Evaluation, financing, planning and design of contemporary urban interventions

The processes of transformation about urban settlements involve individual buildings, but also portions of consolidated urban tissue which characterize the structure and the form of minor historical centers as well as large urban centers. These processes are usually related to the objectives of enhancing the physical, economic and social aspects of the urban changes. The technical, financial, procedural and managerial interventions should be devel- oped and implemented focusing on specific objectives that justify the need and pro- mote the opportunity to gain funding. Nowadays funding performs a critical role to plan, design, implement, and possibly manage during operational phases. All the interventions must be coherent with the ter- ritorial “vocations” and satisfy the real needs of the individual and the whole community. Over time, different assessment tools have been developed in order to check the congruence between choices about the “project” (technical, financial, procedural and managerial) and objectives of planning interventions, often related to the different fund- ing opportunities for interventions. This paper wants to build a framework concerning evaluation procedures that can be taken, even related to the different ways of financing. Moreover, the aim of this critical reflection is to highlight how the different choices about the project, operational phases and management must necessarily try to obtain the maximum benefit related to the least expenditure of resources, according to the objectives to be pursued with funding