Maciocco input2012

Cagliari 11th May 2012

Giovanni MacioccoUniversity of Sassari UNISS

The Urban Potential of Territories

REFERENCESAfshar F. (1998), “Balancing global city with global village”, Habitat International, Elsevier, n.22.

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Augé M. (1992), Non-lieux. Introduction à une anthropologie de la surmodernité, Seuil, Paris.

Augé M. (2000), Fictions fi n de siècle, Fayard, Paris.

Bauman Z. (2005), Fiducia e paura nella città, Bruno Mondadori, Milano.

Castells M. (1996), The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture, vol 1: The Rise of the Network Society, Blackwell, Oxford.

Castells M. (1997), The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture, vol 2: The Power of Identity, Blackwell, Oxford.

Castells M. (1998), The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture, vol 3: End of Millennium, Blackwell, Oxford.

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Ibelings H. (2006), “Small town Europe”, A10, n. 11, september/october , 2006

Jacobs J. (1961), The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Random House, New York.

Maciocco G., Sanna G., Serreli S. (2011) (Eds), The Urban Potential of External Territories, FrancoAngeli, Milan.

Ostrom E. (1986), “An Agenda for the Study of Institutions”, Public Choice, University Press, Chicago.

Ostrom E. (1990), Governing the Commons: the Evolution for Institutions for Collective Action, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Ostrom E., Gardner R., Walker J. (1994), Rules, Games and Common-Pool Resources, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor.

Sorkin M. (1992), Variations on a Theme Park: The New American City and the End of Public Space, Hill and Wang, New York.

Spanedda F. (2011), “Beyond the Bigness”, Maciocco G., Sanna G., Serreli S. (Eds), The Urban Potential of External Territories, FrancoAngeli, Milan.

Virilio P. (2004), Ville Panique. Ailleurs commende ici, Editions Galilée, Paris.

It is the city itself that equips itself with the instruments necessary for its representation (De Azua 2003)

Representation of Paris is a montage of pictures (Nadar 1898) fi

Representation of city

Felix N

ar, Ph

l’Etoile

, 1898

Planning methods and techniques cannot insist on their neutral autonomy

Territory is a multiple act of interpretation (Steiner 1994)fi

Planning methods and techniques: sphere of responsibility

Does it not risk depicting a simulacrum of a city?

The risk is that technology might become the language of a simulacrum of the city

But if language is the world, it is itself a simulacrum of knowledge

It is the city that can save technology, language from this trend

The city can save technology

What model of a city?

Can we imagine that other models of urban life might existdifferent of the dense metropolis?

Re-imagining new forms of urbanity

Externity

Politicians and political institutions have failed, by im-posing standard models “from above”

Success experiences in the fi eld of sustainability can be found in local contexts (Ostrom 1986,1990,1994)

Environmental sustainability and local declension

The dense city has become a universal model for planning and settlement

The metropolis is conceived as a homogeneous spatial project context, the only feasible and, hence, the inevitable perspective of urban.

Hegemony of the high-density city

Vast territories in Europe and in the rest of the world disprove the interpretation of the dense city as the only existing urban form (Ibelings 2006, Afshar 1998).

Europe and most parts of the world outside of the European realm, are characterized by a fragile settlement, dominated by a landscape morphology.

The space in between these islands of settlement is neither empty, nor a reserve for the expansion of the city.

An alternative: the low-density city

The development of small settlements that exist in these territories is becoming increasingly detached from the agricultural economy and more and more attached to other economies. This increases the structural interdependency with the city: alternative forms of residence, cultural economy, tourism, leisure activities, alternative forms of energy, etc.

These territories make – hence – up an integrating part of urban life, in the sense that they represent lifestyles that are alternative and complementary to those of the metropolis, but their spatial organisation is different in a qualitative sense (Maciocco, Sanna, Serreli 2011).

