The Territorial Future of the City Urban and Landscape Perspectives

The volume brings together contributions by leading scholars and young academics with experience in the urban potential of the territory in situations not necessarily linked to the dense metropolis, its compact form or to city sprawl. What brings these scholars together is their common reflection on this central theme, though from varied disciplinary and experimental backgrounds. They offer new forms of representing social and spatial processes of the contemporary society. To Imagine A ''territorial Future Of The City Is To Assert That The Territory Has Urban Potential. It Points Towards The Rediscovery Of An Anchorage To The Land: The City Is Urged By The Territory To Reflect On The Meaning Of Man's Dwelling, To Inquire Into The Primary Elements Of Its Construction, To Investigate What Is Essentially Urban. For The City Of Our Times Has Somehow Hidden Its Essence; It Has Begun To Lose Its Public Sphere - Becoming A Simulacrum Of Itself, A Group Of Theme-parks, Of Islands Without An Archipelago - Placing Its Inhabitants In A ''no-man's-land Between Past And Future''. It Seeks Its Essence On The Territory, Since It Is Environmental Interdependence That Characterizes Those Relations On Which The Environmental Quality Of Urban Life Is Founded. And It Is Precisely The Environmental Dimension That, By Proposing More Extensive Use Of The Territory, Opens Up Prospects For A New Public Sphere Through Collective Awareness-raising Of The ''environmental Dominants'' That Constitute ''an Idea That Unites Places And Spatial Concepts Rich In Nature And History'' And Are Present In The Life Of The Men Inhabiting A Territory. (continued) Reinsertion Of The Territory In The Context Of Urban Life Is Explored In This Book With Contributions By Architects, Urbanists, Sociologists And Philosophers. They Investigate Low-density Urban Situations, An Environmental City Perspective That Recuperates The Historic Depth And Sense Of The Territory To Relaunch Them In Current Terms; Thus We May Speak Of The Territorial Future Of The City.-- 1. The Territorial Future Of The City / Giovanni Maciocco -- 2. The Dilation Of The Concept Of Inhabit' And The City/territory Relationship / Silvano Tagliagambe -- 3. Planning In Search Of Ground: Committed Muddling Through Or A Critical View From Above? / Isabelle Doucet -- 4. The Polycentric City And Environmental Resources / Alfredo Mela -- 5. Images Of Local Societies And Projects For Space / Paola Pittaluga -- 6. Critical Design - The Implementation Of 'designerly' Thinking To Explore The Futurity Of Our Physical Environment / Nel Janssens -- 7. Imagining The Re/co-production Of A Hybrid Territory: Testing Sustainable Concepts Of Landscape Development In Roeselare-west / Liesl Vanautgaerden, Bruno De Meulder And Kaat Boon -- 8. Derelict Places As Alternative Territories Of The City / Silvia Serreli. Giovanni Maciocco, Editor. Includes Bibliographical References And Indexes. The volume brings together contributions by both leading scholars and young academics with a particular experience in the urban potential of the territory in situations not necessarily linked to the dense metropolis, its compact form or to city sprawl. What brings these scholars together is their common reflection on this central theme, though from varied disciplinary and experimental backgrounds. Leading academics like A. Mela (Prof. of Territory and Environment Sociology, University of Turin), S. Tagliagambe (Prof. of Philosophy and Science, University of Sassari), G. Maciocco (Dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Planning, Alghero, Italy) and P. Pittaluga have accumulated long-time experience in developing environmental approaches within Philosophy, Sciences, Environmental Planning and Art. Researchers like I. Doucet, N. Janssens and K. Boon in their turn bring in approaches related to specific European contexts. Contents......Page 10 The Territorial Future of the City......Page 11 The Dilation of the Concept of 'Inhabit' and the City/Territory Relationship......Page 37 Planning in Search of Ground: Committed Muddling Through or a Critical View from Above?......Page 57 The Polycentric City and Environmental Resources......Page 81 Images of Local Societies and Projects for Space......Page 97 Critical Design – The Implementation of ‘Designerly’ Thinking to Explore the Futurity of Our Physical Environment......Page 115 Imagining the Re-/Co-production of a Hybrid Territory: Testing Sustainable Concepts of Landscape Development in Roeselare-West......Page 137 Derelict Places as Alternative Territories of the City......Page 155 M......Page 171 W......Page 172 L......Page 173 U......Page 174 W......Page 175