Urbanistica n.139-2009 by Planum I(2009) by Planum. The Journal of Urbanism

Urbanistica n. 139 May-August 2009

Distribution by www.planum.net

Index and english translation of the articles Problems, policies and research

Paolo Avarello edited by Anna Laura Palazzo, Biancamaria Rizzo Anna Laura Palazzo Biancamaria Rizzo Anna Laura Palazzo Biancamaria Rizzo Anna Laura Palazzo, Biancamaria Rizzo

edited by Antonio Longo Antonio Longo, Alessandro Alì Christian Novak Paolo Pileri Fabio Terragni Arturo Lanzani, Paola Pucci

Methods and tools

Profiles and practices

Projects and implementation

Aurelio Galfetti, Fabio Nocentini edited by di Roberto Gambino, Gabriella Negrini Roberto Gambino Adrian Phillips, Grazia Borrini-Feyerabend Angioletta Voghera Claudia Cassatella Raffaella Gambino Sergio Malcevschi, Pier Giorgio Terzuolo, Federica Thomasset Emma Salizzoni Paolo Castelnovi Federica Thomasset Attilia Peano edited by Stefano Munarin, Maria Chiara Tosi Maria Chiara Tosi Bernardo Secchi Alberto Clementi Giulio Ernesti Ingrid Breckner Rudolf Poledna Stefano Munarin Nadia Fava, Manuel Guàrdia Bassols, José Luis Oyon Mario Tancredi Giovanni Cafiero Carlos Smaniotto Costa, Monica Bocci, Ernesto Marcheggiani

The sad science Enforcing the European landscape convention in San Marino The methodological approach Landsacpe and nature Landsacpe and history Landsacpe and common knowledge The Manifesto of San Marino’s landscape

A park for the infinite city From the Masterplan to the final project Designing for and in the land Around a road: from impact compensation works to nature and landscape design What a project is about Infrastructures and the territory: the reasons for an encounter that continues to be difficult and the story of an attempt to change things ‘in process’ Architecture and the environment. A space for people travelling by car Parks and landscapes of Europe Parks, landscapes, european territory. Nature and landscape conservation in planning Embracing diversity, equity and change in the landscape European landscape policies Cultural and natural values in the Unesco site management: the case of Sacri monti The isola Pomposiana in the Po delta Networks and planning Conservation and development in coastal protected landscapes Territorial strategies for nature and landscape: the Turin Corona verde project Parks and landscape in Europe A territory-oriented view of nature and landscape The space of welfare in Europe Difficulty of living Building the welfare Between risk and cohesion. Requests for innovations in urban planning City, civil society, welfare: a risk perspective? Cultures in public spaces. The case of HafenCity Hamburg Welfare for all? Utopia or reality in a socialist society. The case of Romania Spaces of welfare and relation-based goods Barcellona’s markets: formation and duration Urban planning in Medellìn The urban question in the southern Italy. Conurbation in emergency and weak networks Urban green spaces and sustainability: the GreenKeys approach

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The sad science Paolo Avarello Perhaps because of the now imminent university counterreform, in the last few years the academic debate on the ‘scientific nature’ of the various subjects has increased. For town planning the problem of a scientific status is no novelty, but stems from the very origin of its ‘modern’ phase, in contrast with its ‘engineering’ phase in the 19th century, which also purposely included certain ‘scientific’ interests, e.g. in its social, medical-hygienic, economic and environmental aspects, etc. In Italy, university courses in town planning started in the first faculties of Architecture, conceived by Gustavo Giovannoni, to train technicians who were also humanists and towards being ‘scientists’, while maintaining the ‘artistic’ features proper to the architect. A formative model that remains even to this day, and is a rarity in the international panorama, where ‘schools’ of Architecture are often not part of the universities. The thirties bequeathed to town planning the law of 1942, but not the underlying policy, that is the ‘containment’ of urbanization, not even the powers assigned to the municipalities (under ministerial protection) to carry it out, based on the ‘preventive’ expropriation of all the areas (of expansion). A model that with the Republic could not be put into practice, but which was maintained in its form, and distorted in its substance, complicating the ‘townplanning procedures’. Town planners for long remained attached to said model, striving to apply it and putting its failures down to the incapacity or the bad faith of the administrators. To gain ‘authority’, on a par with other professions (e.g. doctors, lawyers, etc.), the ‘planning documents’ then started being swollen with ‘analytical apparatuses’, in reality ‘descriptive’ ones, which however were hardly ever corroborated by the ‘plan forecasts’, in fact borne out by just a few statistical data (inhabitants/families and rooms/houses) extrapolated simply to cover twenty or more years. All the plans were in any case over-dimensioned, in terms of houses and building areas, also because, lacking public measures, limiting the quantity of building areas would have led to more ‘speculation’ for the sites. Paraphrasing J. K. Galbraith, who referred to economic forecasts, planning ‘forecasts’ made horoscopes look serious in comparison. With the ‘interim (‘bridge’) law’ (1967) and the transfer of competency to the regions (1972), the ‘standardized’ plan started to spread, as ‘prescribed’ by law, conferring a certain ‘power’ on town planners who knew the laws and regulations, and a bit more on those who managed to force the limits thereof. For more than two decades it thus seemed less urgent to display ‘scientific’ contents, to accredit professional capacities and/or to strengthen the dialogue with the administrators. But slowly more complex instruments were being

developed, which offered new opportunities to investigate traditional themes (e.g. urban growth), and opened up fresh fields of study, especially in the territorial and environmental dimension, until then somewhat neglected. While using a scientific instrument does not make the one using it a ‘scientist’, around the new subjects of research it was attempted at least to construct rigorous methods of investigation (e.g. It.Urb., directed by Giovanni Astengo). Less, however, on the cities, while the municipal plan remained at the centre of attention. The Nineties saw the first development of territorial plans, independently of municipal plans, although the latter, also, but with difficulty, tended to evolve. Even if ‘experiments’ on the cities, in the true sense of the term, were hardly probable, freeing development from the ‘machine plan’ and the new planning principles opened up many spaces for research, which could be at least sounded out on a rigorous basis. For instance, verifying the objectives, the pertinence of the operations outlined, their concrete feasibility, their relative effects, possible ‘impacts’, and so on. The main trend however seems to be towards a rhetorical bloating of every new plan or programme or project, by definition ‘innovative’, ‘strategic’ and ‘sustainable’ (especially ‘European’ ones), neglecting aims and contents and always avoiding balance-sheets ex post. Rather than ‘scientific’ contents, it thus seems that the aim is to solicit enthusiasm and consensus with ever bolder and more imaginative ‘visions’, palmed off as ‘innovative’ (in which ignorance helps), which are then passed on to the policy-maker of the moment. Perhaps wasting an opportunity to learn at least something.

Urbanistica www.planum.net

Urbanistica n. 139 May-August 2009

Distribution by www.planum.net

Index and english translation of the articles Problems, policies and research

Paolo Avarello edited by Anna Laura Palazzo, Biancamaria Rizzo Anna Laura Palazzo Biancamaria Rizzo Anna Laura Palazzo Biancamaria Rizzo Anna Laura Palazzo, Biancamaria Rizzo

edited by Antonio Longo Antonio Longo, Alessandro Alì Christian Novak Paolo Pileri Fabio Terragni Arturo Lanzani, Paola Pucci

Methods and tools

Profiles and practices

Projects and implementation

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From the Masterplan to the final project Antonio Longo In november 2007, at the request of Fabio Terragni, recently appointed chairman and managing director of Autostrada pedemontana lombarda Spa (Apl), a group of designers and faculty members, working under various titles at the Department of architecture and planning of the Politecnico of Milan*, established a dedicated team at the premises of the company. From the start, the group began to address a variety of issues: the first consisted of identifying suitable criteria and methods to allocate a share of the overall budget for the construction of the motorway to compensation measures, account duly taken of the guidelines issued by the Inter-ministerial committee for economic planning (Cipe) regarding the preliminary project of the infrastructure, the indications arising from environmental impact studies, and a considerable number of requests formulated by the communities concerned. As a supplementary task, the group was asked to assess the scenarios engendered by the effects on territory of the road system envisaged by the preliminary project, and to evaluate the criteria for forestrelated compensation and the relative amounts. Having started their work by finding ways to fulfil, and align, a number of obligations, the design team sought to identify possible opportunities as it gradually explored their legitimate sphere of action. The instructions formulated by the Cipe committee, the starting point for the project, and an examination of the requests voiced by the local stakeholders made it possible to identify two broad sets of issues: an initial set regarding the outline, the characteristics and the quality of the motorway and the direct and indirect impacts of this infrastructure on specific locations, and another set to do with largescale environmental and territorial aspects affecting the system as a whole. The combination of local and general issues made it clear that it was necessary to ‘raise one’s sights’ and seek a global sense by reconstructing a unified vision from the diversified multiplicity of issues, requests and design specifications, at least to the extent feasible. Accordingly, environment- and forest-related compensation measures and complementary road network scenarios were the starting point of a design process which gave shape progressively to the project, in terms of goals, strategies and forms, while defining its legitimate sphere of action. To keep up with the rapid pace of the motorway construction process, the job was carried out in three stages corresponding to as many products: – first of all, the team conceived a masterplan for the coordination of compensation works encompassing the entirety of the territories concerned. The masterplan is comprised of two types of landscape project: a greenway between the Brembo and the Olona rivers and 47 (initially 50) interventions on open spaces in the municipalities

and the parks bisected by the motorway; – the overall goals having been defined, two feasibility studies were conducted to define in detail the greenway and the local projects, from the technical and economic standpoints and in terms of local expectations and demands. By making it possible to assess differences and priorities, the feasibility projects provided advance insight into management evaluations, which affected the decisions as to which projects should be developed in definitive form; – finally, in close collaboration with the Ciil consortium, the team produced the final projects for the greenway and the 29 local interventions, and made the necessary preparations to enable the remaining local projects – awaiting the allocation of tied-up funds – to be developed by the respective recipients as compensation measures. Thus the project developed fast, through a chain of choices and highly diversified technical projects (from a strategic-structural project geared to dialogue and interaction to a set of validated final projects ready for implementation through a call for tenders, and the advance evaluation of management aspects), and based on a perfect integration of the different contributions, in the fields of management and policy-making, technical and city planning, infrastructure design, agronomy and landscape design, forestry and transportation, and methods of assessment. Affecting more than 90 municipalities, the set of interventions was aimed to set in motion a ‘critical mass’ of ca 450 ha distributed over the territory according to a pattern reflecting the respective compensation values and linked by the ribbon of the greenway. Prompted by the need to publicise quickly and effectively the objectives pursued in terms of integration and coordination of local opportunities, and to give a clearly recognisable name to the task in hand, the working group decided to use an expression already known to the project stakeholders: many mayors, local technicians, and the inhabitants of the areas affected by the infrastructural works had shared the experience of ‘The infinite city’, a show curated by Aldo Bonomi for the 2004 edition of the Milan Triennial, where they had been able to see a ‘mise en scène’ of their territories and to perceive themselves as part of the plurality of people and places within reach of the infrastructure. Thus, using an expression that had become familiar to all the people concerned and giving it pride of place within the space of the project – and twisting its meaning a little –, the project regarding the environmental compensation measures for the Apl Spa motorway was given the (well-wishing) name of ‘A Park for the infinite city’. Masterplan: the design concept The structural design concept that inspired the masterplan was aimed to strengthen the environmental systems characterising the land delimited by the Brembo and the Ticino rivers running in the north-south direction, Urbanistica www.planum.net

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and to revamp the open spaces left in this area along an east-west backbone running parallel to the motorway that divides - and links together - the open spaces in question. The backbone consists of a green stretch of variable thickness (from a single ecological hedge to a vast park) that houses a slow route connected with the local road network. Essential elements of the environmental system are 12 Plis (local parks of supra-municipal interest) and 5 regional parks, as well as the local portions of the river basins. The strategic diagram makes it possible to organise in a unitary manner: – an east-west greenway: a route reaching into the various territories, to be used by segments, as opposed to over its full expanse, and whose outline establishes relationships with local resources and brings attention and protection to places currently forsaken and run-down; – 50 local projects characterised by the constant, exclusive presence of a chosen few landscape design elements, combined in different ways as a function of the characteristics of the space concerned: woods, grassland, rows of trees and hedges, bike paths may add up to very different interventions, from a new urban park to the reconstruction of rows of trees within an agroenvironmental system providing for the creation of a new wood. In the masterplan the individual local projects are presented in data sheets for use in the interaction with the municipalities. Masterplan: 10 guiding principles Strategic guiding principles were defined together with the masterplan. These principles, applying to the entire system of compensation measures, were meant to serve as sort of ‘chart’ to refer to when discussing matters with the interlocutors: – the environmental projects use only five basic ‘green materials’, that can be combined in different ways: grass cover; hedges; tree rows; woods; walking and cycling paths; – the project refers both to a clearly defined overall scheme and to a plurality of local projects, diversified and rooted in the territory; – the project promotes synergetic effects between environmental and forestry compensation works; – environmental compensation works are designed to maximise the reach of the effects and to achieve a proportional redistribution between the municipalities; – to the extent feasible, environmental compensation measures are preventive in nature; – the projects take into due account the conditions of operability and future management of the interventions; – start-up projects are designed to trigger requalification processes encompassing a wider territory; – the projects are expected to have synergetic effects with other environmental interventions; – the interventions are meant to interact with the final plan of the motorway and the secondary road networks; – environmental compensation projects accept the indications arising from environmental impact studies and the provisions set forth in the Cipe resolutions, reflect the

conclusions reached at the negotiation tables specified in the programme agreement, and take local projectuality into due account. Feasibility studies: greenway and local projects The feasibility studies, conducted after the approval of the guidelines set forth in the masterplan by the programme agreement surveillance committee, made it possible to work out the technical and economic details of the project, i.e., information deemed indispensable to make the project credible in the eyes of the interlocutors. Cutting across the territory in the east-west direction, the greenway creates an uninterrupted link between built-up areas and parks. It goes through the former by taking advantage of the last corridors available and patches together the existing portions of the biking mobility system with new overpasses and underpasses, while enhancing open space islands. It goes through the parks, the river valleys and the farmlands using existing biking paths and the network of rural roads, and, in doing so, often restores broken links. The continuity of the greenway and the ability to intercept local values recognised by the people living in the area (by establishing concrete relation-ships between local spaces/initiatives and the general scheme) were two fundamental prerequisites of the job. The greater accuracy of the data obtained from the feasibility studies made it possible to expand the reach of the projects – in a controlled manner – to wider scenarios that clarified the partial meaning of the ‘initial functional lots’ prefiguring possible extensions. With reference to the overall design, the projects were distributed with the aim to strengthen the north-south environmental systems and to enhance the effectiveness of the east-west greenway corridor. Final projects As is known, producing the final project for a public work, whether an infrastructure or a green area, is a highly complex task, since it transfers every consideration to the stringent sphere of technical and economic dimensioning, it must bring about the integration between different project components that have to be glitchlessly coordinated, and it must ensure compliance with certified criteria, subject to validation procedures. Not surprisingly, for an overall project developed so fast, in the conditions described, and involving so many different situations and such a large territory (a greenway extending over 110 km and 29 park projects of very different sizes and shapes – some of compact design and some ramified), the final stage proved a test of solidity and a moment of verification: on a strictly technical level, in the choice of the sections, types of paving materials and plant species, types and layout of the woods and hedges, and in broader terms, the validity of the overall strategy, since all the interlocutors concerned gradually came to realise that compensation works had the same presence (and procedural force) as the motorway Urbanistica www.planum.net

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project. At this stage, the project was developed in liaison with the engineering firms (especially technital and proginvest) belonging to the Ciil consortium, winner of the tender for the final project of the work (as well as a partner of Impregilo, the general contractor for a portion of the work). The identification of typological features and special works for recurrent elements and products was inspired by the same criteria underlying the concurrent development of the infrastructure, i.e., maximum simplification of the design, based on the belief that sturdiness and cost-effectiveness, mated to characteristics that make the various elements clearly recognisable as part of an overall system, are the indispensable qualities of a work designed to last and be maintained over time.

Designing for and in the land Christian Novak Walking and prefiguring, between surveying and design visions. A design project extending over one hundred kilometres can be defined as a huge scale project. Sheer size and time constraints seemed to suggest working mostly on paper. Things went differently. Walking along the greenway, through the woods, in the plains, down the rural roads of the 45 local projects, looking for passageways, picturing in the mind possible interventions, making notes of views and elements of disturbance, and also, above all, enjoying the rare stretches of natural or agricultural land still pleasurable to the eye. Walking alone or in the company of local administrators, militant environmentalists, technicians or farmers, stopping to exchange a few words, noticing how a place is used, keptâ&#x20AC;Ś this is a valuable practice that should not be dispensed with. Walking has been a process of construction, always closely associated with and a priori relative to the construction of design hypotheses. Knowledge intimately connected with practice. A knowledge of the places is inextricably and intimately linked with what we do. It permitted an ongoing regeneration of the design project and a fruitful exchange of opinions with local players. Sitting at a table, or in the middle of a field, with a mayor that explains, points out things, narrates, makes all the difference, as does a direct knowledge of the places: it helps to create a climate of mutual trust and frank collaboration with the local community. Exchanging opinions based on a knowledge of the place, being ready to take a step back when confronted with a legitimate request by the local administration, whether or not we agree with it, made it possible to discard the classical notion of designing and interacting â&#x20AC;&#x201C; based on listening, analysing, producing a draft project and refining it â&#x20AC;&#x201C; in favour of a more constructive interaction, a more project-oriented approach. As a rule, overall project consistency and the acceptance of the desiderata voiced by the local administrations and park management bodies are two elements that do not normally go together well. In the course of the project, a fine balance was struck between the engrained rigidity of the initial design scheme and local demands, generally more complex and less straightforward. The design principles, as defined initially in the masterplan, continued to guide the project up to its final formulation, all the time retaining their consistency, as well as their evocative power and their effectiveness in the interchange with the local administrations. The project as a catalyst. To the extent feasible, the project was based on interventions and proposals by the park management bodies and the local administrations. The project took full advantage of local contributions, while at the same time trying to select them and harUrbanistica www.planum.net

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monise them with the complexity of the project and the guiding principles thereof, functioning as a catalyst, as a flywheel in activating new policies for the protection, and the creation, of open spaces. Local projects and, albeit in a different manner, the greenway too, were construed as start-up projects, the initial functional elements of potentially broader projects, partly prefigured in scenario schemes. Apportioning the funds available for environmental compensation works between the various municipalities was no easy task: having to take into account the environmental impacts of the infrastructure on the individual territories, it underwent significant variations up to the conclusion of the project. This underscored even further the need to build flexibility into the project while at the same time retaining overall system consistency. From the back to the fore. The project regarded open spaces as essential factors in re-establishing a proper balance of natural and manmade landscapes. Open spaces, often residual in nature, were restored to a central position in the project, and made into a focus of attention: all their contradictions and their deficiencies were identified, their potential was underscored. Conceiving a new role for marginal spaces, oftentimes left out by the limited vision of the planning process, and confined to the role of land up for grab or preserved for future expansion, signified, first and foremost, to address the transformation of spaces without hiding the transformative force of the motorway project behind conservative screens, seeking a balance between the preservation of the landscapes bisected and the restructuring and reinvention thereof.

