The definition of borders as a possibility to shape the open space of the city

The contribution intends to investigate a theoretical-operational proposal in the disciplinary field of urban morphology and the study of the phenomena of the city, starting from the themes that the author investigated in her research activity within the DRACo_ Doctorate of Architecture and Construction at Sapienza University of Rome. The occasion for reflection arises from the problems of the city that have emerged from the state of emergency (health and environmental) in recent years, which seem to have called into question the adequacy of the spaces of the historic cities we inhabit and emphasised the need to find, even within compact fabrics, rich in history and theory, a different relationship between the forms of the built environment and the forms of natural open space. This is also the context for the reflections of a staunch defender of densification, Richard Sennett, who proposes an inversion of the city-building paradigm, moving from a “closed system” to an “open system” in which it is possible to reconcile the city in terms of healthfulness and habitability through the inclusion of pieces of nature: this relationship between the built and natural elements clearly requires a rethinking of the “architecture of density” that underlies the logic of compact cities (Sennett, 2019). The new “physical forms of density” can be achieved by redrawing the “boundaries” of the city in order to achieve that “finiteness” of relationships between urban parts that Giuseppe Samonà mentions when he states that cities must have a boundary and the need for urban studies to return to dealing with these boundaries (Samonà, 1984). Assuming these theoretical premises, the contribution turns to the transformation of the city of Palermo through the redrawing of the “borders” of its various parts, applying the natural element as a means of distinguishing and enhancing the different morphologies that make up, according to Claude Lévi-Strauss’ well-known definition, “the human thing par excellence” (Rossi, 1966).