Urban potential of the territory

These suggestions may even be considered legitimate if supported by quantitative data (Spanedda 2011)

UN World Urbanisation predictions: The 2005 Revisions51% of the world population live in rural areas25,9% of these 51% live in developed/industrialized countries Cities with less that 500 000 inhabitants are, and remain the residential area for the lion part of the urban population in the world

25% of the world population lives in small and medium size villages (with less than 500.000 inhabitants)9% of the world population lives in so-called mega-cities

The UN forecasts an important population-increase mainly in contexts with less that 500 000 inhabitants

A quantitative legitimisation: the prospects of urbanisation

Low-density territories develop in the form of systems of relations, that connect human settlements with the landscape, in which settled areas, agricultural land and natural areas create intermediate spaces

The singular urban situations of low-density contexts contrasts strongly with the continuous and pervasive fabric of the dense city

The low-density city with its capacity to enter in dialogue with the landscape to which it belongs contrasts strongly with the isolated character of urban objects in the metropolis

The territorial future of the city

The low-density city with its capacity to enter in dialogue with the landscape to which it belongs contrasts strongly with the isolated character of urban objects in the metropolis

If the close relation to the landscape is a fundamental characteristic of low-density contexts, interesting perspectives are opened for the city-project regarding the relation between the landscape and contemporary public space

A qualitative legitimisation : a new concept of public space

Driving forces behind a crisis of the myth of public space in industrial and pre-industrial society (Jacobs 1961 , Arendt 1958)

De-materialisation of the public sphere driven by the media (Castells 1996,1997,1998)

Privatisation and theme-parking in cities driven by consumerism (Sorkin1992, Augé 2000)

Militarisation and segregation characterising the “panic-city” (Virilio 2004, Bauman 2005)

The crises of the myth of public space

The end of the era of representation: public space is no longer a space of representation of civil, military and religious power (Foucault 2001). The modern idea of democracy and individualism takes form.

Public space is not an urban fact that necessarily has to refer to debatable spatial forms (the square, the street, etc.) but rather a cultural reality in the process of transformation, connected to history.

Public space as historic place

In the European city it is rather the landscape than the agorà making up the privileged space for public deliberation.

The landscape is a new, contemporary public space, because it associates the collective ideal (in that it is generally being considered as a common good) with the individual good (since it is a resource for each individual).

Public space as landscape

New perspectives are available for city-projects: the re-focusing on the new public space – that is, the landscape-environment – and, hence, on the most signifi cant elements constituting it

The relationship with this new centre, urban qualities are enhanced through the capacity of dialogue with the landscape- environment, which is also related to the complexity of environmental processes that take place in the territory

Re-focusing on the city as a landscape-environment

The city modifi es its form by emphasizing the importance of the anchorage to the land

The city lends its symbolic potential, connected to a new spatial organisation focusing on the environment, to a new urban life oriented towards sustainability

A new legend

PROJECTS THAT REVEAL THE ENVIRONMENTAL FOCI OF THE CITY

The park-route in the central-eastern part of Sardinia

A park-route as an means for exploring and connecting various environmental objects dominating the territory

Santa Caterina di Pittinurri

A degraded touristic village without relation with its surrounding context

A coastal terminal of Montiferru oriented towards the sea

The preparation of services that re-qualifi es the village, poses emphasis on certain elements of the environmental system. This also contributes to attributing signifi cance to other places in the same territory

The coastal-area of Bosa

Rocky coast-strip adjacent to the tourist-village of Bosa Marina

An extension of the relation between the sea and the city, through a system of services on the rocksThe discovery of an environmental energy, which is almost oceanicNot a contemplative gaze, rather a gaze that seizes the sea as a form of affection, an attachment.

The lagoons of Cabras

An extension of the relation between the sea and the city, through a system of services on the rocksThe discovery of an environmental energy, which is almost oceanicNot a contemplative gaze, rather a gaze that seizes the sea as a form of affection, an attachmentThe project consists in creating a series of wetlands that generate ecological equilibrium in the area, altered by the unrestrained infusion of urban refl uents. At the same time, the project creates a system of public services that are introduced close to the wetlands, favouring new urban centralities interconnected with the lagoon-area.

An area of drained land in Arborea

An area of marshes transformed by drainage in the 1930’s exposed to intense zootechnical activities, leading to a severe environmental crisis in the lagoon and coastal-area.

Planned interventions include a system of wetlands that suits well into the geometrical character of the area. Actions will contribute to reducing pollution in the coastal-area, and to re-establish ecological equilibrium.At the same time, the project includes the re-orientation towards complementary activities and alternative (tourism-activities, leisure, alternative agriculture, etc.) the settlement adjacent to the mirrors of water that have been created artifi cially. The fi shing village of Marceddi will become the service-centre of the new area

The system of dunes of Pistis

A system of coastal dunes of particular environmental importance situated close to degraded tourist-settlement

The project emphasises the dunes through interventions defi ning the border between the settled area and the system of dunes.At the same time, a system of services will be developed through the project, that will facilitate the use of the coastal-zone and a re-qualifi cation of the urban qualities of settlement in the area by emphasizing the general environmental system.