Around a road: from impact compensation to nature and landscape design Paolo Pileri

The authentic challenge of the concept of environmental compensation is a full integration with the project. In the experience of Autostrada pedemontana lombarda we canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t say that things went exactly that way: compensation measures were defined after the project, also following a Cipe request (a ministerial agency in charge for assessing public projects). Thus, to understand the importance and the specific quality of the project we have to look at some concepts used as terms of reference in the project. Compensation vs. mitigation. No misunderstandings are allowed. According to Kuiper, compensation is the restoration of landscape and natural values lost or degraded by an occurred transformation in the territory. Mitigation is a remedy attenuating the negative effects of a transformation and, generally, it consists of measures affecting areas close to the new works. Homologous compensation. It is often accepted that an intervention altering a (natural) landscape can be counterbalanced also by activities or interventions that have almost nothing to do with the environment. Instead here it has been applied the correct principle based on the notion of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;giving back to nature what has been taken away from itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, as applied in Germany. Compensation must always be taken into due account. No transformations exist without a (minimal) impact, so environmental compensation has to be always taken into consideration. Compensation in advance. The ecologic balance of the eco-landscape should always be positive. To accomplish this goal, compensations should be realized before the environmental impacts. Compensation provides an opportunity to launch a project for open spaces. The notion of responsible design integrated with the concept of environmental compensation offers local administrators the unique chance to request new areas for environmental projects contributing to solve one of the most serious bottlenecks of the ecological landscape planning. Compensation in the other countries. The idea of compensation is known and applied in many countries. In the U.S., impacts on a wetland are compensated using a ratio of approx. 1:1 - 4:1. The same principle was introduced in Canada in the early 1990s. In Europe several European countries adopted the principle of ecologicalenvironmental compensation (Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, U.K., Sweden and Switzerland) implementing it in different ways. In Germany the principle was accepted in the late 1970s and nowadays it is a more robust practice (in Bavaria). In the Netherlands this principle has been adopted for about twelve years in some highway design (the first compensation plan dates Urbanistica www.planum.net

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back to 1995) where compensation costs can be max 8.4% relative to the costs for building-up the highway and constitute one of the main budget entries; for this reason, it’s thinking of setting a limit of 2.3% on compensation costs, mated to the obligation to place limitations on the foreseeable impacts. Compensation measures for the Apl project: greenways and local projects. The Autostrada pedemontana lombarda motorway cuts across many north-south ecological corridors and consumed an appreciable amount of land in a landscape already stressed. In the central part of Brianza the urbanized area comes to 73%, in the Groane area to 45%, in the Lambro area to 54% and in Vimercate area to 33%. Though it cannot remedy all damages, environmental compensation tried to enforce/ improve the remaining open spaces through 45 local projects relied on two basic keys. The first, the provision of areas, in part already public and in part to acquire (ca 180 ha) using 24 million euro of the compensation budget. The second is a budget of 25 million euro for greening these areas (grasslands, hedgerows, woods and wetlands). Then the greenway, connecting the northern part of Milan from east to west, is both a walking-cycling path and an ecological resource that people can use to let their nature awareness growth. Grasslands, hedgerows, woods and wetlands are the only materials proposed to the local communities for the local projects and for equipping the greenway. This choice was non negotiable. The idea of proposing ‘exclusively’ green projects led the stakeholders to concentrate on this aspect and helped them to pick up this opportunity to restore the environmental quality of their landscape. The strong idea regarding the non negotiable character of these contents was effective in obtaining the project in its current configuration.

What a project is about Fabio Terragni Because of my cultural background as an environmentalist, when i accepted the office of chairman and managing director of Apl Spa i felt i was exchanging a personal challenge for a collective one. In a territory characterised by a severe environmental deficit, expanding the road and motorway network is a need that cannot be ignored. In the past, both the environmentalist world and the political and professional milieus have shown little propensity to reconcile creative and management actions. But even the professional and technical worlds suffer from a rift between criticism and responsibility for action, as borne out by a decline in the capacity for an effective, integrated management of projects. The devastation of the Italian landscape, that we have accepted in the name of the need to take action and in the name of efficiency, is under our eyes, for everyone to see. As soon as I took office I decided to bring about a change in the cultural and technical approach to project management. We created a company to handle the technical development and the financial management of the project, and established fruitful relations with the local administrators, this being a fundamental aspect that affects a project’s management efficiency. Local communities, in fact, oppose in a systematic matter technical projects whose value to the community and relationship with the territory are not clearly understood. Accordingly, we were able to redefine the project by considering the motorway not just as a mere engineering work but also as a unique opportunity for the upkeep and the transformation of the territory. We were moved by a conviction that a work of this significance should also be beautiful, it must respect the relations with the territory and have a minimal impact on the environment. The infinite city that is crossed by the new motorway is a badly deteriorated land, that has undergone a tumultuous development. Works such as the new Autostrada pedemontana may contribute to an overall reorganisation and improvement of the territory. With this notion in mind we interacted with the local communities, the stakeholders and the institutions concerned. It was not easy to engage in an intensive dialogue with the institutions and the local population: the main difficulty lies in getting across the idea that change should be seen an opportunity, instead of something that is necessarily harmful. In general, we are ready to accept changes as long as they are infinitesimal, no matter whether in actual fact they are going to change our environment very soon, but we are afraid of major changes. When confronted with a major project giving rise to farreaching transformations, people tend to react with fear and refusal. Changes have to be concealed, masked, not in plain view, and hence the motorway has to be remote, placed at the distant edge of the map, preferably Urbanistica www.planum.net

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underground. In this difficult setting we redefined the main project, introduced new compensation measures and revised the architecture of the road together with Aurelio Galfetti, shunning monumentality and seeking lightness and essentiality. To restore the consonance between the infrastructure and the territory is a fundamental objective according to the approach of the future management, in particular, when dealing with environmental and compensation works that will not remain under the control of the motorway authority, other than to a partial extent, and will be entrusted to the municipal governments. Environmental works must be handled according to the same criteria as the motorway, according to a long-term perspective that is able to introduce economic elements that are virtuous in nature, mated to initiatives that can support them. The pedemontana motorway is a veritable upheaval requiring territorial policies having the greatest possible scope, while still remaining in the realm of things possible. Major infrastructures should always be supported by planning and management programmes geared to the highest degree of flexibility and quality, according to the times and methods that can engender a structure nourished by the passion of the people, embodying the quintessential notion of a civil work.

Infrastructures and the territory: the reasons for an encounter that continues to be difficult and the story of an attempt to change things ‘in process’ Arturo Lanzani, Paola Pucci The project for the environmental compensation of Apl Spa described in these pages developed according to a remedial, a posteriori logic. It was an attempt to bring about an in-process reform, an attempt initiated by the ‘new’ company, società Autostrada pedemontana lombarda Spa (Apl), established by Fabio Terragni and Umberto Regalia, that also led to the revision of the preliminary project promoted by the internal design office (headed by Giovanni Cannito with the consultancy of Aurelio Galfetti and Fabio Nocentini), the work conducted by the Ciil consortium on the final project, and a new stage of interaction with the municipalities and provinces concerned, designed to monitor quality advancements and project feasibility. In this scenario it may be worthwhile to consider the meaning of the terms infrastructure and territory integrated project: Integrating infrastructural works, city and settlement geography. This is the first dimension of an integrated project, at the basis of important and original traditions of thought in our country; among these, the most remote in time are the ideas voiced by Carlo Cattaneo, regarding, in particular, possible alternative routes for the Milan-Venice railway line: infrastructures are often dealt with as a series of projects to be pasted together, paying no heed to settlement geography and the demand for mobility of the local communities, and providing no opportunities to speed up the process of reorganisation of the areas flanking the infrastructure. A contradictory element, inherited by the final project, is the classification of the pedemontana as a motorway in lieu of a ring road ‘internal’ to a densely urbanised expanse of land. This choice reduces the number of junctions, which are too far apart to meet local mobility requirements, and gives the infrastructure geometric A contradictory element, inherited by the final project, is the classification of the pedemontana as a motorway in lieu of a ring road ‘internal’ to a densely urbanised expanse of land. This choice reduces the number of junctions, which are too far apart to meet local mobility requirements, and gives the infrastructure geometric characteristics not consonant with the shape and the uses of the land. Other negative factors include the scarce attention paid in Italy to the layout of built-up areas as a matrix for policies and projects in this sector, and a culture of infrastructural design that seems to have lost its multidisciplinary dimension. Integrating the new work with the overall infrastructural network. The integration of the new work into the overall road network should be a starting point for broader programmes for the reorganisation and requalification Urbanistica www.planum.net

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of the territory. In this connection, the story of the Apl Spa presents an ambivalent character. In the period preceding the preliminary project drawn up in 2003, the hypothesis had been to implement a netlike intervention involving the requalification of existing roads. This hypothesis ran into problems to do with funding and constraints associated with motorway concessions. Part of this initial conception, however, is still at work in the Apl Spa project, as borne out by the tightly knit complementary road network that accompanies it (‘connected works’ extending over 70 km), and the sinuous shape of the motorway, whose outline makes it possible to reuse a portion of the existing Milano-Lentate freeway (where rehabilitation works have began), a choice that reduces the impact on the territory and releases resources. The complementary mobility network as defined in the project entails the construction of new corridors that are going to have a devastating impact on the environment, and whose design is likely to spawn new urbanised areas and duplicate existing roads instead of allocating resources to their rehabilitation and safer conditions. The difficulties encountered in trying to integrate the infrastructures can also be observed in relation to the numerous radial railway lines, the metro-tramways and the extension of subway/light rail connections to adjacent towns, as envisaged in the project for the territory crossed by the motorway, as well as in relation to the cargo railway line to be constructed between the Gotthard Pass and the city of Treviglio, some segments of which are coplanar with the motorway. In the absence of an overall plan, it would be necessary, as a minimum, to take action on individual projects for infrastructures that might contribute to reconstructing a common framework for projects that are not far apart, activate huge investments, mobilise resources, knowhow and interests, even conflicting interests in some instances, and should not be defined solely as a function of mobility demands. Integrating the outlines of the new infrastructures into the environmental ‘fabric’ of the territory. The characteristics of the territory should guide the design of the project in each and every stage of its development. This is a principle that can hardly be traced in Italy’s infrastructural projects. Indubitably, this is a delicate aspect for the project of the Autostrada pedemontana lombarda Spa, on account of its being heavily affected by many of the – perfectly senseless - choices built into the preliminary project. Equally detrimental are the design solutions adopted for the complementary network of roads that spread out radially from the urbanised areas, thereby sectioning the green areas, creating ‘entrapped’ residual spaces, and providing opportunities for the construction of new, ribbon-like strings of buildings. The know-how of the land, the know-how of the environment must be included in the preliminary project even before the problem of starting the environmental evaluation procedures is addressed, as these procedures alone cannot ensure a successful integration in the environment and

the landscape, which requires much more that the application of procedures attached a posteriori to a monodisciplinary project. Social consultation procedures cannot transfer to the environment the repercussions of localisation choices. But this requires an assumption of responsibility by the central and regional governments for environmental issues and the long-term effects of a project, going beyond the easy rhetoric of ‘defining the projects with the participation of the territory’. Integrating functional and architectural considerations. Reconciling function, architecture and landscape has been a classical theme of the culture of civil engineering from the very start: the emphasis was placed on composition and construction rules, the recognisability of a unitary rule, the details of a work, highlighting the relationship between the infrastructure and the territory, staging the sequences, the rhythms of the landscape, as may be perceived through the use of the infrastructure. Having grasped the problem, with a view to improving the design of the products, the pedemontana company and the regional government sought the aid of specialists, such as Cesare Macchi Cassia at the Cal company (Concessioni autostradali lombarde Spa), Aurelio Galfetti and Fabio Nocentini at the pedemontana company. Their activities, carried out in liaison with an internal pedemontana design team and the companies entrusted with the final project (Ciil consortium members), took their cue from the consideration that the motorway runs through a landscape fraught with an amazing quantity of signs, impregnated with a strong background noise, and forming a recognisable, uninterrupted object that only through its unity can underscore the differences along its course. Integrating the infrastructure and the design of new built-up spaces. The italian landscape has been greatly modified by the construction activities that have taken place along the entire road network. At the same time, failure to upgrade the nodes of the railway and metro-tramway transit networks has contributed to hampering the growth of public transport. An analysis of the root causes of the rift between land use and mobility policies would take up many pages. We shall therefore propose only two considerations here. The first consideration concerns the failure to accompany this infrastructure (and other similar works) with an Area plan, as provided for in the legislation of Lombardy. The territory will be exposed to pressures for the construction of new settlements along the banks of the motorway and at the junctions, to be governed on the territorial scale. It is absurd that there is no room for a strategic discourse about the volumes, functions and architectural structures that might be placed at some potential intermodal nodes. The other consideration is about the ambiguous handling of new constructions by the infrastructural policies (in Lombardy, law 15/2008 ‘Infrastructures of concurrent state and regional interest’); in some cases (the Umbria-Marche quadrilateral, the Passante di Mestre motorway section), the possibility of constructions being erected in Urbanistica www.planum.net

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some areas adjacent to the infrastructures is considered solely as a mechanism to raise funds for the work. The intention is to collect part of the revenues from rentals and real estate valorisation. It would be wiser to obtain the necessary funds through the introduction of destination taxes accompanied by preventive economic evaluations to ascertain the distribution of the benefits and the damages entailed. Integrating the infrastructure and the project for the protection and the requalification of the open spaces along the route. This is the issue addressed by the project for the environmental compensation of the Autostrada pedemontana lombarda Spa that provides for the upgrading of a sizeable proportion of the open spaces where real estate valorisation has not yet consolidated. In this connection, some positive experiences have been recorded in different zones of the country. But in this case too some problematic aspects have to be considered, including: a) frequent resort to non-homologous compensation measures, whereby the resources are often, paradoxically, transferred to other investments in mobility infrastructures; b) the difficulties encountered in working out a valorisation project that, in the absence of an Area Plan, might introduce some useful constraints promoting the requalification of open spaces; c) uncertainty regarding who should implement the compensation measures; d) failure to ensure a continuous flow of resources for the maintenance and long-term implementation of environmental projects, which, in our opinion, should be connected with a corresponding percentage of the income from tolls. Apl Spa has adopted the principles – truly revolutionary in as much as they are ordinary and common sense – that “environmental compensation should be environmental compensation and not anything else”, and that compensation measures should be a starting point for a broader range of interventions. A strong choice that has met with the favour of all the players in the field (the regional, municipal and provincial governments, the park management bodies). The project presented herein combinesrealism and passion for change, tactical wit and imagination. Every concrete completed project is flanked by the construction of a possible evolutive scenario for the entire unbuilt area. Accordingly, the project has taken shape through an intense activity of involvement and exchange of opinions with municipalities and associations, direct observation of the locations, the production of an initial drawing as the starting point for the interaction with the various players, reversing the habitual sequence that goes from the interaction to the drawing. The different degree of detail of the greenway and the local projects has already triggered a discussion concerning possible implementation modalities, and the presence of technical-political structures that may be able to handle the management, not just the implementation, of the project. Finally, the project addresses implementation, management and main-

tenance issues. By encouraging a strategic outlook, it forcefully opposes the subordination of the reasons of city planning, geography, architecture, agroforestry, civil and environmental engineering (just to mention the disciplines involved in this study) to political motivations or sectorial approaches that deny our multidisciplinary and civil culture.

