Strategic planning for contemporary urban regions: the case of Milan's “Città di Città” project

Wed 30 January 2013

Mill Lane Lecture Rooms

How can we influence the development process of a metropolis which is becoming a mega-city region and faces dispersed urbanisation, traffic congestion, air pollution, housing shortages and excessive land consumption, when traditional planning tools have failed?

The strategic project Città di Città organised by the province of Milan in the period 2004 to 2009, was an attempt to address these issues through a series of actions at different levels. It was a proposal for a new description of urban change, and of the emerging problems, a proposal for a new vision with ‘habitability’ as the main strategic objective. A variety of tools was used in the conviction that a change in the behaviour of local actors is only possible through their direct involvement in the planning process, and that this involved promoting co-operation instead of enforcement. As a result, strategic spatial planning becomes much more experimental, non-linear and interactive, a ‘voyage of discovery’ promising new perspectives.

This lecture discusses the foundations in theory and practice for an exploratory-based concept of strategic planning and identifies its limits and potentialities.

Architect and PhD in Planning, Alessandro Balducci is vice-rector of the Politecnico di Milano, where he is Professor of Planning and Urban Policies and former Head of the Department of Architecture and Planning (2001-2008) as well as director of the international PhD program in Spatial planning and Urban Development (2009- 2012). He was President of AESOP, the Association of the European Schools of Planning (2001-2004), one of the founding members of the European Urban Research Association (EURA) and is currently Chair of the Italian Society of Urbanists (SIU).

He is author/editor of 13 books and more than 100 articles and essays in Italian and English.
Website: www.sandrobalducci.com

Cost: free