The valley of the Solanas river

One of the valleys below the massive rocky area of the “Sette Fratelli” shaping the coastal system of the southern part of Sardinia

The valley close to the sea is characterised by touristic settlement – an urban sprawl, such as the village of Solanas. The project, defi nes the border of the settlement, blocks the sprawl and reconnects the valley to the beach through the introduction of a series of public services (bars, small restaurants, facilities for sports and leisure, etc.)

The new cemetery of Sassari

An area of particular environmental relevance outside of the city, degraded by an abandoned tipping site

The project re-qualifi es the tipping site, which will become a part of the cemetery, situated in one of the most important valleys of the city from an environmental point of view. The project focuses, hence, on orienting the city towards discovering and inserting itself into its environmental matrix

Il The urban and environmental

system of Alghero, Fertilia and the Calich lagoon

Alghero, a medium-sized city, a small city founded in the 1930’s, Fertilia separated by the natural area consisting of a long beach and its system of dunes and the lagoon of Calich.

Interventions include making Calich the environmental centre of an urban settlement that stretches from Alghero to Fertilia, re-organizing – through a system of public spaces – the two urban settlements situated in the lagoon.

The seafront of Palau

A small touristic city with a harbour – a context from which the city appears to be detached. Historical research reveals that the coastline was different before, and that the present line is the border of an artifi cial bank. Thus, we can conclude that the geomorphology is variable to some extent.

The project develops around the idea of variability. A system of urban services, consisting of equipped boats is developed: this spatial organisation connects the city to the sea. These solutions permit for the coastal zone to vary so as to enable the realisation of two possible scenarios: in one scenario the boats remain on the shore, in the other – in case the coastal-line would move backwards like in the past.

The botanical garden of Sassari

An area on the border of the “compact city”

The nature takes on the form of city, and the city takes on the form of nature through a system of “islands of land” with plants, the city of stone becomes a city of soil. Through a process of bewildering, the city displays the natural environment, and – in a certain sense – its entire context.

The botanical garden of Caprera

One of the islands of an archipelago of considerable importance from an environmental point of view. An Italian/French natural park that encompasses the “Bocche di Bonifacio”, which is the strait that separates Sardinia from Corsica.

The botanical park will be realised to host the typical vegetation of the archipelago. One of the interventions in the project will be the placement of two ombrari (sun-shields) crossing each other orthogonally in the garden, forming the axes of a roman castrum: an urban trace found in the nature, creating the sensation of bewildering and reveals to the visitors’ eyes the peculiarities of the vegetation that otherwise would blend in with and disappear in the surrounding context.

The Paleobotanical Park of Anglona

A territory in the central/northern part of Sardinia involving four municipalities and covering a petrifi ed forest, consisting of fossilised wood and trees is one of the region’s most signifi cant paleo-environmental resources.An agrarian landscape studded with historical-cultural heritage, immersed in a territory defi ned by hills and rivers that constitute the signifi cant elements of the environmental system. Interventions include four long ombrari (sun shields) which mainly serve for exposing and facilitating access to fossil fi nds, but fi rst and foremost, they indicate some of the fundamental characters in the landscape by opening up in certain directions.

The project encourages, hence, inhabitants of the four municipalities as well as other visitors to discover some of the naturalistic and territorial qualities that make up the central resources for representing the territory in which individuals recognise themselves. This gives rise to an enhanced urban life and strengthened relations between the four municipalities through touristic and cultural activities.

The archaeological museum of Olbia

The city of Olbia is situated inside of the gulf, characterised by a big harbour of national importance, but with a weak relation to the sea. This relation cannot be understood merely by analysing geographical location of Olbia. The city of Olbia is situated at the inner peak of the external gulf, while the external coastline is studded with touristic facilities.

The museum-project includes the establishment of a building at the bottom of the internal gulf, which facilitates the contact between the city and the sea. This relation is not established by the establishment of the building in the adjacent urban context. The substantial scale of the building itself suggests, as a matter of fact, an extended system of relations that emphasizes the urban potential of the entire territory.