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Architecture and the environment. A space for people travelling by car Aurelio Galfetti, Fabio Nocentini Driving on the motorway, running along different route segments, recognising continuity. Picturing in the mind a sequence of interconnected environments, composed, free of strident contrasts. Prefiguring an uninterrupted, unitary, elongated space. Composing the geometries around the central theme of the identity of a space. Conceiving built-up parts as a unified whole. This is the basic set of seemingly elementary concepts that must guide the observation and the reorganisation of the preliminary project for the motorway, previously approved based on a number of typological specifications and detailed projects for use in the reconstruction of an overall project for the infrastructure. Typological specification (‘Abacus’). The contents of the abacus constituted the first attempt to address the following needs: – reorganise the designations of road building products; – reduce the number of typological elements used, and redesign them thoroughly; – simplify the spatial themes at the interfaces between different environments; – use concrete throughout, in order to avoid the dispersion and heterogeneity of building materials. Inspired by the all-pervasive themes of light and shadow, homogeneity, lightness-elegance, the typicisation process redesigned: tunnel portals, bridges, viaducts and the relative supports, earth-retaining walls, trench sections, flanking walls, underpasses. Three environments of special significance and/or delicacy were also redesigned: the bridges across the Lambro, Molgora and Adda rivers. Defining the final project. The development of the motorway route is dictated by pre-existing conditions and is necessarily confined within residual spaces besieged by the uncontrolled growth of urbanised areas. At the same tine, the road is almost invariably set low relative to the ground level, in the alternation of trench and tunnel spaces. With the final project, a more careful analyti elements and the specific contexts changed the outlook on project priorities. First of all, the identity of the different motorway spaces was defined, and then the various objects and their characteristics were worked out. The need to ensure the integrity of the trench, mated to the specific configurations of its sections, determines the shape and the position of the portals. the accessory technical devices, the static conception and the material of the overpasses rising above it. In the process. As work progressed, a concrete, fruitful exchange of ideas was undertaken with the management and the technical staff of Apl Spa. As a result, their expectations gradually changed, moving away from an initial focus on an object brimming with magniloquent points, according to a widespread attitude that mistakes

the definition of the character of an architectural creation for an opportunity to introduce parts, meanings and references that are extraneous to it. Our work in support of the groups of architects, engineers, landscape designers was guided by our conviction that defining the overall character of an infrastructure should consist of rearranging and organising different fragments and languages on the same plane. It means endowing the motorway stretch between Varese and Bergamo to the extent feasible - with a recognisable dimension, unified in terms of constituent materials, characterised by a coherent, unpretentious language, with none of the heterogeneous, fragmented characteristics of the areas bisected, and perhaps even able to stimulate forcefully a possible reorganisation of spaces lying outside the scope of the design project.

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Parks, landscapes, european territory. Nature and landscape conservation in planning Roberto Gambino

The parks-landscape duo evokes, metaphorically, the new alliance between nature conservation policies and those for the territory. This convergence is gaining ground at global level, according to a conception of the world that acknowledges the inseparability of human communities from the environments they shape during their history (see Phillips, Borrini-Feyerabend). Despite the importance assumed by conservation problems at global level, international and European policies seem inadequate. The strong impetus given to landscape policies by the Convention onlandscape (Coe 2000) has not as yet been echoed inside the European union (see Voghera). Even the policies of the ‘protected areas’ are still far from constituting ‘system’ policies. This causes an under-estimation of the role that ‘protected areas’ can play in promoting sustainable development of the territory, albeit their dissemination, that is the result of an intense growth still in course (see Thomasset). The increase in protected areas, the joint offshoot of processes of territorial transformation have accentuated exposure to the risks of ‘insularisation’, making relationships between the areas and their contexts critical, especially in Europe. This relationship assumes exemplary connotations in the extreme case of the Sacri monti, intentionally confined and yet rich in natural and cultural interactions with their contexts (see Cassatella). Very often, it highlights the need and difficulty of adopting trans-scalar approaches, as in the case of the Park of the Po delta (see Gambino Raffaella). The most direct response to the risks of insularisation rotates around the concept of network. The environmental valorisation project illustrated in these pages (see Malcevschi, Terzuolo, Thomasset) represents an attempt to build a complex ‘environmental infrastructure’. The network perspective is of assistance when trying to attribute a concrete innovative meaning to the concept of conservation. However, current practices and policies are still widely infused with the opposite idea, i.e. that conservation implies only constraints and that, to innovate, any conservative option must be abandoned: an ill-advised idea, as demonstrated for example by the devastating development of coastal landscapes (see Salizzoni). The need to integrate conservation and innovation is even more evident in the metropolitan landscapes. The ‘Corona verde project’ (Turin) offers a twofold suggestion. As regards effective requalification strategies of the entire area, the advisability of over-turning the traditional approach, starting from open spaces instead of from what has already been built, in order to redesign the shapes of the city (see Castelnovi). As regards method (see Peano), the advisability of introducing the strategic

dimension in the trans-scalar frame of ordinary territorial management and planning, adopting territorial governance as a key for more effective conservation policies. It is in this complex framework, that an attempt can be made to respond positively to the insidious question (see Phillips, Borrini-Feyerabend): why, for whom and at what conditions is nature and landscape conservation to be planned?

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Embracing diversity, equity and change in the landscape Adrian Phillips, Grazia Borrini-Feyerabend On the face of it, landscape is a rather slippery notion. On the one hand, it cannot be quantified and measured. On the other, it cannot be translated accurately from one language to another. But while the concept of ‘landscape’ is profoundly related to the culture interpreting it, changing as fast and comprehensively as that culture does, ‘landscape’ nonetheless speaks to almost anyone: it is a broadly diffused and powerful notion. Today, a novel ‘landscape approach’ is beginning to help professionals and communities as they struggle with conservation needs at a time of unprecedented global change. There exist two prevailing views about the meaning of ‘landscape’ in a conservation context. For many, it is best thought of as a noun, meaning that values-filled dynamic mosaic that is the result of the interaction among, and between, natural and human factors in a given environment. Although the extent to which humans affected their landscapes varies enormously with location and history, individual landscapes contain a record of past and current human actions. In this sense, they embody tangible and intangible values, they are powerful expressions of heritage and are a foundation of social and personal identity. If we are to manage change so that landscape values continue to thrive, we need to understand ecological history, the interaction of ‘culture’ and ‘nature’, and the diverse governance and management arrangements that solve conflicts by effective negotiation. In this perspective, the conservation of biodiversity and the maintenance of the ecological functions of nature coexist in the landscape with the production of goods and services to support livelihoods and satisfy changing human needs, including needs related to culture and identity. The main challenges here are the harmonious coexistence of multiple values and the equitable governance of active and reactive change. With those goes the duty of maintaining the social values and meanings, as well as the biological connectivity and other systemic connections that make the landscape a whole rather than a mere sum of parts or sites. A second rather widespread perspective sees landscape as a sort of adjective, an indication of ‘large scale’. In this view, landscape is a dimension large enough to allow negotiated trade-offs between different needs and wants. In other words, at the ‘landscape level’ we can usually find a place to do what cannot be done in another. In a conservation context, for example, it might be impossible to conserve all biological values within a single site, but this may be done within a larger landscape (provided some level of conscious planning, especially in crowded landscapes that service multiple needs). Landscapes viewed in this way can also provide an ecologically supportive setting for one or more protected areas. This perspective tends to emphasize the usefulness of spatial

analyses, mapping techniques, and a variety of planning tools to identify and delineate different uses ‘across the landscape’. These two views are indeed different, and the people who hold to them are different too. Landscape as a noun is more likely to be used by individuals and communities to characterise the places with which they have a close identity. Landscape as a scalar adjective is more likely to be used by planners and technocrats. Neither view, however, excludes the other. Both are legitimate and both are needed, but questions arise when we attempt to reconcile them in a real situation: Can our efforts to conserve biodiversity within a ‘broader landscape’ be positively combined with efforts to enhance equity, reinforce cultural values and promote positive social change? Can ecological history help us to understand the systemic interaction of culture and nature in the specific context? What have we learned about adaptive management and adaptive governance that can be applied in our ‘landscape dynamic mosaic’? What policies and tools exist to help protect, manage and plan significant landscapes and seascapes? At the World conservation congress in Barcelona, in october 2008, we asked ourselves these questions for several concrete contexts and the answers we obtained could be grouped among three main themes: – Landscape, a concept bridging cultures; – Landscape, a tapestry of community governance and management units; – Landscape, the ‘visible result’ of governing change through time. We would like to suggest that these three themes, together, can be taken as broad components of a ‘landscape approach’. Let us examine each of them in a bit more detail. Landscape, a concept bridging cultures As mentioned, there are many, culturally coloured ways of relating to landscapes. For some analysts, landscapes can be placed in some sort of hierarchy defined by their quality. In this perspective, some World heritage cultural Landscapes are usually placed at the top of a hierarchy, and locally-valued landscapes at the bottom. Other analysts contest this view as elitist and argue that all landscapes matter, a view now formally enshrined in the European landscape convention (Elc). Both views, however, can be considered as ‘western’, since they both embrace the western separation of nature and people and see landscape as ‘out there’, something apart from the people who live in it. An alternative view, rooted in the cultures of many traditional and indigenous peoples, rejects the idea that ‘landscape’ is separate from people. It affirms that human communities cannot be set apart from the environments they shaped through their own history. This is one reason why the term ‘landscape’ does not easily translate into many languages: a comparable word simply does not exist in many non-western Urbanistica www.planum.net

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cultures. Instead, many languages use words nearer to the concept of ‘territory’. ‘Territory’ embraces several landscape-related concepts and is often thought to encompass both the material and non-material realms of nature. Sometimes, the non-material realms of nature are perceived of as alive and perhaps the most significant of all components. In some cultures, people ‘become’ the landscape by eating some of its products, thus affecting their ways of knowing and interacting with the world. The very ‘knowledge’ these people have of their own surroundings is considered to be crucial for the health and survival of the territory within which they live. While far from the understandings of western cultures, traditional perspectives such as these contain powerful insights. The gulf between such different understandings, however, presents a challenge of cultural translation. The absence of effective communication between traditional and ‘western’ worlds may obstruct the achievement of important conservation gains. Fortunately, there is also evidence that the idea of landscape provide space for new convergences and agreements. For instance, the Elc has moved away from a purely aesthetic perception of landscape (landscape as scenery) towards a view of landscapes as central to the identities of people. Many indigenous and traditional peoples also employ modern technologies, such as Gis and satellite imagery, to identify and map the places and resources that they use, and to demarcate the landscapes that define them as communities and peoples. Spiritual and other intangible values, derived from formal religious traditions or from those that are nearer to the natural world, are intimately connected with many landscapes, and this aspect has been receiving much more attention from planners in recent years. Both in the north and in the south, issues of governance and matters relating to the role of local communities are emerging as central in understanding how landscapes have developed and how they should be managed. Thus, important common ground is continuously revealed. Such common ground can help to bridge, at least in part, even those cultural perspectives that initially appeared distant, if not in outright opposition. Landscape, a tapestry of community governance and management units Much time could be spent on lengthy arguments about a definition of landscape. A definition that seems to work for Europe is offered by the Elc and a slight modified version for wider use could be the following: “landscape is a distinctive place where people and nature have interacted over time, and which is recognised as such by the people who inhabit it and have contributed to shape it”. While remaining open about it, this is the working definition we keep in mind in this paper. What is needed for the effective and equitable conservation of landscapes? River basins and transhumance territories seem to offer particularly feasible geography and

scale for landscape conservation, as well as emblems around which people can unite. The natural connectivity of river basins reinforces the integration of cultural and natural elements and the capacity of people to communicate and organise. And pastoral territories need to be maintained as ‘wholes’ and include a diversity of local habitats and spaces for the very survival of the herds and associated human livelihoods and cultures. There is a case for people, and not necessarily ‘experts’, to help define landscapes, their character and their boundaries. There are indeed excellent examples, from rangelands and forests in Africa, Asia and the Americas, of how traditional communities identify the units of land and natural resources that they use as their territories, how they harness modern technology to map these places, and how they use visioning techniques to define desirable futures (planes de vida, ancestral domain plans, etc.). Community mapping techniques, in particular, have proved extremely useful to clarify peoples’ ideas of their landscape and its functions. Where there has been conflict or recent incursions of new populations, it may be difficult to obtain agreement on what are the most meaningful landscape ‘units’ (for management and governance purposes), and even harder to get consensus on their desired future. In the ideal case, however, it is possible to envisage the landscape as a tapestry of management units, closely related to the communities engaged in their governance and linked to them through identity, livelihoods and culture. Iucn’s widely used system of protected area categories has recently been supplemented with a ‘governance dimension’. Together with the six Iucn management categories, the four governance types (governed by government; shared governance; private governance and governance by indigenous peoples and local communities) form a categories/governance ‘matrix’ for protected areas. Could that matrix be extended out from protected areas to the landscape as a whole? For example, the experience gained in the managing Category V protected areas, which usually are complex, multiple-use landscapes, is well suited to be transferred to the management of the wider landscape outside protected areas. To extend the matrix in this way would recognise that all governance actors have roles to play in governing the landscape, just as they do for protected areas of all categories. For some, however, the Iucn matrix is already too rigid to accommodate the complex systems of reference of non-western cultures and its use may even restrict innovative thinking about protected areas. These people may argue that extending this matrix beyond protected areas could similarly constrain the ‘language’ to describe the governance of landscapes. Others, on the other hand, view the new Iucn matrix as having a liberating value, since it validates under-recognised approaches, such as Indigenous and community conserved areas (Iccas) or ad hoc local consortia (like those that exist in Cataluña, Spain), which are important inside but also Urbanistica www.planum.net

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outside protected areas. Mechanisms beyond protected area status, such as third-party certification, tax incentives and voluntary agreements, also have important roles to play. And, of course, there is plenty of room for nonwestern cultures to develop their own, different categorygovernance matrixes, while possibly also attempting to identify bridges and ‘translation points’ between the Iucn matrix and their own. Landscape governance issues are central to the landscape approach and concern questions of equity, effectiveness and empowerment. Where communities help to define their landscapes, including as Iccas, there is a good chance that these can be managed sustainably. Where communities are disempowered by governance models that exclude them, neither conservation nor equity is served. There is certainly a role for government-led approaches to landscape protection and management (witness the success of many category V protected areas that were declared and are today run by national or local governments), but even in these cases the support and engagement of the relevant communities are crucial. Many techniques have been developed to help communities and practitioners to identify, engage with and manage landscapes through time. Some come from the planners’ toolbox, such as legal measures, zoning, incentives, regulations and other land use planning techniques. Although not appropriate in every situation, these techniques are often necessary to resolve conflicts and determine the allocation of resources. Other processes, such as mapping, demarcation and self-reflection on the evolving significance of landscapes through time, help communities to document and illustrate their relationship with the land and the natural resources, to articulate their concerns, to demonstrate their customary rights, and to establish concrete dialogue with governments and others. States generally use maps as basic tools in top-down planning, regulating and controlling. Mapping, however, can also be used to empower communities from below and is potentially much more than just a way to describe a landscape and its functions. When mapping and planning processes exclude marginalized groups, they tend to reproduce and reinforce dominant production systems and power relations. Conversely, effective participatory processes enable communities to describe their interaction with the landscape, strengthen customary governance systems and advance the cause of social equity. Of course, not all participatory processes and mapping work in the same way, and continuity and quality of engagement appear as important conditions for their success. All sorts of governance arrangements can be strengthened through collaboration among and between local governmental agencies and local citizens’ organizations. Self-assessments of each community’s environmental, social and economic situation (with or without the assistance of technical experts and Ngos) can lead to new awareness and commitment to improving land manage-

ment. Local Gis maps and land use recommendations developed by each community can be supplemented by cross-site visits with other communities, fostering an understanding of the larger landscape and the consequences of biological and social connectivity. Community rules for land, water and forest utilisation, hunting regulations and citizens’ organizations, along with mechanisms for conflict management, can lead to effective self-regulation at community level. In general, it is more effective to develop local initiatives and upscale these to a landscape area, rather than to resort to top-down landscape management plans. Such ‘endogenous up-scaling’ helps to reinforce commitment to environmental work at the municipal level; it can also strengthen citizens’ groups who are seeking resources for conservation activities. Ngos do best when they support traditional communities to devise their own local rules and monitor their results, and then, based on this evidence, lobby for improved national policies, harmonizing customary and statutory arrangements. In other words, generating solutions from below appears much more effective than attempting to impose them. For instance, the time-tested practice of seasonally mobile use of pasture has proved more ecologically, socially and economically sustainable than forced sedentarisation, a top-down policy, too often based on a misunderstanding of the conditions of pasture ecosystems. While the concept of ‘landscape planning’ is widely used in some circles and has been adopted in the Elc to describe the conscious shaping of new landscapes or restoration of existing ones, it does raise a difficult question: if landscape is the result of the interaction between people, nature and a variety of forces can only be partially brought under peoples’ control, can we truly plan a landscape? Could those ‘plans’ just be another tool for governments to exercise hegemony over their people? In most lived-in landscapes we can at best ‘bend and shape’ the forces that affect landscape through time, and especially so when such forces originate outside the landscapes that they impact upon. Plans need to be sufficiently flexible and adaptable to reflect this reality. Climate change, pollution originating upstream in a river basin, laws limiting the rights of migratory pastoralists, ‘development’ interventions, imposed agricultural policies and other outside forces can undermine the ability of local communities to maintain the balance they developed over time in their customary ways of relating to land and natural resources. These forces affect people who, in turn, affect the landscape in dramatic and often adverse ways. When mechanisms or processes exist that allow communities to resist, influence or negotiate with such forces in flexible and self-adjusting ways, success is more likely in both conservation and livelihood terms. This may be achieved through collaborative leadership and well connected and reactive networks at various Urbanistica www.planum.net

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levels. It is in this sense that we can say that a landscape ends up reflecting the quality of its governance and its capacity to respond to change in positive and constructive ways. Communities need to be able to engage in dynamic, responsive planning. For that, the specifics of governance systems need to address such questions as ‘Who plans for whom? Is there transparency? Is there room for learning and adaptation? These are much more important than mere technical excellence in landscape plans. There may be conflicting perspectives about what the landscape is and can/should become, and often there exist sharp power differentials among the actors backing such perspectives. To counter this, a good understanding of local history, including a history of the relationship between people and ecosystems, can help to establish an equitable (rather than equal) share of governance entitlements. Process facilitation at the landscape level may be necessary to help define issues and negotiate decisions among actors with different powers and influence. The process of planning (mapping, demarcating, discussing, thinking together, facilitating a fair interaction among actors with different powers, managing conflicts and developing a consensus on a common desired future and ways to attain it) seems even more critically important than its results, including flawless ‘plans’! Conclusion Iucn’s heartland has been in species and protected areas and— because of a combination of conscious choice, the inherent difficulties of change and inertia—is likely to remain there. Yet, the wider landscape is extremely important to the pursuit of Iucn’s vision of “a just world that values and conserves nature”. Fortunately, there are many powerful examples of people and nature intimately linked across broad swathes of landscape and a wealth of customary experiences in adaptive landscape governance and management. A central message in relation to the landscape approach is the following: conservation of nature depends in large part on respecting and supporting those communities who live in the landscape, sustainably use its resources and accumulate meaningful experience by taking daily decisions about it. Today, the need for this is all the greater because of climate change and other unprecedented rates of global change. The livelihoods, cultural and spiritual bonds that link specific communities to specific units of land and natural resources, the tangible and intangible cultural heritage that they recognise there, and the care andingenuity that communities can offer in terms of governance and management— all are crucial for the resilience of thriving, dynamic landscapes and the conservation of the biodiversity that they harbour. Embracing traditional knowledge and institutions, as well as supporting their adaptive evolution, making good use of new tools and engaging in empowering processes are all indispensable components of caring for our landscapes.

