I have the memory of a city
that every day shone like the sun
And everything was ecstatic at that time.
One evening I left it
Giuseppe Ungaretti, “Silenzio” in the collection “Il porto sepolto,” 1916
THE FUTURE OF CITIES / THE THREE WATER LINES
Two themes were chosen for 2024: the continuation, with further insights,
of ‘The Three Water Lines’ (which cannot be exhausted in a single occasion);
the Future of Cities declined on the substantial aspects of public space, living, mobility and cultural barycentres, for a better present and towards a livable future.
Subject of rethinking throughout the western world, the city is so overloaded with meanings, definitions, political and intellectual speculation, historical and anthropological analyses of its social evolution, that it has lost the fundamental concepts and connotations that underpin its existence: what it is for and what is needed for it to function.
Urban functions are multiple and the city is a growing complexity, full of contradictions, in constant asynchrony with social development, with digital innovation, with the profound metamorphosis that is disrupting even the most traditional functions such as living, modifying models of work, of care and assistance, of education of relationships and culture.
THE CITY IN FIVE ACTS
Imagine focusing on key elements for creating, changing, and describing the city. These elements, which we will call «acts,» will be related to the need for intervention, either on individual objects or on patterns of dialogue that can improve every part
of the city.
For each act, we have identified an objective/meaning pair that always aims to improve individual and collective life, enhance social relations, and respect the environment.
ACT 1
CONNECTIONS / TIME:
Accessibility and connection are the design elements, and time is the variable that defines good, medium, and fair urban performance.
ACT 2
PUBLIC SPACE / RELATIONSHIPS:
it must reconsidered from playing a passive role and being considered a mere crossing space to becoming a place that generates relational and environmental quality.
ACT 3
DWELLING-CARING / RESPONSIBILITY AND GENEROSITY
to design with generosity is an expression of civic duty: it adapts to the demand for social, environmental, and economic responsibility.
ACT 4
SCHOOL-CULTURE / CENTERS OF THE CITY
projects integrated into the city, responses to needs and generators of relationships, welcoming spaces for both the visible and invisible.
ACT 5
WATER / BALANCE:
Waterline proposals should aim to achieve a balance between urban and territorial areas.
