Rethinking New Communities. Moving Towards a Science of Cities

Abstract

Development, according to a network logic, starts from the peculiar excellences present in the area, but pushes them to invest in new skills, in increasingly qualified human resources. Therefore, immediately thinking of the training of new urban planners and territorial planners, as well as a strategic reorganization of the urban and territorial systems of the country, starting from a conscious integration of the concepts of smart cities and territories, in which cities include the suburbs and other parts of communities with their own specific names that from a functional point of view are part of the wider urban network in which the different components of that community coexist, does not appear as a choice, but on the contrary, as a necessity. This research aims to analyse the multiple correlations and convergences between two different visions. The first is represented by a school of thought on a new science of cities, described by Geoffrey West, according to which cities are the product of the integration of the structure and dynamics of social networks with the physical infrastructural networks that constitute the stage on which urban life takes place in all its articulations, and the second conceived by Stefano Boeri, who imagines a planet crossed by corridors of biodiversity, in which forests and cities find a new balance, with a model of urban development, that considers the urban and environmental regeneration of new communities, represented by historic villages, as well as an innovative vision of metropolises, understood as archipelagos of self-sufficient eco-neighborhoods. Finally, a further aspect to consider, derives from the new component that will be characterized, given by digital networks, which will have a preponderant role in a post-pandemic phase, also with respect to the realization of applications capable of carrying out different and complex monitoring systems.