European landscape policies Angioletta Voghera The European landscape convention (Elc, Coe 2000) has been ratified by 30 member countries of the Council of Europe (by 21 member countries of the Eu). The Elc stimulates development of a set of integrated landscape protection, planning and management policies as a framework embracing the life of the populations, an expression of identity and diversity, a resource for sustainable development. It introduces a pan-European reference framework for actions aimed at: basing recognition of identity and landscape values on the populations; constructing new values, moving from the restriction of significant sites to participation of local municipalities in valorising all types of landscapes; integrating landscape valorisation in territorial, economic and social policies. The innovative scope of the Elc is however hampered by the absence of a Eu landscape policy which, today, is the major aspect that undermines its application. In fact, at the moment, the Eu is not competent for landscape matters. In the absence of clear reference parameters, the landscape is influenced to a major extent by Community territorial policies which guide localisation of activities in the territory and generating transformations of the landscape. Community actions with more direct fall-out on the landscape include: common agricultural policies; the policy of socio-economic cohesion; transport sector policy; environmental policy; measures for energy. Since the 1999, common agricultural policy has reflected an integrated concept of rural development, considered to be an ‘instrument for establishing a coherent, long-lasting context for the socio-economic and environmental future of rural areas’. From this perspective, the landscape is deemed to be a factor development, necessary to guarantee the multi-functionality and modernisation of agricultural economy through diversification of activities. The cohesion policy aims to monitor socio-economic imbalances that could be exasperated by completion of the single market, addressing the territory with targeted plans, actions and structural funds. The structural funds for the 2007-13 planning period are directed towards enhancing competitiveness and developing the local economy, generating long-term effects on landscapes. So far, the Eu has dedicated very little attention to these effects. The relationships between the new infrastructures, the territory and landscape are, in fact, observed considering the critical issues they generate, reflected in environmental assessments that analyse the positive effects in terms of accessibility, and their negative repercussions on the environment and the landscape. Adopting various strategic instruments and measures, the policy for the environment, directed towards Urbanistica www.planum.net

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sustainable development, focuses on management of natural resources and of biodiversity that are important landscape values (reflected mainly in directives for the protection of natural habitats and of migratory species). In fact, the VI European programme for the environment (2001, 2007) identifies measures for establishing new relationships between the environment, and government of the territory includes the landscape on the axis of ‘biodiversity’ actions, intended to valorise functioning of the ecological systems. Therefore, the concept of landscape introduced by the Elc is considered only in part in Eu strategies. The Esdp (1999) expresses an innovative concept of landscape, proposing a strategy for Europe inserted in a framework of sustainability and linking the main infrastructures policies to urban development, safeguarding and managing the landscape and protecting nature and biodiversity. Considerable stress is laid on European landscapes and on the more representative and sensitive areas to be managed with integrated policies. The concept of landscape that emerges from the Ssse is undeniably interesting and pro-active as it does not simply view the landscape as something influenced by the effects and impacts generated by the policies but considers this to be the basis of a collective identity. Although a separation remains between ‘natural’ and ‘cultural’ landscapes, the dynamic vision of the landscape that seeks to weave new relationships with planning and government of the territory is interesting. However, two scarcely integrated concepts of landscape can be observed in Community strategies: – the landscape as an ecomosaic, i.e. as the connective tissue of natural or para-natural habitats, able to promote systems of useful connections for combating the fragmentation of the landscape that threatens biodiversity (Iucn 2003). – the ‘socio-cultural’ dimension of the landscape (Gambino 2008) in policies for rural development and cohesion. In accordance with the latest Unesco strategies (Iccrom 1998; Unesco 2005), these policies are considerably broadening the categories of excellent ‘cultural landscapes’ to also include systems able to attract tourists, investments and inhabitants. A joint pan-European landscape policy is necessary because: - many landscapes of European importance are the offshoot of natural and cultural processes that require transnational strategies; – in recent years, many transformations in uses of the territory and of the landscape have been triggered by Community strategies; – landscape policies may play a strategic role in the sustainable future of Europe. In this light, the Eu must undertake to promote a framework of action for the landscape, starting from ratification of the Elc, in order to improve the quality of the territory through: – wide-scale coordinated actions for the landscape de-

fined at Community level with reference to the national and trans-border dimension; – ‘special’ actions intended to address and finance protection, planning and management actions of sensitive, unstable and downgraded environments of the regions of Europe; – the development of new synergies between community planning of policies, territorial strategies and the project of the regions and territorial communities who identify themselves in the same landscape values (bottom-up approach).

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Cultural and natural values in the Unesco sites management: the case of Sacri monti

The isola Pomposiana in the Po delta

The ‘special nature reserves’ of the Sacri monti of Piemonte represent an early example of alliance between nature and landscape policies. In fact, Regione Piemonte decided to set up nature reserves in the mid Seventies as an instrument for managing a network of unusual sites where monumental and landscape resource constraints seemed insufficient, on their own, to preserve and continue to sustain the special relationship between the cultural and natural assets of these spiritual paths. The fortunate combination of architectures and works of sacred art, inserted in particular environmental contexts, on high mounts, in order to recreate a symbolic landscape for pilgrims (the geography of the Sacred land) underlies the Unesco declaration inserting the Sacri monti of Piemonte and Lombardia in the list of sites of the World heritage, classified as cultural landscape. The resulting need for a unitary management plan for the ‘serial’ site has reinforced the hypothesis of setting up a single entity responsible for managing the seven protected areas. An analysis, from the renewed landscape perspective, of the results of thirty years of management as nature reserves clearly reveals the nodes of the relationship between protection and valorisation, between nature and landscape policies, between a network approach and pressure towards insularisation. The Orta Sacro monte, a site whose scenic landscape has been famed for centuries, is an emblematic example. Monumental and landscape resource constraints, special area protection: none of these has succeeded in halting a gradual loss of quality. The management authority has now undertaken a project, drawn up by the Politecnico di Torino, specifically directed towards recovery and valorisation of landscape aspects which envisages a partial review of the management plan and also an alliance with urban planning of the territory with which the monte maintains visual, historical, environmental and functional links. Landscape planning is the ideal instrument to address these aspects, without which the individual Sacri monti, isolated within the perimeter of the protected area, could lose part of those values that make them so exceptional.

The environmental requalification projects of the isola Pomposiana and of other two areas along the Po di Vola-no, fall within the Parco del delta del Po emiliano, at the Volano–Mesola-Goro ‘station’. In drawing up the projects, reference was made to urban and territorial town planning and in particular to the ‘Masterplan’ of the Costa del delta, giving rise to exemplary problems of trans-scalarity. They faced with technical and administrative difficulties that imposed a ‘limit’ on adoption of an integrated approach to the problems affecting the Parco: a territorial limit, as the problems of the sensitive areas often arise outside the protected area, and an administrative limit, as the proposals should be incorporated in the Plan of the park and in the Provincial plan and agreed with the municipalities. The two limits emerged with regard to the scope of analytical and project processing that involved much broader territorial contexts than the three regulatory environments, in order to pursue requalification objectives. The basic goals were: – active preservation of an acknowledged ‘cultural landscape’ through adoption of more complex strategies compared with those referring only to natural resources; – preservation of the historical traces of the territory and of the water presence, also revising reclamation strategies; – recomposition of landscape contexts, re-activating their essential ingredients with new systems of relationships; – valorisation of the natural and cultural resources that contribute to decreeing the quality and appeal of the sites. Such objectives imply a trans-scalar vision on which to construct a non-hierarchical relationship of cooperation amongst the plurality of plans, subjects and institutions, between demands for cooperation and confusion of competencies. The project has a dynamic, flexible character, a requirement that, in the delta, is determined by precise scientific considerations regarding the importance of dynamic evolution of the environment, and which necessarily assigns a significant role to the process of assessment. Emblematically, the project of the Isola Pomposiana highlights issues and problems, such as: – requalification of the landscape area of the abbey, mitigating factors of downgrading in order to restore the legibility and usability of the monumental complex, in particular with regard to critical aspects of the national road ‘Romea’ that borders on the complex, for which two alternatives were considered: ‘mitigation’, consisting in laying the tunnel of the Romea in front to the abbey underground; and ‘reorganisation’, consisting in new va-

Claudia Cassatella

Raffaella Gambino

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riant of the Romea at a distance from the complex of the abbey, with elimination of the current variant; – re-establishment of a more acceptable land-water ratio by restoring the functionality of the local network of canals that radiate from the historic canale Galvano; – naturalistic recovery of marginal agricultural areas through expansion of the bosco Spada and requalification of the free area of the monumental complex, in a spirit not so much of ecological ‘restoration’ but rather of ‘simulation’, intended to re-activate the signs of an extremely significant ‘cultural landscape’; – valorisation of cultural assets through requalification of the area around the abbey complex with elimination of excrescences; – re-organisation of accessibility systems, moving away vehicle parking and requalifying the ‘entrances’ in terms of image, services and functional connections. ecological ‘restoration’ but rather of ‘simulation’, intended to re-activate the signs of an extremely significant ‘cultural landscape’; – valorisation of cultural assets through requalification of the area around the abbey complex with elimination of excrescences; – re-organisation of accessibility systems, moving away vehicle parking and requalifying the ‘entrances’ in terms of image, services and functional connections.

Networks and planning Sergio Malcevschi, Pier Giorgio Terzuolo, Federica Thomasset Ecological networks comply with the requirements of the 6th Community programme on the environment and implement the programma Rete Natura 2000. Ecological networks provide a structural and functional framework for nature preservation objectives. The current distribution and surface of protected areas, Sic and Zps in Europe is not sufficient to guarantee conservation of the biodiversity and functionality of the all-round ecosystem; there is therefore a need for planning more integrated with the ecosystem and the territory at all levels (regional, provincial, local). Similarly, liaison with valuation and monitoring processes (Vas, Via, Vi) is also increasingly important. Four ways of interpreting the ecological network: – as an interconnected set of habitats whose biodiversity must be protected and whose primary goal is the preservation of threatened animal and vegetable species or those considered of higher priority (species-specific network); – as a system of parks and reserves, with the aim of inserting these in a coherent action of governance and of assessing any gaps to complete the set of habitats to be protected; – as a set of landscape units, permitting mainly aesthetic, recrea. tional and cultural fruition, with the aim of improving amenities for citizens, according to which natural components are essential quality factors; – as a polyvalent ecosystem scenario, supporting sustainable development, the aim of which is to guarantee the functionality of the bio-geochemical flows essential to offset the loss of biodiversity, an unjustified increase in hydrogeological risks and undue losses of primary ecological functions and of ecosystem services. This set of complementary and not alternative approaches makes it possible not only to guarantee connectivity between the natural islands where naturalistic values are threatened, but also to establishnew functional ecosystem matrixes. The concept of polyvalence of the ecological network (integration of protection of biodiversity and establishment of ecosystem services) imposes the need for a strategy able to involve several sectors of governance and establishes the relationship between ecological networks and planning as a priority topic. The Regione Piemonte has mandated the drawing up of an integrated strategic project ‘Regional environmental valorisation network’ (Revn). The main brief of the project is the construction of the Regional ecological network (Ren) integrated in much broader networks of valorisation of culture and fruition, according to a flexible trans-scalar approach, to be implemented with coplanning policies. The project identifies three integrated Urbanistica www.planum.net

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networks: – the ecological network (En), consisting of main nodes (areas rich in natural habitats representative of the biodiversity of the region) and secondary nodes; of a system of connections, identified according to assessments of connectivity, value, criticalities and structure of the ecomosaics and of the conditions of the hydrographical network. Where connectivity is more at risk, stepping stones (temporary refuges for a species with a good level of mobility) and buffer zones, to offset any pressures or to increase natural dispersion potential, are identified. – the cultural network (Cn), consisting of a system of cultural nodes, connectable to each other, that comprises both the assets of historical-cultural interest and elements of the enclosed landscape, as well as the set of equipment and amenities for their valorisation and networking. Twelve possible systems of valorisation are identified based on the specificity of the territories, the human capital present, its ability to cooperate, planned development strategies, but, above all, according to valorisation projects already partly activated and tied to local community development; to coordinate services and stakeholders, in order to structure access to the various systems of the Revn (such as centres for linkage of tourist circuits, access points to the natural areas and panoramic viewpoints) connected by a set of paths, trails, greenways, ‘green’ corridors. They are also intended to restore the quality of the interested landscapes. An integral interpretation of the three networks highlights situations where it is necessary to proceed with ‘specific projects integrated at local level’ such as contexts of the ecological nodes, ‘riparian contexts’, periurban contexts and so on.

Conservation and development in coastal protected landscapes* Emma Salizzoni The challenges thrown up by the dual concept of conservation-development are extremely evident along coastal areas: excellent environmental and landscape values are in fact accompanied by a high level of anthropic pressure which accelerates their transformation, generating critical environmental, landscape and socio-economic issues. Despite the urgent need for protection, only a limited area along the european coast is effectively protected. In particular, category V protected areas (Protected landscapes-seascapes, Iucn classification system) are few: an incongruous shortcoming since the management approach that characterizes this type of protected area specifically focuses on integration of conservation and socio-economic development objectives and is therefore particularly suited to the coastal environment. Examining two cases of Mediterranean protected landscapes-seascapes, the Parc naturel régional de la Narbonnaise en Méditerranée (France, LanguedocRoussillon) and the Parque natural de la Albufera de Valencia (Spain, comunidad Valenciana), provides an interesting opportunity to analyse some of the main critical aspects of the Mediterranean coastal area. Coast and hinterland. The imbalance between coast and hinterland is a typical phenomenon of Mediterranean environments, characterised by densely populated coastal areas, with a flourishing economy, and less dynamic hinterland, with a low land use density. The same dichotomy also applies to the two parks analysed and can be ascribed to the development of an intense seaside resort type tourist economy which, on the one hand, decrees the liveliness of coastal resorts and intense urbanization of the coastline and, on the other, the economic stagnation of internal areas (because of a ‘move towards the sea’ of forces and capital connected to agricultural activities in favour of more profitable tourist activities) and degradation of the hinterland due to the abandonment of cultivated land. Similar processes also reflect the relationship between ‘new’ and ‘traditional’ uses, particularly critical inside Protected landscapes, that are specifically established to preserve the landscape as moulded by traditional uses, the survival of which is now at risk. Along the coastal area: the urban continuum. The intense economic and land use development that has characterised the mediterranean coast in the last decades has generated a gradual coastal artificialisation, contributing to create a barrier between land and sea. The two parks analysed are also affected by these trends and the phenomenon is particularly evident in the Park of the Albufera, characterised by a long, urbanized coastline, with consequences on both the environment and landscape. Urbanistica www.planum.net

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Land and sea. The relationship between terrestrial and marine environments is of crucial importance in all coastal areas. In the case of the two parks, the land-sea relationship is particularly significant due to the presence of Wetlands of international importance (the ponds of the Narbonnaise and the lake of the Albufera). The environmental and landscape quality of these areas, connected to the sea by canals, and the related associated activities (mainly fishing) depend strictly on land-sea hydraulic and ecological interchanges. Protected area and context: the urban pressure. Although the issue of the relation between protected area and context affects all protected areas, it is particularly significant in the coastal environment due to the exceptional anthropic pressure exerted. The two parks are affected by problems tied to the nearby urban centres of Valencia and Narbonne, which generate tourist flows and real estate market pressures. The two Protected landscapes propose strategies and actions for sustainable development of the coastal area, integrating environment and landscape conservation and socio-economic development objectives. In particular, to ‘bridge’ the coast-hinterland gap, restoration of the economic balance of the two areas is proposed, giving new life to agricultural activities and proposing new tourism models, spread all over the protected area. Both parks adopt measures to restrict intense coastal urbanization, while integrated land-sea management is afforded in particular by supervising the delicate balance between the wetland and sea environment. Lastly, the two parks, from the perspective ratified at the last Iucn World park congress (Durban 2003, Benefits beyond boundaries) measure up to the pressures of the context, extending their actions to this rather than excluding it. * Images processed by Sergio Bongiovanni with Ced Ppn. Sources: Live search maps, © 2007 Microsoft; Parque natural de la Albufera de Valencia; Parc naturel régional de la Narbonnaise en Méditerranée.

