Abstract

Is a city just a group of buildings? Has this always been the case? And is it still the case? No, replies the author, reminding us that until the end of the 1500s the city was a way of life, i.e. a style of relations and not a set of «objects». Things change between the 1600s and the 1700s, when in the Encyclopedie, Diderot defines «city» as «a group of houses situated along the streets». What about today? Based on a map of the city of Milan published in «Il Corriere della Sera», the author explains why we need to find another definition for the term «city», because our idea of the city no longer corresponds to what it really is.