Il tracciato urbano. Logiche insediative e implicazioni architettoniche

If the present crisis of the large-scale-project reveals the existence of a need for a strong critique of the theoretical and operational apparatus of the architectural disciplines, then the reassessment probably ought to be started from the notion of plan; at the same time, the role of the urban layout ought to be reassessed as well. Indeed, before identifying the insulae/block as the seed of a city, one ought to think over the persistence of the layouts as evidence of their generative essence. Excessively focusing attention on the architectural object negatively affects the urban vision by leading to neglecting other crucial issues. Among these ones: the reduction to ruins of defunctionalized urban fabric, the lack of relation between the macroscale of the building-containers and the scale of a quarter, by now vampirized by great centralizations; the rate at which the urban sprawl is pursued; last but not least, the wearing out in the formality of the city-as-a-spectacle logics. The question for which an answer is sought is whether it is still possible, having taken in consideration both the multiplicity and the dynamism of contemporary cities, to apply a layout capable of regulating their expansion. Which operative criteria have remained unchanged in the planning process and which changes were introduced? Which generative effects were introduced in the city by the modern infrastructures, by the present configuration of the theme park, which has imposed itself as an urban model, by the new frontiers of the transarchitectures, of the digital communities, of the virtual cities and of the sim-cities? Which innovations were introduced by the new technological dimension and by the urban segregation rules that have determined, for instance, the formation of the gated communities? Which will the future models, strategies and new development programs be? This treatment has been organized in four chapters: in the first chapter the term “urban layout” is redefined, by examining its multiple declensions, in the second one the construction systems and settlement procedures overlooking the formation of the textures are examined. The third chapter moves simultaneously toward two directions; the analytical-taxonomical one, through which some model plans were examined, extrapolating from them some foundational laws, and a more directly operative one, which aims at formulating project proposal. With the firm belief that researching is also planning, the final chapter of the book expounds three planning experiences in which some of the conducted analysis have been applied to reading and re-planning portions of the city, as well as to formulating urban layouts ex novo.

l libro affronta il tema del significato complessivo e delle espressioni singolari del tracciato urbano, inteso come scrittura. La tesi è che il linguaggio architettonico non è avulso dalla città ma va considerato come l’esito di una dialettica tra logiche urbane e possibilità dell’edificio di autodeterminarsi come forma. La sistematizzazione dei segni costituenti il linguaggio insediativo conduce alla costruzione di cinque tipi di tracciato che descrivono situazioni planimetriche e spaziali esistenti o possibili. All’iper-tracciato, che esaspera la componente geometrico-razionale del tracciato reticolare, è contrapposto il radio-tracciato, caratteristico della moderna città per poli. Il tracciato a zolle, che ha come caso-limite l’anti-tracciato, è antitetico rispetto al tracciato aperto, che descrive oggetti architettonici disposti nel paesaggio seguendo le regole della concatenatio. Infine l’edificio-tracciato configura progetti introversi che comunicano il senso della durata.