Territorial strategies for nature and landscape: the Turin Corona verde project Paolo Castelnovi

Territorial governance policies, dedicated traditionally more to town planning aspects, have recently revealed increasing attention to new criteria and objectives. The essential role of principles such as sustainability (environmental, social and cultural) or awareness of environment risks is now widely acknowledged also in the management of urban development, imposing compliance with the European landscape convention and directives for the protection of biodiversity and conservation of nature. Attention is now centred on the effects of the intense transformation processes that have impacted metropolitan areas, undermining both environmental continuity and the feeling of identity that is consolidated only in stable landscapes recognised daily by their inhabitants. Open spaces, where the differentiated aspects of history and local identities, that are gradually being lost in the peripheral areas of the city, are still legible, assume an important role in such a situation. These areas, neglected so far as considered marginal compared with urban development processes, have now become few and far between, due to their relative integrity. Of these, protected areas play a strategic role as they are best able to preserve still available fragments of naturalness and their management is not oriented only towards the urban development. The Corona verde project (Cvp), a strategic instrument of landscape and environment qualification policies in the metropolitan areas of Turin, has been launched by Regione Piemonte in order to address the above issues. The Cvp is based on measures that involve the entire territory, starting from open and less urbanised parts and in particular parks, which form an exceptional set of sites of environmental quality and historic worth. In fact, the name, Corona verde, expresses the intention of combining the image of the Corona di delitie (the ring of Savoy residences around Turin) with the concept of ‘Green belt’, strongly mooted by 20th century European town planning. The project has involved innovativesurveys that have permitted integrated reading of environmental and historical aspects and a socio-cultural vision of the landscape, an essential resource for the quality of life and the basis of the common feeling of local identity. According to the survey and an all-round assessment of the driving forces involved, a set of general objectives has emerged: – reduction of eco-system and territorial fragmentation and of the effects of insularisation and the consequent containment of urban and infrastructural dispersion; – reinforcement of the level of diffused naturalness and Urbanistica www.planum.net

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construction of an ‘environmental infrastructure’ network; – qualification of rural space, with policies that, in addition to reinforcing the level of naturalness in agricultural areas, restore and maintain a long-lasting model of use of the territory; – valorisation of cultural and landscape assets and of local identities, with measures directed towards reducing the effects of banalisation of the suburbs. In 2007, after an initial phase of specific, singular measures, a general guidance Scheme has been drawn up in order to provide: – a cognitive-assessment framework that integrates environmental, historic and landscape aspects; – an interdisciplinary interpretative framework that highlights the structuring factors to be preserved and critical factors on which priority action is required; – a strategic framework with a guiding vision, based on scenarios, and integrated design measures to be inserted in public plans and programmes and to be agreed with private operators: – ad hoc management and assessment criteria of the feasibility of the measures and of the forms of cooperation and participation. Two levels of intervention have been defined: a general level on topics of regional interest and a second level that takes into account local interests, pressures and resources. This has resulted in a spatial sub-division of the strategies, forming a rose of 16 ‘petals’ around Turin, that considers the specific aspects of strategic measures, making it possible to put forward proposals based on a diferentiated and local assessment of the general project. In conclusion, the Pcv proposes guidelines for a strategy based on three operating instruments: – an all-round programme managed by the Region that aims to reduce fragmentation, to reinforce naturalness, the networks of use and the general image of the Cv, also through specific and special projects; – a coherent frame of general rule for the protection of open spaces, of accesses and resources, to be inserted in ordinary planning; – a set of valorisation and local application programmes and projects, to be agreed between the Region and associated local authorities.

Parks and landscapes in Europe* Federica Thomasset 1. The Shaping a sustainable future programme, adopted by Iucn at the recent World conservation congress (Barcelona 2008), calls upon nature conservation policies to address the problem of ‘sustainable use of resources’. The New guidelines for protected areas (Pas) classification stress the complementary nature of various management models that can contribute to forming national systems. The concept of nature is correlated with that of biodiversity, associating this to the ecosystem service functions it can carry out and to the cultural values it incorporates. The complementary nature of the values to be defended is clarified (including ethical and religious values, traditions, leisure and sustainable use of resources). The need for diversification of the management models is stressed (opening these to joint management and involvement of the communities), criteria and assessments to mark the differences between the various management objectives are identified. Ced Ppn research on protected areas in Europe has highlighted certain specific aspects of European Pas (more than 100 different categories): consistency (protected surface is about 18% of the total surface), capillary distribution in the territory, very diverse environmental situations and complex relationships with the territory. A paneuropean network of entities that have acquired experience, involving numerous stakeholders, creating supra-local networks (Mab, Ramsar, Unesco) in a transscalar perspective. A situation with evident imbalances compared with the rest of the world: a large swathe of Pa in category V protected landscapes (52% compared with 3% worldwide), a reduced presence of category I nature reserves and wilderness areas (5.7% of the protected surface compared with 35.6 % in the world) and of category VI areas for the sustainable use of resources (2.6% against 5.1% worldwide) and limited attention to protected marine areas. The research draws attention to the presence of european macro-systems of Pas that cross Europe from north to south, east to west, with bands of continuity, not entirely unexpected, in territories affected by similar problems (mountain systems, coasts, major rivers, urban areas and rural territories). Ue policies in this sector continue to be weak. The 92/43/Eec Habitat directive represents the most important attempt to coordinate the policies of European countries in the field of conservation of nature but has been criticised for many reasons: too top-down process, a network that is not a network, an overly static vision. The principles ratified by the European landscape convection (Elc) have influenced the world-wide debate on conservation policies, highlighting the need for a much Urbanistica www.planum.net

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closer link between biological diversity and cultural diversity. On this issue, there is a lack, at European community level, of a common path able to enhance comparability of the policies, to promote deployment of policies based on the macro-systems of European space, to guide spending policies in a different direction, to promote integration of protected area policies with ‘ordinary’ governance of the territory and with landscape policies (Elc) such policies should also identify innovative instruments for assessing the effectiveness and fairness of the protection models (relationship between objectives and results), and pursuing a suitable costs/benefits ratio of the adopted measures. * Images processed by Sergio Bongiovanni with Ced Ppn.

A territory-oriented view of nature and landscape Attilia Peano In the last 40 years, far-reaching changes have occurred in nature protection concepts, policies and practices. This change of viewpoint can be represented briefly referring to opposed concepts: those referring to the vision that has been a leading feature for more than eighty years, from setting up of the first national parks in the world, and those that have gained ground, in various stages, in recent decades. The classical model of protected area reflected a form of conservation that excluded both the population and economic uses of the territory, intended to protect natural resources without including recovery of downgraded values; the protected area was considered an island separate from the ordinary territory; setting up of the area was promoted by cultural élites, responsibility was assigned to central governments and management to specialised nature technicians. Obviously, this generalised description pushes the vision of the period to the limit, overlooking the considerable differences between different countries and different protected areas. From the 1960’s, the tenyear conferences of the Iucn, also sustained by solid scientific bases on biological conservation and on ecology of the landscape and by gradual recognition of the cultural landscape, have charted various major changes in the view of protection of nature and in particular of nature parks. New issues have emerged, ranging from the regional systems of parks and protected areas to international parks, the need for planning, the relationship between protected areas and territorial context, the role of the local populations, the relationship between protection and socioeconomic development of the territory. This change of view has had far-reaching repercussions on the nature-culture and conservation-development relationship, on the very meaning of protection, pointing the way towards a decisive territorialisation of the nature conservation that entails complete refocusing of policies and practices in order to respond to a new spatial, sociocultural and economic rapport between protected areas and territory. However, this new vision, which has been a leitmotif of all european policies for the territory and the environment in the last ten years, asserting the need for integration and an inter-sector approach and assigning new responsibilities to all levels of competence of territorial governance, gives rise to considerable difficulties when attempting to translate it into planning and management practices. As regards the landscape, at the core of the policies of the European convention, equally important changes have occurred, with extension of protection to the entire territory, breakdown of actions into protection, planning and management elements, the need to involve all sector policies and the primary role attributed to populations in defining the quality objectives to be pursued. Apart Urbanistica www.planum.net

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from the European convention, the broadest strategies of the Union in this area also address the territorial dimension and the landscape as factors of competitiveness and of environmental, cultural and economic development of the territory of Europe. The need to territorialise nature and landscape policies highlights the role of planning, as a method and instrument for identifying management strategies and rules. The planning of protected areas and of the landscape has continued to gain ground also in Italy, as in most other european countries. However, a plethora of plans by levels and sectors, difficult to correlate with more firmly, entrenched ordinary territorial planning instruments, is accompanied by a gradual loss of identity and of the values of the landscapes and territories, in some cases also inside the protected natural areas. More specifically, it is the plans that do not comply with international and European guidelines according to which geographical and administrative borders must be overstepped, measures and stakeholders must be integrated, involving the populations in determining protection and development paths, in guiding local actions. As already stressed, nature, landscape and territory have been increasingly approached with visions that correlate and require their integration. Therefore, complete rethinking of the current planning apparatus would appear to be essential, also through drastic down-sizing of the instruments used, with a general reformulation on a macro and micro scale, based on the structuring of territorial configurations that integrate economic and social, functional, ecological and formal aspects. They are to be build involving many different stakeholders under the responsibility of clearlyidentified institutional entities: a framework in which it is possible to correlate many practical projects of the daily landscape in order to construct different, suitable living environments in the territory.

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Urbanistica n. 139 May-August 2009

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Index and english translation of the articles Problems, policies and research

Paolo Avarello edited by Anna Laura Palazzo, Biancamaria Rizzo Anna Laura Palazzo Biancamaria Rizzo Anna Laura Palazzo Biancamaria Rizzo Anna Laura Palazzo, Biancamaria Rizzo

edited by Antonio Longo Antonio Longo, Alessandro Alì Christian Novak Paolo Pileri Fabio Terragni Arturo Lanzani, Paola Pucci

Methods and tools

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Difficulty of living Maria Chiara Tosi The object of this essay regards the spaces of welfare, which were constructed starting at the second half of the 20th century in Europe as spaces for socialization and collective life activities, services and infrastructure. Despite their many limitations, these spaces aimed to guarantee comfort, health and safety to the city, while also giving a spatial form to welfare state policies. To work on this topic with the broadened perspective of Europe is deemed urgent for three distinct reasons: – firstly, because the arrangement of infrastructure and services, the widespread presence of these public services, even if not always correctly situated or constructed, in our view, constitute one of the characteristics of the contemporary European city as one of its main factors of identity. In other words, if from the past our cities inherit certain elements of identity such as public squares or theatres, churches and castles, starting from the 20th century, the European city distinguishes itself from other cities in the world instead by the presence of the products of welfare, the physical translation of the policies of the welfare state; secondly, because the spaces of welfare are one of the areas in which citizens can determine their very identity and form the very spirit of citizenship. And it is these factors that are yet more important today, in order to receive the many immigrants who aim to obtain not only home and employment but also new rights (and duties) of citizenship; – thirdly, because to investigate the space of welfare means to work out the themes of urbanity, or that mixitè, of the construction of urban fabrics that are livable, comfortable, healthy and safe. The comparison and exchange between experiences and best practices on these themes can contribute to improving the overall quality in the design of social and welfare services at a European wide level and to open a debate on the connections between the quality of the spaces of welfare and the quality of urban life in European cities. Being involved in the space of welfare means coming to terms with the difficulty of living in many parts of the city and of the territory which were constructed after World war II, due to the hostility that extensive areas of developed land have in relation to their inhabitants and not only to the young or elderly or to the physically impaired. Given this point of view, this strategy of attention emphasizes the importance of a return in observing the city of daily life, to ask about the reasons and the causes of the difficulty and hostility. This is partially due to the absence of services, equipment and space for socialization, in the majority of the situations it seems instead that difficulties and hostilities are due to the incorrect organization, to the faulty operation, to the discontinuity of a system of services and equipment that for this reason generate

lack of comfort, uneasiness, insecurity and sometimes peril. Starting from the set of characteristics and elements responsible for the difficulty of living it may be possible to highlight the urban infrastructure, namely that component which does not directly produce individual wealth, but that contributes to the well-being of a group or community. It is therefore necessary to establish a relation between the difficulties and the hostilities of daily life in the city and the policies and projects aimed at ensuring a higher degree of well-being; to rethink urban infrastructure as a result, a physical repository of urban welfare policies. Forgetfulness This area of interest has gradually been outlined starting by ascertaining the lack of consideration or the merely technical attention which the space of socialization and collective life is often dealt with; that is the totality of spaces, services and infrastructure that should guarantee comfort, security and quality to the city, shaping the welfare policies. Insufficient attention with a plurality of attitudes that range from total ignorance and negation of the physical characters of this space, to considering them merely a need to grant a technical problem to resolve through standard compliancy. The attitude of guaranteeing minimum quantitative levels has made the relational character of these spaces, the spatial characters of the problem banal. At times, when engaged in the relationship between welfare and the city, attention has almost entirely been focused on the tools and procedures which enable higher conditions of well being, on the characteristics of urban standards, on the quality of the implementation, on the alignment with urban and social politics, on the need to change from descriptive to performance models, with little focus on the physical implications of these policies and tools or to the characteristics that urban infrastructure takes on and to the ability to make a developed area habitable. The fact that is often forgotten, is that the majority of people that live in a city desire a normal daily existence, made up of comfortable and secure spaces. Researching a ‘normal’ existence seems to be the aspect that ties together different population mixes which make up contemporary European society, a society with a strong practical competency of daily living that requires spaces characterized by decency, well being, security, health and independence to be configured. Comfort, security-safety, health It seems to us that engaging in welfare requires observation of the European city in an attempt to construct pertinent technical descriptions regarding the characteristics that these spaces assume today. These descriptions are required in order to express judgments and evaluations regarding the conditions of comfort, safety Urbanistica www.planum.net

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and health that de-fine urban space, as well as to initiate planning investigations that stem from the same objectives. Therefore to restart from the description of urban space, maintaining the physical dimension of welfare as the focus. Naturally investigating these themes means coming to terms with the real possibilities that have been available over the last few years to construct new urban infrastructure; with the norms, the policies, the projects, but also and above all, the standing that the physical character of these projects has had in the investment programs for increasing social wellbeing. In other words, the spaces, the places, the services and public infrastructure of public interaction will be observed as a dimension and physical translation of welfare politics. To study welfare space for us also means engaging in topics regarding security, a phenomenon closely linked, if not derived from weakened or lacking urbanity. This encourages the role of those projects and policies that have made heterogeneous and continuous urbanity their strong point to be rehabilitated, attempting to create distance from the all too frequent condition of adjoining cordoned off spaces, small distinct fortresses in which ‘people value physical and spiritual independence, as opposed to a feeling of belonging and identity of place’. This is why we think it’s more useful and fertile to observe the topic from a different perspective: without emphasizing fears and insecurities, to wonder instead what has been obtained and what can be accomplished in order to construct a comfortable and healthy civil space, a place of encounter and exchange, of coexistence and of social interaction, and consequently ‘secure’. Investigating the difficulty of living also means relating to the characteristics that comfort has assumed in the contemporary city, in addition to themes regarding health. Wellbeing in a space, enjoying it pleasurably, is certainly one of the objectives that have had an important role in considerations made by people involved in urban space. The difficulties associated with living the city have led increasing numbers of people to find individual solutions to the issue, to search for comfort inside their own home, abandoning urban space. The transfer of the city toward suburban areas, toward dispersed living conditions, also leads to this theme: to the search for individual comfort. Today then, we must enquire as to the reasons for this absence, on the lack of comfort that characterizes important parts of the city built after WWII, ensuring this enquiry be done neither with a generic or a superficial attitude, but on the contrary identifies in the diverse conditions the specific reasons for that absence, the reasons and the causes of the lack of ease generated by moving, pausing and using the urban space. The stress related to day to day life in the city at times takes on a dangerous and damaging aspect. In recent years local communities have made the effort to communicate the particular importance of widespread environmental quality as a common wealth to be preserved through apt welfare policies. In this case also, it is

necessary to show and clarify the relevance that the methodologies related to this issue take on: a wooded area, sound proofing, flood mitigation measures, alternative transportation networks, reclamation of a landfill all have value, but it is the method and the way that they are planned in the area which requires attention. Looking into these topics one wonders about what creates common well being today, on the possibility of regaining the fixed social assets that have been used and consumed over the past decades. How common welfare can be reconstructed in order to be both a product and a prerequisite of any real and meaningful welfare policy. In other words this research should encourage us to observe the intense use and consumption of existing fixed assets generated by the developmental models of the contemporary city, which leads us to ask with a sense of urgency: what are the new collective goods, the ‘common happiness’ that recent urban phenomena have been able to construct? Maybe also some environmental improvement programs, the promotion of regional parks, the rehabilitation of roadways, a richer and more varied offer of common areas, more generally a different environmental policy could be interpreted as a new welfare policy, as the search for a more hospitable and habitable place, less demanding and hostile, where collective and not only individual well being is possible. Some remarks As we have tried to specify at the beginning of this essay, the question motivating our interests regards the methods and the configurations that city infrastructure would have to assume in order to make daily life easier. Starting a reflection around these issues, which we have only begun to delineate, seems useful for many different reasons: – to allow more visibility to the relevance at an urban level of policies of the welfare state, which are instead often only viewed with reference to healthcare, in order to help a plurality of spatial configurations that can and should adopt more ample social policies emerge; – to shift the attention from the recognition of a single or networked common good and-or commodity, to a more attentive consideration of the spaces of welfare in their entirety as a common good; – to deal with the spaces of welfare with a more articulate approach such as an amplified look at Europe and to additional single nations with their specific traditions of welfare state policies; – to establish some informal welfare networks, recognizing the methodologies by which single individuals form alliances to supply collective answers to the absence or to the lacking operation of urban infrastructure. These alliances are functional to the improvement of the quality of collective life and the capabilities or substantial freedom of every individual, that have to be seen as active agents of transformation and no longer as passive recipients of benefits; Urbanistica www.planum.net

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– to start a reflection that could extend toward extreme conditions, towards those contexts in which the absence of comfort, security and health prevail. Settlements in which uneasiness dominates. Here we refer to the settlements called ‘planet of slum’ by Mike Davies, and that could constitute the future direction of this enquiry.

