The course does not include specific prerequisites, but the knowledge of the basic elements of mathematics, history of architecture and project theories is required.

TEACHING METHODS

The course includes lectures for the treatment of basic theoretical-methodological topics, seminar meetings, group discussions, educational trips, inspections in the Genoese urban context and, where possible, in other significant urban places.

Students who have a valid certification of physical or learning disabilities on file with the University and who wish to discuss possible accommodations or other circumstances regarding lectures, coursework and exams, should speak both with the teacher and with the Department of Architecture and Design's disability referent (https://architettura.unige.it/commissioni_e_referenti_dipartimento).

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

The aim of the course is to provide the student with a fundamental basis of cultural reference on the main themes of urban planning, in relation to the challenges and objectives of contemporary urban design.

A. Elements for an urban planning dictionary

City, urbanism, urbanization, urbanization, urban planning

Urban, non-urban, rural

City, settlement, village, town, metropolis, megalopolis

Land, property, power

Earth, nature, artefact, natural-artificial

Soil and environmental ecology

Population, concentration/dispersion

Space economy

Inhabitant, dwelling

Activities, functions, uses

B. Urban planning in the evolution of its foundations (theories, models, plans, projects, authors)

Early modernity (1750-1915): the industrial city and the tools to regulate it

The second modernity (1920-1945): the foundations of the "modern"

The mature Modern (1945-1989): the rise of the Western city programme

After modernity (1989-2024): crisis and prospects of the Western idea of ​​the city

C. Techniques for city design and planning

Land, urban market, rent, expropriation

Urban grids

Urban metabolism

Neighborhood 

Urban civic infrastructure

Public spaces / urban places

Shape of the built space

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

General references

Colarossi P., Latini A.P., 2008, La progettazione urbana (3 voll.), Milano: Il Sole24 Ore Ed.

Gabellini, P., 2015, Tecniche urbanistiche, Roma: Carocci.

Gaeta L., Janin Rivolin U., Mazza L., 2022, Governo del territorio e pianificazione spaziale, Milano: Città Studi.

Gaeta L., 2024, Il primo libro di urbanistica, Torino: Einaudi. 

Saragosa C., 2011, Città tra passato e futuro. Un percorso critico sulla via di Biopoli, Roma: Donzelli. 

History of urban form and planning

Franchetti Pardo V., 2013, Storia della città Occidentale (2 voll.), Milano: Jaca Book.

Benevolo L. 2005, Storia della città. La città contemporanea, Bari: Laterza. 

Mamoli M., Trebbi G., 1988, Storia dell’urbanistica. L’Europa del secondo Dopoguerra, Roma-Bari: Laterza.

Sica P., 1987, Storia dell’Urbanistica. L'Ottocento, Roma-Bari: Laterza.

Sica P., 1987, Storia dell’Urbanistica. Il Novecento (2 voll.), Roma-Bari: Laterza.

Spagnoli L., 2008, Storia dell’urbanistica moderna (2 voll.), Bologna: Zanichelli.

Contemporary urban forms and drivers of urbanization 

Balducci A., Fedeli V., 2017, Oltre la metropoli. L’urbanizzazione regionale in Italia, Milano: Guerini & Associati.

Indovina F., 2017, Ordine e disordine nella città contemporanea, Milano: Franco Angeli.

Lanzani A., 2015, L'Italia al futuro. Città e paesaggi, economie e società, Milano: FrancoAngeli.

Lombardini G., Tucci G., Vallerga M., 2023, Aree rurali egoverno del territorio, Milano: Franco Angeli. 

Secchi B., 2005, La città del XX secolo, Roma-Bari: Laterza.

Tools

Lombardini G., 2023, L'habitat urbano. Temi e questioni per una scienza dell'insediamento, Roma: Carocci. 

Singleton D., 2017, Urban Analytics (Spatial Analytics and GIS), London: SAGE. 

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

GIAMPIERO LOMBARDINI (President)

ROBERTO ANDREA BOBBIO

ANDREA VERGANO

LESSONS

LESSONS START

September 2022

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

The exam will conclude with an oral discussion on the results of the reading sheets and the topics covered in class.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

Elaboration and discussion of critical reading sheets
Oral interview on the topics of the program.
 

Exam schedule