Structure, form, and identity: cognitive and design references for the regeneration of the existing city

The physical fragmentation of settlement systems, resulting from processes of metropolization, has often erased differentiated cultural landscapes and forms of urbanity. Within the juxtaposition of the various settlement forms of the existing city – whether planned or spontaneous – symbolic and perceptual relationships between places dissolve, and with them, identity. This condition leads to a loosening of the bonds between community and territory, and between the citizen and physical space. The recomposition and re-signification of these contexts require the re-stitching of the relationship between physical continuity and social integration, form and identity, through a morphological perspective that identifies form as a trans-scalar cognitive and design tool capable of grasping the historical-cultural and social specificity and identity of places, as well as their heuristic potential for liveability and habitability. This perspective makes it possible to interpret and simultaneously represent transformations of the spatial configurations, modes of aggregation and stratification, relationships with the hydro-geomorphological system, as well as social practices and lifestyles linked to cultural references and economic conditions. This reflection is supported by critical considerations over some experimental studies conducted in the Roman territory, focusing on profoundly different yet equally marginal contexts: consolidated urban fabrics, and a peripheral areas of spontaneous and informal origin.