Building the welfare Bernardo Secchi My principal aim today is to put forward some hypothesis for our research: they are not news; some of the themes I’ll propose have been investigated, even if from another point of view, by others scholars; for some of them we have to give more specific details concerning specific historical periods or specific regions. All of them concern the contemporary city and territory. Since many centuries, since the beginning of the modernity, the individual and collective welfare is one of the main issues of every government and of every social group. But the idea of what the welfare is changed during the time in a radical way with the change of the social and power structure. For me how the idea of the welfare is changing now must be the main issue of our research. What I can do now is only to point out some themes, concerning the city and the territory and speaking of this change. The first one is the importance of the body, le souci de soi, the importance to adequate the urban space to our body and its performances (that are not always perfect). The following are the importance of the ‘right distance’, between subjects, objects, activities, practices; the ‘porosity’ of the metropolitan tissues and territories, the opportunity the porosity is giving to the flexibility of the society, economy and to the living space. The opportunity it is giving to the social differences and to identity policies; the fragmented character of the urban space that is coming out; the growth inside this fragmented space of enclaves, in both the versions of the ghetto or of the gated community, but also in the intermediate versions. And again, the importance of the accessibility, permeability and connectivity, but the ambiguous role of the mobility infrastructures that are at the same time tools for the connection and access, but also for separation and exclusion; the socially and economically selective role of any infrastructure and of any spatial design. The globalization that is penetrating in the everyday life of the urban populations. Globalization is always unpredictable and generating fear, pushing the people to retire in specific niches, to give a value to the tradition and stability, to the fixity of the identity. The themes I mentioned are not for me in causal order; it is possible to take them in many different orders. They have not the same importance everywhere. They appeared in the different European regions in different period, even if we can expect a kind of unification of the western world droved by them. What is more important they are not building only one scenario for our future, nor a project. But ‘the new urban issues’, different from the issues of the XIXth century or of the middle of the XXth, have there their roots: in the Urbanistica www.planum.net

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tensions and conflicts that these themes are producing at different scales and on the different layers: from the ideological, to the imagery, the individual and collective behaviours. That is the reason why to do a research.

Between risk and cohesion. Requests for innovations in urban planning Alberto Clementi

These days, to bring forth a critical reflection on urban planning and welfare represents a serious challenge for a discipline which, in the past, has contributed notably to the structuring of policies of social well-being, helping to discover the importance of collective spaces and living conditions in cities of modernity; while more recently, this discipline seems to have instead lost its propelling role in times when dramatic issues of actuality call for a redesigning of welfare having endured the effects of significant changes in the economic structure and society of our contemporary era. Particularly in Italy, a radicalisation of drives towards local movements and the tutelage of single territorial subjectivities, in response to new conditions of our ‘society of risk’, along with the advanced decomposition of intermediary social bodies, significantly lead to the compromise of certain universalistic visions of requested services directed towards the social state, which was to in turn guarantee a common well-being and help to balance the distorting effects of the market. It is these visions, as we well know, that have in large part shaped modern urban planning. In facing the enormous load of processes and the ongoing transformations of the social state, it may seem retrogressive and a bit pathetic to go back to focussing on marginal measures such as the adaptation of urban planning standards or the routine proposals for new service plans, which oftentimes involve university research and resources. As a matter of fact, I personally have had the chance of witnessing the progressive shifting of the thematic topics of welfare in urban planning in my experience as a university researcher. From the beginning of the 1970’s, one would tend to think optimistically about the new forms of the city, and trust in the determining role of collective. During the following decade, when the rising conflict connected to claims and demands for the right to residences and services were exhausted, urban planning was called to redefine its role in the prospects of social policies, which were strongly conditioned by a growing scarcity of public resources and no longer intended to establish homogeneous standards for the use of the. The preoccupations caused by risks and a growing loss of identity started to outweigh those of urban ‘liveability’, hence demanding responses and solutions for which we were substantially unprepared. Flexibility, instability and uncertainty have started to enter heavily in the life strategies of individuals; and together with the perception of risk, there is a fear of the future that has significantly conditioned the agenda of public policy (Bauman, Liquid fear, 2006). In response to the devouring powers of networks, there were additional Urbanistica www.planum.net

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processes of a growing autonomisation of the individual, with prospects of an institutionalised individualism that inspired the reformist policies or ‘Blairist approach’ of the last decade. All of this has had important outcomes with the intent of innovating policies of welfare. What has emerged most importantly are those risks regarding the environment and urban security, which urban planning has promptly addressed through reformulations of its own cognitive and projectual framework. A positive account of this, for the first factor, is the growing attention on perspectives for sustainable cities, and particularly the reduction of pollutants and emissions, the generation of renewable energy resources and the conservation of non-renewable natural resources. In regard to the second factor, the growing concern for urban security has become almost pathological for its hyperbolic media coverage; and only very recently has there been a more organic approach to dealing with it. One interesting study dealing with these factors was the ‘first investigation on the state of security in Italy and on the directions and approaches of security policies for citizens’, developed by a commission for institutional affairs, on behalf of the Chamber of deputies, over the course of the 15th legislature, presided by Luciano Violante. In light of this proposed profile, urban planning seems to rediscover its historical vocation by presenting itself as an instrument of welfare that is less oriented towards policies of surveillance and repression and instead more inclined towards affirming the positive values of urban space, which favour sociality and a consequent increases in security.

City, civil society, welfare: a risk perspective? Giulio Ernesti The following essay and notes stem from a basic assumption: that the welfare state is the result of historic processes involving the construction and universal extension of citizenship, in response to a demand for socioeconomic and political equality which, once the issues of social dynamic and organized labor are assimilated, starts to extend rights to individuals for the sole fact that they are members of society. It was a long and conflictual process in regards to the formation and evolution of industrialized nations and, within that course of action, there were also the dynamic relations among the market, private enterprise, philanthropy and different forms of state and private charity. It is within the framework of these interactions that social and public policies started to take form. In regard to such policies, it is important to highlight their clear and apparent function to contain and limit social-economic conflict, while providing for controls and integration, and also to recall their origination and evolution: from the emergence of public state actions and normative obligations, deriving from the stigmatization of the poor, to factors of prevention, which lead to the adoption of certain universalistic measures following the Second world war. The interest in periodizing the welfare state stems from the conviction that in and throughout its evolution there was a progressive erosion of the autonomy and capacity of local societies to express solidarity and effectively respond to social needs. This gradual erosion allows for a better under-standing of the uncertainties in the process of constructing a stronger state presence and, conversely, also a persistent resistance towards the state’s processes of modernization. At the same time, this erosion is due to the significant persistence or resistance of local society, in pointing out certain problems and issues such as the crises of fordism’s social pacts, the de-institutionalization of laborcapital relationships, and the great difficulty of defining collective interests; all occurring within the ongoing discussion regarding the existing relations between society-state institutions. Welfare, we might add, was no longer a prerogative of the state, as much as it was a widespread social function as well as an indication of the crisis of political representativeness, which validated the necessity for new and more vital forms of democracy. All that is stated herein intends to highlight the centrality of the city as a complete and local society, and to point out that the proposal for the future of the city’s crucial role concludes and also reopens the shifting cycles, as well as the ongoing dynamic of the last century. More precisely, the aim is to investigate the hypothesis of a welfare society-welfare state circularity. In this perspective, one important aspect is certainly Urbanistica www.planum.net

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constituted by the experience of the Giolitti era in Italy. The overall experience of that historic period was characterized by an intentional reformist imprinting as a necessary requisite for a modern industrial democracy to be founded on a key prospect of expanding a social basis of reference, with numerous ties to center-periphery relationships. One reformist intent, which cannot overlook the cities, municipalities, and local societies to which it refers, regards those environments as the fulcrum of a more ample and articulate project capacity that is able to face and deal with the pressing issues of social dynamics and urban settings. Programs of rationalization and control of the growing complexification of social life in the new century tend to go hand in hand with a sharp criticism of the democratic insufficiencies in the liberalist state, the state’s class structure, and the scarcity of the upper-middle class’ social breadth; and this includes the presence in municipalities of dominant nerve centers for the transformative project programming of current corporate regimens. A careful examination shows that these implications indicate the affirmation of minimum rights of inclusion and citizenship, as well as the quality and amplification of citizenship. In other words, it denotes those potential policies that have the purpose of expanding access to wellbeing. Such policies hypothesize and arrange for the passage from a more ample and widespread distribution of charity and social assistance to the prospect of an all-inclusive right to wellbeing in general. In synthesis, we are here referring to cities that seem to take on a supplementary role of the state. Such processes were abruptly rescaled with the rise of fascism in Italy and its economic and social political measures. The plan for welfare was however a path that was held open, yet again by the actions of local government, even if under the lodge of subordination in which local societies were to reside following the new state-nationfascism political identity. It is necessary however to underline how the gravity of the crisis of the 1930’s brought back attention to the social question, and this seemed to recreate unbalance in what was a delicate equilibrium: between the state and municipalities; the state and political parties; and the state, political parties and the church. The result of this complex iteration seems to be an unquestionable growth in forms of social assistance and securities; a growth in social spending; a tendency on behalf of the fascist party that can be reassumed in a formula that was to legitimize itself as an effective tool of social political policy. In reality, the prevalent action of assistance and social benefits locally developed in neighborhoods was substantially residual, and tied to the emergence of the ongoing economic crisis. In synthesis and summary, it lead to what was intended as the delineation of a socially assisted society.

Cultures in public spaces. The case of HafenCity Hamburg Ingrid Breckner Cultures influencing the conceptual and constructive realization of public spaces as well as their uses are highly connected with the development of public welfare. In Germany we can discover such relationships since the beginning establishment of public welfare policies at the end of the 19th century. The democratic movements during the Weimar republic after the First world war and before the nazi-regime succeeded in integrating public welfare in the national constitution. In this period German cities got a lot of good examples of well used and appreciated public spaces as playgrounds for children in large housing areas, sport facilities, green belts, neighbourhood parks, urban gardens, etc. Even as these innovative welfare policies did not follow an explicit spatial approach such good practices are respected until today. Mostly they are considered much more useful for the daily life of residents and other city users than the highly standardized concepts of public spaces constructed in the fordist period between 1960 and 1980. Nowadays the issue of public spaces in Germany is discussed in terms of requalification of older public spaces, lacking sustainability, and the development of new constructive practices, which are compatible with more highly differentiated post-fordist life styles. The new downtown Hafen city Hamburg which is not expected to be finished until 2025 (see: www. hafencity.com) is an excellent example of new initiatives of planning and constructing public spaces. The residential, commercial and tourist uses of public spaces realized in the first two construction periods between 2000 and 2009 show a lot of innovative practices. Public spaces in this new city centre are considered a key issue for cultural innovation, social integration and economic success of the emerging postindustrial urbanity. The president of the building development enterprise Hafen city Hamburg expressed that urbanity in Hafen city is to be ‘socially, culturally and economically select’ and that the spectrum of the differentiation and heterogeneity is to positively be greater in comparison with other analogous projects of urban development. If one observes the uses of open public spaces in this new central portion of the city, it becomes clear that there is a devised stratification of the complexity that is part of urban life. As recent data shows, a social composition made up of resident inhabitants of the area are strongly represented by intermediary social groups, contrary to the images of typically represented elitist and exclusive urban neighbourhoods, which are often presented in the media. The efforts and activities of many in the organisation of this collaborative collectivity have been intense and oftentimes extraordinary. Example of this are the involvement of parents in the Urbanistica www.planum.net

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realisation of playgrounds, self-organised initiatives and meetings on a regular basis, the intensive use of a webbased platform, the constitution of the ‘Kunstkompanie’ artists organization, and the ‘Störtebecker e.V.’ sports association, and especially the capacity to manage the diverse factors of rivalry and conflict that issues of space use often generate. Certainly, the management of the Hafen city Gmbh project promoting enterprise also plays a fundamental role in endorsing local welfare. Positive accounts of this are the care and attention towards accessibility for the physically challenged with all walkways for the work-site’s development stages, the intent to encourage and support the installment and localization of the university as well as an innovative school complex, and the constitution of an ecumenical forum to encourage dialogue among different religious communities. The use of highly elevated ecological standards in the project-design of building and the care for the processes of social organization through the direct involvement of a highly qualified expert in social policies. There are many other aspects of this interesting process that deserve more detailed explanation. For those who are interested, we would recommend exploring the website, but also, more importantly, planning an on-site visit. Every useful and viable suggestion, which could help enhance the quality of the work that is going into the research and development of Hafen city Gmbh regarding these topics is of course very welcome!

Welfare for all? Utopia or reality in a socialist society. The case of Romania Rudolf Poledna When I was invited to write about ‘The welfare space in Europe’, I had serious doubts if somebody like me coming from a former socialist country and sociology, has something to say related to this topic. Because my problem was: do the meaning of welfare defined in the frame of the socialist state and society match the meaning of welfare, Wohlfahrt, etc., defined in the frame of western societies, speak capitalist societies? If we admit that welfare is related to well being (as the contributions to the seminar show) and well being can be related to happiness then welfare could mean, from a sociological point of view, the totality of social, economical, cultural, political, conditions that are created to make the achievement of happyness possible. It was a time of heavy deprivation for the people from Romania due to, especially, the economic policies of the Ceausescu regime in the end of the 80’s, oriented towards the aim of paying back the credits of the Romanian state, credits taken for the huge industrialization-modernization projects. These modernization projects should improve, a la long duree, the quality of life in the Romanian society and reduce the disparities in comparison to the more developed countries. And this access is socially granted and taken for granted by the social actors. For socialist societies the ideological character of planning theory and the praxis of planning and building is intrinsic given. Architecture and planning were supposed to give material form and shape to the ‘scientific’ ideology of the working class, ‘wisely’ conducted by unique and almighty communist party. Communist ideology (in the package of the dialectical and historical materialism) was the main theory in planning and practice in urbanization and spatial development. As a theory of the revolutionary class this theory was always truth and right. And the consequences can be observed even now. Welfare for all is also well spaces for all. Is this sentence right? What is the meaning of ‘spaces of welfare’ in socialist societies? I start from the classical distinction between praxis and theory, respectively from the distinction of the field or community of architects and urban planners as professionals of organizing and designing space and the field, or community, of sociologist who observe empirically and reflect theoretically on the antecedents and consequences of both, the outcome of the practical work of the architects and planners, and their representations of space and society. I was searching for the concept ‘spaces of welfare’ first. Then I was looking for the concept of ‘welfare’. The books are representative for the language and the semantics used in the scientific and professional communities in the ’80 and the beginning of the ’90. Technical literature. The next step was to search for the term: public spaces. And in the technical encyclopedia Urbanistica www.planum.net

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I really found the notion, with the meaning of exterior spaces in the building area of the settlements. This concept refers among others to the quality of housing, public transport, protection of the environment, infrastructure. In planning activities two main types of indicators were used: indicators of the quality of ‘material’ life and indicators of the quality of ‘spiritual’ life (Cardas, Mircea eds., 1983, pp. 49-50). The concept of urban aesthetics related to public spaces is also present in the encyclopedia (Ibidem, 1983, p. 102), insisting on the need of respecting the rules of beauty and harmony in planning and building. Sociological literature. In the sociological dictionary the concept ‘Public’ is present related to the latin ethymologic publicus, derived from the ancient ‘people’. The concept is defined in opposition to ‘private’ according to the western liberalism of the 17th century ‘public space’ means ‘domain of the state’ and ‘private space’ denominates the freedom of thought and faith in the frame of civil society. The dictionary is suggesting that the concept of quality of life is taking over, from an other perspective, the concept of happiness. As conclusion: from my point of view the concept of ‘quality of life’, even it is ambiguous, covers the meaning of the western capitalist (in the times of the cold war) meaning of welfare and wellbeing. It is also throuth that we hardly can speak about spaces of welfare in socialism, because the spatial dimension of the quality of life and the aestethics of public spaces were not a priority to former socialist societies. It is also clear that in the absence of high levels of the Gdp and income, the former socialist states where forced to invent something to show to the capitalist states the su-periority of socialist order.

