In search of new paradigms to interpret and design the contemporary city

Abstract

In recent decades, the idea has prevailed that sustainable development is not translatable into specific economic and urban transformation objectives alternative to the traditional ones, but should be understood as a long-term process, a set of measures taken to mitigate adverse effects without calling into question the trends underlying cities' growth. This approach has produced a series of experimental results, only a few cases of which show mature and practical applications to improve the environmental quality and social development of our cities. Today a cultural revolution is needed. The confirmed theoretical complexity of sustainable development and the growing availability of metrics for sustainability and people's well-being call for a cross-cutting approach to urban planning. It must be able to reinterpret the relationships between different components of the city - physical, environmental, morphological, historical and socio-economic - in a transdisciplinary manner, with the aim of ensuring the overall sustainability of the changes. The proposed approach (applied in the town of Pineto, Italy), views the city as an "urban organism" structured in multiple intertwined layers, i.e., an evolutionary system whose meaning is higher than the sum of its parts, and which requires dynamic analysis and integral solutions to ensure sustainability. In this view, a comprehensive dynamic analysis and the contribution of multiple integrated disciplinary skills (such as thermodynamics, ecology, statistical mechanics, technological sciences, economics, sociology, urban planning and architectural composition) are essential for identifying rules to ensure the balance and sustainability of change regarding the maintenance and increasing integrity of the natural environment, landscape, and the proper operation of technological networks and territorial energy efficiency to improve the quality of life of the citizens. © 2011 WIT Press.