Abstract

The urban models generated by last century’s «Functionalist» design approach did not fully understand the metamorphoses that occur in real cities. If a city was only a «machine», each generation should destroy and rebuild it according to new technologies and needs; but urban spaces survive for a long time the program that generated them, adapting to new lifestyles that in turn modify their quality and role. A new approach to urban design should be capable of merging the healing qualities of natural environments with the liveliness and social exchange offered by the urban ones.