Spaces of welfare and relation-based goods Stefano Munarin When we started this series of reflections it seemed that we had gone a bit past the due date: ‘welfare is in the past’ and ‘there is no sense to researching something that no longer exists’. However, it remains true, as Nadia Urbinati stated last june, that we are undergoing a continuous policy of reducing political policies of the welfare state; so much that, with the introduction of measures like the so-called ‘poverty card’, there will no longer be a social state, but rather substituting policies of sporadic relief and aid for the needy. The only path that seemed left to follow was for the state to retreat and leave everything to the rules of the market. After only a few months, it seems to be a completely different story: state interventions have returned to trend and no government is at all ashamed to dole out billions of Euro in this and that direction. Even the idea of a welfare state seems to suddenly come back into play and is casually put to practice by unexpected agents of ‘public power’. It is precisely in facing these contradictory signals that the necessity emerges to investigate such topics. Because, when facing the obsession of fear and the apprehension of the ‘other’, to work with the themes of welfare and the city means also to speak of the research strategies on ‘wellbeing’ operated in articulated and numerous ways by people practicing their daily activities and by the many forms of conviviality and peaceful co-habitation taking place in everyday life; practices that are sometimes obfuscated by the strategies of self-segregation which is often discussed in the media and also in some higher literary circles. On the other hand, we know that modern urban planning has always held a tight relationship with its coeval public political policies, and with policies of the welfare state in particular. So much in fact that, according to Bernardo Secchi, for example, ‘the patient research on the physical and concrete dimension of individual and collective wellbeing… has left a rather solid deposit in the cities of the 21st century’. And perhaps even today, it is for this reason that urban planning appears to be brought back into discussion from the myth of the intangibility of the free market and the exasperated individualism of the ‘society of opulence’. At the same time however, it is also charged with new expectations connected to the continuous processes of society’s reorganisation, facing the risks of globalisation and environmental issues; so it can therefore be useful to go back to thinking of the relationships between urban planning and public (so to speak) policies of welfare. We are well aware of the fact that the policies of a welfare state can be interpreted as forms and instruments of a ‘bio-power’, while we also understand that the welfare state, as Federico Caffè stated, is not ‘a failed encumbrance from which to free Urbanistica www.planum.net

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ourselves’. This provides the courage to think of a welfare that presupposes non-return investments, having uncertain benefits that are often posthumously realised. Among the numerous attempts to ‘define’ Europe and its ‘identity’, a recent and supple book by George Steiner proposes considering the relevant significance of five main characteristics in the history of the European continent, proposing ‘five axioms to define Europe: its caffés, a practicable landscape at human scale, roads and neighbourhoods that take on the names of statesman, scientists, artists and writers…, the double lineage to both Athens and Jerusalem and ultimately the awareness of a conclusive chapter’. Hence if we recognise, as Steiner did, that some places (like the caffés) have carried out an important role in the definition of European culture, today it may be just as relevant to observe the role carried out by the spaces of welfare in the formation of European citizens. It seems particularly pertinent at this point to perhaps add a sixth axiom to the list, in recognising that Europe is characterised (also) by the presence of social equipment, intended as the spaces and materials produced by the modern policies of welfare. This is why we have attentively focussed on observing the places of welfare in these decades; for it is within these places that a considerable part of social relations take place in Europe: parks, sports facilities, schools of various levels and types, hospitals and clinics, civic centres, libraries, etc. are the places within which space and time are shared, people meet and encounter one another, rules and comportments are acquired, and European citizen-ship is formed. We are also seeing that this characteristic is not simply something that we inherit from the past, but rather something that we have created ourselves. This is a recent occurrence and still in its processes of definition, although it tells us what we have been looking for throughout modernity, while also showing us a brighter side of our last century. On the other hand, while reflecting on a ‘new’ welfare and in recognising the many aspects there are to deal with, Anthony Giddens affirms that ‘in the society of postindustrial well-being’ there is urgent need for ‘a welfare that is conceived to increase solidarity… to contribute to a reconciliation of cultural diversity and styles of life within a general social cohesion; while the main social issue is in creating such an equilibrium between the multitudes and social cohesion itself’. Therefore, what we note in frequenting public parks, kindergartens, civic centres, libraries, etc. is that these are, on one hand, the spaces and services produced by the ‘fruitful seasons of the welfare state’, and, on the other, that this functional equipment, without which the lives of millions of people would be rendered very difficult, are ‘free’ places, of ‘free access’, wherein the activities of socialisation and sharing are practiced freely. It is along this path that the debate involves certain ‘densified’ concepts (‘well-being, common-good, public

realm’, etc), and one may encounter certain reflections of those, like Cristina Bianchetti, who point out the ‘inactuality’ of some ideas about the public realm, or else the rediscovery of a long-standing tradition of relationships between modern projects and collective spaces. Reflecting on the relationship between the spaces of welfare and social practices, it may be interesting for us to consider the concepts of ‘social capital of reciprocity’ and ‘relation-based goods’ in particular. These themes interest us especially because they allow us to go back to reflecting upon the city as a ‘support system’ that is able to host and activate social relations. As urban-planners we tend to think that we can conduct research and work through project-design directly on those ‘spaces of the public’ which allow-help (without of course obliging or causing) the development of practices of sociality. It may be useful here to develop a better understanding of the concepts of reciprocity and relational dynamics, because, if its true that urban planners, in studying the distribution and allocation of land use values, are also occupied by ‘positional goods’, today it is important to see if and how lived-in spaces, considered as ‘infrastructure’ are capable of hosting and encouraging relational activities. This is perhaps simply a new way of bringing back attention to an old question that is however still of fundamental importance: i.e. the city as an ‘instrument of impersonal lives, and as the structure in which the diversity and complexity of persons, their interests and lifestyles become usable as social experiences’. Yet again what interests us in particular about the city is its being an ‘instrument of co-habitation’, a place where, through the obligation of sharing one’s own life experience -with others, people learn to live together. This does not guarantee automatic results, however it does allow for the roles of players in the game to unfold. It is therefore with this perspective that careful observation and attention are placed on the given practices that develop within public spaces intended as ‘platforms for the practices of socialisation’ and where the processes of social interaction are free and at no cost. Such spaces are at the basis of these practices, but at the same time, they can also become a sort of ‘materialisation’ of their own physical expression. We know quite well that we are reworking an old discussion, and maybe only renewing claims on the ‘right to the city’, but we feel that today this has become ‘necessary’: to investigate the relationship between welfare policies and the city, intended as a ‘structure of impersonal relations’, is an issue of great social relevance that cannot be sufficiently exhausted. Moreover, this prospect can be a fertile means to set forth pertinent critiques on urban policies, which, in recent years, have affected the European city. While many of these policies have succeeded in conferring dignity to the city in generating a sense of pride to live therein, the question remains about what they have done in order to ‘favour active Urbanistica www.planum.net

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citizenship’ and develop universal rights of citizenship? To close this essay we can cite Giovanni Bollea when he reminds us that ‘courtyards, elementary schools, city squares, porticos, side-walks, sports facilities, cultural centres of music and dance, libraries, cinemas and theatres, sports fields, conference halls… (all constitute) the logistic essentiality of our youth’ and he invites us to ‘leave the constraints of institutional spaces, and in doing so, create the spaces for building a sense of belonging’ … knowing very well that the game favours socialisation and that court-yards, gardens, small squares, porticoes, etc. increase the sustainable spatiality’ of our cities.

Barcelona’s markets: formation and duration Nadia Fava, Manuel Guàrdia Bassols, José Luis Oyon* Markets have been driving forces and backbones of European cities since the middle ages. Their layout was a main concern in planning the traditional city, and gained considerable prominence in the context of urban reforms in the nineteenth century. They have not, however, been studied in much detail. The case of Barcelona offers some remarkable peculiarities. Although it joined the wave of renovations with some delay, the validity of its system of markets has been maintained and strengthened in a very unusual manner in western countries. As of the early twentieth century in England and France, the concept is nearly exhausted, and in general we see how, during the second half of the twentieth century, the system of markets in all these countries showed erosion stemming from the expansion of more modern forms of selling products. In Barcelona we saw, however, the modernization and decisive expansion of the number of markets. In this municipality of reduced dimensions (92 sqm), the number of covered markets went from 18, in 1940, to 40 in 1970. In the 1980s, the municipal departments saw them as a fundamental asset in the policy of reconversion of the retail fabric of neighborhoods and as an instrument for commercial planning to contain the oligopoly of large supermarkets. The first steps (1836-68): the markets of Sant Josep and of Santa Caterina In Barcelona, the re-zoning began with the construction of two large markets on the pieces of land of two convents that had been seized and sold in accordance with the law of 1836, while other open markets in squares and streets were maintained. The new market of Sant Josep at las Ramblas, in the form of a porticoed square, and the new market of Santa Caterina, in a more working-class neighborhood, a modest version of the SaintGermain model in Paris, finished in midcentury, already appeared as anachrocisms. Towards a policy for markets (1868-97): the first metallic structure markets A municipal report from 1871 made the first proposal for the properties. It maintained the central role the two markets of San Josep and Santa Caterina played, and proposed complementing them with a strong and consistent network of markets. The Born market, inaugurated in 1876, and the market of San Antonio in 1882, followed the European models, with their open spaces, protected from the elements and separated from the street; their new architectural design included ironwork and glass. They had in common their large size and a floor space around a central crossing topped by an octagonal dome, in which large perpendicular buildings converge. They Urbanistica www.planum.net

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involved a highly important effort, born of the desire for modernization, and of overly optimistic expectations. It was hoped that their ability to attract customers would decongest the Santa Caterina market and, especially, that of San Josep which was dramatically overloaded. This was not the case, and in both cases, their dimensions turned out to be excessive. After this experience, the Council abandoned the idea of a large market and opted for the construction of neighborhood markets. Both of the first two large markets and the later projects were the work of The Land and maritime engineer company, which gives great unity to the initial set of markets in Barcelona. It was a local company founded in 1855 for heavy construction machinery that, in those days, aimed a large part of their production towards metallic constructions. Among many other accomplishments, in 1888 it handed-over the metal work of five covered ìmarkets (Born, San Antoni, Barce-ììloneta, Hostafrancs and Concepció) with a surface area to-taling 23,600 mq. From the annexing of municipalities to the conversion of the Born market into a wholesale market (1897-1921) Following the annexation of the municipalities of the Pla de Barcelona in 1897, it is striking that of all the markets of the old municipality of Barcelona, Sant Josep (La Boqueria) represents, according to the 1902 Yearbook, 40% of the total takings of the 16 markets of the new unified municipality. The second, the Santa Caterina market, represented 12% of the takings, but was described in 1900 as follows: “The majority of this building is in a ruinous state”. In short, the two most centrally located and important markets are those in the worst condition. The interior re-modeling work affected them and prevented a decisive renewal. An evaluation of the various markets done in 1900 confirms that the metal work markets of Born and San Antoni represented two thirds of the total investment in municipal markets. Their takings were, however, quite modest when compared to Sant Josep or Santa Caterina, which were the most profitable, and most congested. The unarguable modernity of markets (1920-75) In countries like France, Britain or the United States, markets lost prominence, throughout the twentieth century, to retail food sales. Spain has displayed a nearly opposite trend. Throughout the twentieth century, markets remain in full force and receive a firm commitment from municipalities. They are a cause of reflection for the most committed architects and city planners involved in running the real city. In Madrid, the design and construction of the Legazpi central wholesale market for fruits and vegetables, or the plan for markets driven by the architect Ferrero, show that public markets were far removed from losing their modernity and were the subject of a marked typological renewal, in part associated with the use of reinforced concrete. From a city planning point of view, the visionary proposal for Madrid

by Zuazo-Jansen (1929-30) is also of interest to which he attaches great protagonism. The crisis, war and the long post-war period did not lessen people’s confidence in markets. Moreover, if we look at the cases of Madrid and Barcelona, during the post-war years, an extraordinary increase and strengthening of their systems of markets can be observed. This is probably the crucial period of branching off if compared to the path taken by other Western countries. As of 1942, the City Council encouraged the construction of some new markets that were to replace the street markets that had been tolerated as a lesser evil since the crisis of the 1930s. After the deep crisis of the immediate post-war years, the 1950s were years of slow transition, that would lead to the so-called ‘developmentism’ of the 1960s. On 26 july 1956, a regulation to set up markets run by private individuals was approved. The approval laid the foundation in Barcelona for the most active stage in the construction of markets. The idea was that everyone in Barcelona would have a market less than a kilometer from home. Between 1957 and 1977, 18 neighborhood markets were built in the least served areas. Moreover, as of 1966, systematic proposals were made for, “The possibility of the simultaneous construction of local markets equipped with car parks.” That affected both the new construction of the expanded network of retail markets, and the renewal of existing ones. The active policy for markets was an attempt to lessen the high cost of foodstuffs. For the same reason, in 1962, a public tender was called to select a financial project and formula for wholesale fruit and vegetable markets. This initiative was registered in the forecasts of the First development plan of 1964-67, which wanted to overcome the momentum of the sales structures that were having serious implications on the cost of living. Approval for the new fruit and vegetable market had to overcome great resistance. Finally, in 1971, Mercabarna was inaugurated and the central market for fruits and vegetables moved to it. Crisis and urban revitalization: markets as instruments of urban planning (1975-2008) The economic crisis of the early 1970s and 80s led to a growing food industry in response to unemployment. This brought about a situation of small-scale holdings, lack of professionalism, low investment, very low level of self-organisation, an aging employable population with little capacity for initiative, rachetic market shares and so on. Paradoxically, the increased offer was accompanied by a rise in prices, because these establishments were only sustainable with high sales margins. In the analyses conducted, the considerable market share within the overall local municipal consumption could be seen. The concentration of total consumption per capita was 49.9%, and 40.4% of all types of businesses. Ever since the first proposals, the extensive system of markets in Barcelona (40 municipal markets) and the Urbanistica www.planum.net

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metropolitan area (75 local markets) were considered essential in the conversion process. It had to do with, “Exercising a veritable commercial urbanism”. The special Plan for foodstuff equippage for Barcelona or Pecab (its acronym in Catalan) adopted the municipal markets, and above all their areas of business concentration and polarity, as its main instruments of action. The analysis was not limited to markets, and markets (polarity nodule) were considered together with establishments in their surroundings. The extent of these polarities was studied by means of more than 138,000 surveys at the doors of the market places. The business environment and issues of accessibility (bus stops, metro stations, car parks, pedestrian areas, directions of traffic, etc.) were also analysed. It required an approach to urban planning: organising polarities, quantifying business facilities, avoiding saturation of the sector, and regulating the commercial uses and forms permitted in each area of the city. In april 1991, the Municipal institute of markets of Barcelona (Catalan acronym: Immb) was created. It is an autonomous agency dealing with sales and services, for the direct management and administration of municipal markets in Barcelona. It has its own budget and is under the supervision of the City council. Since then, the Immb has led to the progressive modernization of sales structures of markets. Since its first interventions, there has been a concern for the quality of architectural projects, which have been quite varied depending on the market addressed. They have also not been exempt from a process of spectacularisation that is quite evident in some projects like those of Santa Caterina and la Barceloneta. *The article is the result of research funded by Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación. (SEJ2006-13136).

Urban planning in Medellìn Mario Tancredi* Medellìn is a complex city. It is characterized by wellknown stereotypes which distort its physical and cultural position, in a country which is a sort of microcosm in the American subcontinent. Rich in expressions, it represents an exception also at the political and social level, since it’s been dealing with the most powerful system of subversive organization in the eastern hemisphere for over forty years. Tropical country, third in the world as for biodiversity, it seems to reflect this biological feature on its inhabitants: the sadly notorious violence is contrasted by their bewildering but unknown kindness. Medellìn features contrasting characteristics: it is sunny and pleasant but at the same time violent and segregated. It is closed in its valley but it’s able to emanate lively artistic and cultural expressions (among all we may cite Botero). A strong entrepreneurial spirit makes it the industrial heart of the country. Fashion and chemistry, trade, advanced and competitive technologies and services ‘in the most strategic angle of south America’: a glance at the map of the continent is enough to ascertain that the region of Antoquia, whose capital is Medellìn, is the only one bordering the two oceans. Surrounded by high mountains, it clings to the cliffs with broad working-class neighbourhoods and elegant residential towers for the most well-off. In its impetuous development it has practically erased the traces of its foundation and of the colonial past, only with the exception of the traditional grid pattern layout, dating back to the XVII century. Today it forms with the surrounding townships a metropolitan area with about three and half million inhabitants, the second in the country. The vitality of the public administration made it possible to develop the elevated railway system, finished and in service since 1995, and the development of the Epm (the public agency which encompasses the electric, telephone and waterworks companies). This system of works attempted to link some large urban sectors, despite the serious problems of public order and the consequent organization of the city into large private complexes. Until recent years, the legacy of drug syndicates (which had their golden age in the 80’s and early 90’s) could be found in the violence which made this city one of the most dangerous and unapproachable urban areas in the world, with 390 murders per 100,000 inhabitants. In 2004 Sergio Fajardo was elected mayor. Disappointed by the traditional politics, easily prone to corruption and electoral patronage, the city put its trust in the son of one of the most famous architects in Medellìn, which managed to assemble a civil list free from the two traditional coalitions. At this point, something resembling the experience of Barcellona in the early 80’s seemed to happen. The catalan model was transplanted into one of the most vital faculties of architecture in Medellìn (the Urbanistica www.planum.net

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Pontificia Bolivarana) thanks to the architect Alejandro Echeverri, who had worked and studied in Barcellona. Without doubt the city was already moving in this direction, thanks to some important projects in progress such as plaza Mayor, the exhibition complex developed by Daniel Bonilla (emerging architect native of Antioquia); the Metrocable, the cableway system planned to be a masivo means of transport connected to the subway, which climbing on wild slopes could reach the most populous and dangerous neighbourhoods of Santo Domingo or Comuna 13; the set of public squares like Los Deseos, La Luz and Pies Descalzos. What was really new was the structure of these projects, which could have otherwise run the risk of staying isolated from one another in enclosures (such as the notorious conjunctos, residential blocks, shopping centres, office district and cultural centres, protected by fences, security guards and video cameras) and in ‘technical’ transport spaces (urban motorways, subway). The new administration, seeing the possibility of a turning point, moves towards a simple but risky idea: Medellin is a violent city. One of the reasons is the segregation and the organization into enclaves which produces nothing but poverty. The solution to this impasse lies in education. The project is organized in two paths: on the one hand forming the new generations to a different social reality, alternative to armed groups and rival gangs; on the other hand, through the use of public space, really meant as everybody’s space, as a space of sharing and meeting. In this way the Metrocable, which was liable to simply bypass the area with its suspended cars, becomes the occasion to create with Proyectos detonantes, public microspaces which, starting from the stations, has a positive effect on the dangerous neighbourhoods they go across. Projects such as Plaza mayor or the other squares, through an effort of integration that implies urban surgery strategies, are connected with the immediate vicinity and ultimately with the metropolitan system through crossings, textures, paths and urban microstructures, devoting particular attention to the important issues of accessibility, environment and networks. Project and implementation The management of Medellìn’s ‘new course’ is organized around the Edu, headed by Echeverri: “While the urban planning department was solving the daily problems, typical of a big metropolis, we were commissioned to think only of the city as a system, of strategies”. The management has followed the guidelines of Pot, which put the stress on environmental balance, on a ‘sistema estructurante’ of mobility that could integrate the different systems, on the creation of centrality and of adequate instruments of implementation. In this way the Edu has been able to implement, among the others, the Pui (Proyectos urbanos integrales), a sort of partial plan aiming at optimizing resources and time. Two good examples are the Pui in the Santo Domingo district and Moravia. In the case, the project was to carry out a seri-

es of actions around the Metrocable, which crosses with three stations one of the most difficult areas of Medellin, reaching the cerro of Santo Domingo, on which, after an architecture competition, one of the five new public libraries was being built. In that case the Pui has affected on the whole an area of 158 hectares. The strategy, besides the coordination of different institutional actors which acted on agreement and trying to optimize expenses and time, was based on a series of microprojects which concerned the whole territory, providing, squares, streets, schools, but also sewage systems and service networks. In the case of the project for social housing, given the geological risk and the presence of illegal houses on the edges of the gullies that cross the area, a detailed survey has been carried out house after house. A surgical operation which has remoulded where possible and pulled down where necessary, in the latter case replacing the people in the same sector in new tower buildings. The areas cleared on the edges have been redeveloped and transformed into linear parks. The contribution of the people has been important, with tens of workshops where local people such as mothers, elders, young people and children were invited to contribute with their ideas in the design of the city or in the choice of the names of the new public areas which were often inspired by the ‘founding’ stories of that community and have therefore been crucial for the recovery of its identity. One of the works which was most ‘loved’ by the administration itself was the building of pedestrian bridges on the gullies: besides the physical connection they had a strong symbolic meaning, being a way of going past the geographical barriers which, in the recent history of Medellin, represented its social fractures. The Moravia operation had a high symbolic value: it changed from rubbish dump to central urban area, being strategically located as a sort of natural ‘plug’ to the important historical axis of Carabobo, on which the city was born. At the foot of the former hill some works have been placed such as the technological park, the new botanical garden and, among the shacks, a cultural centre made by Salmona, which seals the prominent role assigned to architecture. ‘The solutions to the problems of contemporary cities involves a rethinking of conventional urban planning theory’ as was written in the revised Pot of Medellin in 1999. The city didn’t create new instruments, but adapted to the already existing ones. A strong political will has turned an estate agency into the ‘thinking actor’ for the strategic planning and the management of the city, given that the Edu already had a special relationship and synergy between public and private sectors. Inserting new and shared contents into the Pot, the city was able to conceive a new metropolitan system using the resources in the strategic sectors between networks and environment, between residences and large public spaces, employing the architectural design in different Urbanistica www.planum.net

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ways: with the politically correct tool of architecture competitions, by commissioning important architects but also giving space to young architects who could reinterpret with freshness the dynamism of the city. It was possible to think the city as a system, with a real reconquista of the public role versus the usual delegation to private companies of whole sectors of the city. It looked like a dream, even a too perfect one, but actually concerning one of the most problematic areas of the planet. Medellin has been for little less than four years a huge construction site, something similar to cities hosting a great event. Thanks to these operations Medelllìn experienced a real urban and social revolution, with an easier interpretation of urban projects, planning and implementation, which went toward an important shared aim: the construction of the polis, the public city, through a new idea of politics that is closer to the etymological root of the word. Fajardo has now concluded his term of office but he is running for the next presidential elections. The new mayor who won the recent local elections was in his same civic list. * Teaches at the Faculty of psychology, University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’; where he held the course ‘Laboratory Communication’; in the psychology of development and education.

The urban question in the southern Italy. Conurbation in emergency and weak networks Giovanni Cafiero The foretold and disquieting crisis of the urban areas of the southern Italy raises many questions to people who think about planning results and perspectives. What is the relationship among garbage, compulsory administration, urban redevelopment intervention difficulties and delay, incapacity to place a value on dismissed industrial areas, environmental crisis, difficulties in reforming urban mobility, difficulties in promoting supramunicipal networks and services? Why all those critical urgencies appear in the southern Italy regions in a serious and alarming way? In a negative situation with far-reaching consequences the answer can only be found among the inefficiency and the inadequacy of the territory management system. This inadequacy is over in the centre-north of Italy because of the bigger and plural dynamism and authority of the system and private bodies who are a vehicle and a motivating force and they make the public system to yield to the results-based logic. There are some places where you cannot find private system plurality and authority such as the southern Italy. Therefore, inefficiency in public institutions and territorial governance system is unmercifully revealed. Delays and inefficiencies along the State-Regions-Municipalities administrative institutional chain – highlighted from the Dps Evaluation Unit during the halfway evaluation updating of the Qcs Objective 1 – look like the aspect of a general far-reaching phenomenon and of a non virtuous plot among institutions, economy and territory. It is a specific distress of the cities. The ‘Southern question’ is an institutional and civil question of ‘national dimension’ and it is confirmed by an image losing aspect that is spreading from the metropolitan area emergencies of the south of Italy up to the deeper image and reputation of the whole Country. The southern metropolitan areas are a potential ‘engine’ for economic development and thus they become a place where stressing social unease, worsening environmental crisis and decreasing women’s participation difficulties to the world of work. European and internationals models: great urban areas and city networks Great cities and european capitals are unique cases where customs and national politics prevail; the european model deals almost with middle-sized, dynamic and strongly interconnected city networks. This point of view was formalized in adopting the European spatial development perspective (Esdp) during the Potsdam Council in may 1999. Urbanistica www.planum.net

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As explicitly reported in this 1999 scheme: global cities such as London and Paris and metropolitan regions such as the Ruhr and Randstad will continue to maintain their pre-eminent positions. New functions and networks may, however, in future have a major impact on the development of individual cities and regions. Cities are increasingly co-operating and pooling their resources, for example by developing complementary functions or sharing facilities and services. Such co-operation can be advantageous for regional development because it improves the range of services offered and the economic conditions of the region and thereby increasing its competitiveness. (from: Esdp European spatial development perspective, Towards balanced and sustainable development of the territory of the European Union, Agreed at the informal council of Ministers responsible for Spatial Planning in Potsdam, may 1999. Published by the European Commission). For this purpose interconnection is an important issue, too. The Sweden model represents an extreme case with its wide distances and short term path. On the contrary, Calabria Region and other southern Italy wide areas are a classical model with their high term train path, in areas where railway exists, also in places and towns relatively near to each other. Southern town condition is far-reaching from the strongly interconnected towns network european model. In fact, southern territorial systems are defined by a lacking mutual interconnection, a low mobility among different towns. In spite of a faint middle towns network there is a trend loss of urban government control in big metropolitan areas. Environmental question is worsening: illegal economic growth, service inadequacy for people and enterprises and decreasing woman participation to work are some of the aspects of the big southern conurbation crisis. This is paradigmatically represented by the most populous Italian metropolitan area, that is Naples. Southern urban areas. Social-economical and demographical aspects The 162 Istat based local urban systems are an important ensemble of the whole country system: they collect more than 40% of the italian municipalities, they occupy 30% of the national territory and they host 65,5% of the whole resident population. Only Pescara is considered a local system with functionally urban aspects. The other urban style systems in southern Italy are a part of the same category, that is ‘port urban areas’, and thus it reports a weak presence of urban and managing functions in a strict meaning. Altogether, here are some of the most important aspects: – at a national level an increase in population distinguishes urban areas on the whole as regardto the national average and in particular it defines ‘functionally urban’ areas by appearing in a weak form in the other urban area cases;

– in southern Italy area the urban system migration balances are on the whole very weak and sometimes they become strongly negative for some ‘metropolitan regions’. In 2007 the total migration balance of the metropolitan areas of the south of Italy was negative; – as regards to the still negative 2005: from –0.5 per mil in Catania to –6.7 per mil in Naples. South data are on the whole a growing widespread phenomenon of town escape in search of environmental conditions and of access to services and to the market of the most suitable houses. Development based general politics and good conditions do not appear in the south metropolitan big areas. Those conditions can possibly retreat: in economic functioning, in social unease expansion, in illegal activities spreading, in environmental emergency increasing. Conurbation in emergency: Naples case Metropolitan government failure. In the last winter news about garbage emergency, road rebel incendiaries, town genuine tissue civil despair and territory image as a new Gomorra went around the world and made our national Government to act promptly and to force limits on institutional and constitutional competences to look forward to contain a civil calamity. Therefore, we are always in an emergency situation: we had a Superintendent for the garbage emergency in Campania Region and a Superintendent for the traffic in Naples and then we had a Superintendent for Rom emergency in Milan, as well as in Rome. All those superintendents in our cities now are no more an emergency but an ‘ordinary practice’. The superintendent practice highlights our institutional governance system inefficiency and is therefore the indicator for a wider problem that weighs strongly upon the managing skill in a difficult metropolitan area, certainly the most difficult area in Italy and in Europe, that is Naples area. Town peripheralization. In Naples you cannot remarkably find a commitment to promote activity rate in southern Italy and above all an undertaking to improve significantly women’s economic performances. Total activity rate in Naples district is lower than regional average, just for a bit: 43.6% instead of 43.8%. On the contrary, women’s activity rate records an important negative performance: 29.7% instead of regional average of 30.8%. Women’s activity rate value in Naples district is lower than national average and other Regions of southern Italy average value, too. In Naples, per capita Gdp data clearly records a reverse for the urban areas advantages features. In fact, there is a greater capability to create added value in other urban models of the same Region. Weak networks: Calabria model In Calabria’s town networks and junctions do not improve, there is instead a widespread settlement; there are Urbanistica www.planum.net

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not important correlations between employment and population movement, except for the inner areas general crisis. A functional parallelism among new constructions, the population movement and new socio-economic opportunities is above all negatively comparable, as far as ‘crisis areas’ are concerned, but it does not relate to rational and coherent development elements. Population dynamics and settlement tendencies in Calabria. There is a regional population absolute balance for middle and long term as far as population rate is concerned, the 1988,052 inhabitants in 2007 equal astonishingly those in 1971, that was 1988,051. As far as territorial dynamics and settlement are concerned nowadays the situation is essentially different. As regards to main town centres there is a tendency to a population decrease that goes on. As regards to urban dynamics the most important phenomenon are the centre of Cosenza’s crisis and a ‘Strait conurbation’ reinforcement. Because of a general stop to traditional main towns attractions in Calabria, there are some signals of a bigger vitality in Vibo-Pizzo area and partially in Lametia area. As far as territorial dynamics are concerned in the rest of the territory there have been a gradual weakening phenomenon in inner areas and a faint but widespread population improvement in coastal areas since 1992. Finally, as regards to all those different aspects, and above all development opportunities, Calabria’s territory has indeed a real difficulty to create a more cohesive, dynamic and efficient ‘settlement structure’. Population-settlement dynamics relate of some clear tendencies: – gathering towards the Stretto; – conurbation establishing in the north of Cosenza; – Calabria north axis weaknessing, towards Basilicata and Campania; – gradual population displacement towards the coast. Calabria’s two extreme areas, southwards and northwards, act in an opposite way: on the Stretto towards Sicily and the Mediterranean sea there is a certain demographical concentration and towards the north a slow and progressive escape, thus the proximity to the extra-regional areas in the north-centre of Italy is nullified also because of the highway Salerno-Reggio Calabria condition. As far as the inner areas are concerned you need a deep change in policies for the functioning system of the public presidium and a strong policies of associative gathering of the population and enterprise services. Here follows the major strategic meaning priorities in Calabria to achieve national and european convergence and cohesion objectives: administrative system reform and efficiency for inner areas and small municipalities, settlement gathering interconnection achievement tenaciously through interregional and regional mobility system modernization and through technological networks development, Mediterranean role enhancement. Urbanistica www.planum.net

Urbanistica n. 139 May-August 2009

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Index and english translation of the articles Problems, policies and research

Paolo Avarello edited by Anna Laura Palazzo, Biancamaria Rizzo Anna Laura Palazzo Biancamaria Rizzo Anna Laura Palazzo Biancamaria Rizzo Anna Laura Palazzo, Biancamaria Rizzo

edited by Antonio Longo Antonio Longo, Alessandro Alì Christian Novak Paolo Pileri Fabio Terragni Arturo Lanzani, Paola Pucci

Methods and tools

Profiles and practices

Projects and implementation

Carlos Smaniotto Costa, Monica Bocci, Ernesto Marcheggiani

Urban green spaces and sustainability: the GreenKeys approach

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Urban green spaces and sustainability: the GreenKeys approach Carlos Smaniotto Costa, Monica Bocci, Ernesto Marcheggiani Throughout the world cities are experiencing rapid change as a result of strong processes of urbanisation that harmfully affect the whole urban system and the surrounding natural and-or historical cultural landscape that has been converted to development at a still accelerating rate. This rapid change has significant implications for planners and politicians who are in charge of guaranteeing quality life standards and improving environment in urban areas. In this context urban green spaces play a crucial role in providing ecological diversity and delivering important structural and functional benefits that make cities more liveable places (Urge-Team 2004). Deficits in quantity and quality of urban green spaces require appropriate strategies. Planning urban green spaces: the challenge The procedural and normative bases and planning tools that rule the functioning and the development of most of our cities are currently lacking in conceptual assumptions and paradigmatic approaches. Thus not allowing them to be fully functional and unable to keep up coherence among the general urban policiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; whole and appropriate strategies dedicated to urban green spaces development and improvement. This lack of vision points out a dangerous underestimation of potentialities and benefits, provided by the green network at several spatial scales and it is due to several reasons: Incompatibility between the time scale of ecological cycles and the duration of the electoral mandate, the ecotissue of a green structure is a patchwork of interacting ecosystems tuned by complex processes and interactions. This often implies an overlap of cycles that evolve during wide time intervals. Therefore, in order to see the benefits of an intervention to improve the consistency or the quality of urban green spaces, often intervening time intervals deemed incompatible by the political actors who tend to maximize the results of their actions within the duration of their electoral mandate. Propensity to free benefits: the simple presence of a green area allows everyone to enjoy the benefits without having to fight for them. This induces an underestimation of the value of the green structure. Quality design, too often urban green spaces are designed with little attention paid to quality standards: the equipment is obsolete, the accessibility is limited, ecological value is low, and so on. The better the care taken with the quality of design the greater the peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s affection to the place is. Degradation and reduced functionality, unlike most of

the structural elements of the urban landscape, the green areas can be functionally degraded although from a purely aesthetic point of view they may seem pleasant places of beautiful scenery. Such limitations imply higher cost of maintenance and reduce the amplitude of benefits and are difficult to be perceived, inducting often in error even technicians and green keepers, even if not particularly expert. Sensitivity to the surrounding conditions, cities only rarely are in a steady state and their administrators are often taken up by urgent issues: speculation, security and crime, waste management, pollution, etc. In such an operating environment they rarely show propensity to engage action in favour of green areas, considering it of secondary importance; Cities are places where intense anthropogenic structures and functions focus at the highest levels, a suitable system of urban green spaces (high quality, properly de-signed and fitted with appropriate equipment, safe and easily accessible) can mitigate many adverse effects and represent an opportunity to redevelop the interior and suburbs. In fact, green areas not only provide habitat for plants and animals but are also recreational places for people and mitigate the urban stress factors: noise, smelly environments, air pollution and noise, etc. If we will not be able to effectively highlight the role played by green spaces to both the quality of urban environment and to the benefits provision to society as a whole, the price to be paid will be the marginalization, in political agendas, of priorities relative to green spaces development and their promotion. The GreenKeys approach The project GreenKeys-Urban green as a key for sustainable cities was co-financed by the European Community Interreg III B Cadses fund and supported by the German Federal Ministry of transport, building and urban affairs. The project was conducted by office of Urban green and waste management of Dresden (Germany). The scientific coordination was entrusted to Leibniz institute of ecological and regional development. In such context, twenty institutions from seven different european countries: Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Poland and Slovenia, have been involved in an interdisciplinary team whose purpose was to foster green space projects in cooperation with twelve cities and eight scientific institutions. That has allowed investigating the key issues that, in the european context, influence the green system to the urban scale. For the definition of an European urban green space strategy GreenKeys proposes a methodology specifically designed to support decision makers in the definition of a strategy devoted to Urban green spaces. The strategyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s key issues are geared to: safeguard the future of green spaces, improve the quality of urban areas and suburbs, attract more resources, and boost the welfare of local people. Urbanistica www.planum.net

Methods and tools

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There is no standard strategy that fits all situations. Every city is different from others, and such heterogeneity is at the highest level expressed if we consider the whole european context. Many cities often fail prematurely to develop a rational green spaces strategy due to a low technical expertise and scarce consultancy: since early stage obstacles are deemed insurmountable even to initiate the process. In this context the GreenKeys methodology aims to facilitate a process of adaptive selection among potential steeps. Each city is led to express its optimal strategy patterns independently but within a general framework. This allows maximizing the participative approach and lazy people point of view and at the same time providing the constant reference to a core of principles generally suitable at the broad european context. Following the aforementioned approaches, by means of appropriate tools and thanks to the support, even financial, to specific projects GreenKeys has intended to spread this innovative approach based on the monitoring of ongoing action and constant exchange of experiences. Outputs and conclusion We believe that following all GreenKeys results, particularly the improvements made in green spaces in 12 different cities with the implementation of the pilot projects; the kicked off process of formulation and consultation of the Urban green space strategy and the knowledge and experience exchanged and transferred, help has been provided and awareness and interest raised to enable city administrations to address and deal with their green space in a more comprehensive and intensive way. The proposed GreenKeys methodology and tools are recommended as a means of identifying the drivers and establishing a system and working approach for developing, adopting and monitoring the implementation of urban green space strategies. Through this documentation, GreenKeys supports the creation of a shared vision to give strong, sustainable identities to the futures of our cities. The project outputs are compiled in the Manual GreenKeys @ your city. A guide for urban green quality, which is designed in the hope that it will prove to be an inspiration in the spirit of GreenKeys: Improving green space is a commitment for an investment into the future. It provides ideas about ways to solve problems rather than recipes or dictates to be strictly followed. The target groups for GreenKeys @ your city are practitioners searching for solutions for solving specific problems in their cities and the scientific community: obtaining inputs for scientific discussions and ideas for further research.

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