An interdisciplinary and community approach to the new town plan

Urbanistica n. 145 January-March 2011 Distribution by www.planum.net Index and english translation of the articles Problems, policies and research Federico Oliva Francesca Cognetti, Luca Gaeta Francesca Cognetti, Luca Gaeta Luca Gaeta Francesca Cognetti Chiara Merlini Luca Gaeta Massimo Bricocoli, Paola Savoldi Luigi Mazza Alessandro Balducci Giovanna Fossa Anna Moro Alex Fubini, Daniela Ciaffi Alex Fubini, Daniela Ciaffi Projects and implementation Alberto Vanolo Alfredo Mela, Roberta Novascone Giovanni Alifredi Marco Aimetti Daniela Ciaffi Shun Kanda, Lorena Alessio Francesco Domenico Moccia Methods and tools Profiles and practices Claudia Conforti, Francesca Funis Anna Laura Palazzo Didier Budin The city beyond the crisis Milan, ten years of ordinary planning Sense and operations of a research program The integrated actton plans in Milan planning experience What policies for living? Many houses, little impact The economic feasibility issue Housing developments and standards of public action Common places and the technical culture Learning from experience in Milan The landscape of the integrated action plans Notes fpr the assessment of the new inhabited spaces The strategic and programmatic document of the town of Canelli An interdisciplinary and community approach to the new town plan Canelli: its geography and its appreciaton as a tourist destination Social integration and public spaces The new bridge on the river Belbo and the by-pass road Industrial areas and the town centre (Dr zone) From ‘Idea postcards’ to role play: Prg Pianificare realmente giocando/Plannin by playing The urban design workshop City and railwais stations in the ecological perspective From the public confort to the Public usefullness: a case of expropriation in Florence of the 1500’s Multilevel governance and intermunicipal action in the agglomeration of Lyon The urban project for Gerland, Lyon’s territory of metropolitan development Marvi Maggio Hypothesis and arguments for a glossary for the government of the territory Biancamaria Rizzo Rural economy and tourism, a strategic integration to revitalize the landscape. The case of San Marino Graziella Tonon Town planning and architecture. A Relationship to be renewed Projects and implementation U 145/11 The strategic and programmatic document of the town of Canelli Alex Fubini, Daniela Ciaffi The regional law of Piedmont states that the first step in drafting or revising a local Masterplan, Lmp, (the Piano regolatore generale, Prg in italian) is a so called policy paper (deliberazione programmatica, Dp) which is what we started with and will illustrate in detail. This approach was a novelty in the italian context when it was introduced in the 1970s, aimed at increasing forms of democratic participation in decision-making process and in land use management. However, as time went by it became a rather rhetorical document which bore no weight on the local Masterplan drafting procedure. However, there is no reason why this first step isn’t developed beyond what stated in the law, thus taking on a strategic nature (Frébault 2010). In spite of this not being in the law it can become an important ingredient when changes and reorganisation of the territory are conceived in a long term perspective with the help of an inclusive approach favouring active listening in the community. The Canelli case illustrates a method addressed to the technical culture community: very often, planning laws reforms may be pleonastic or alternatively the result of existing practices. The Dp focuses on a town that could evolve favourably and highlights four strategic themes: flows, public green spaces, economic activities, and socioenvironmental quality standards. A new town plan drafting is always a good opportunity to rethink and develop a project for the city and have a consensus building process thus defining strategies able to promote cooperation between public and private players. The economic choices made at a higher level, access to resources, the development of new activities, the location of functions are also features which do not pertain to the plan as such although its drafting is an opportunity the town has to interact with the more directly involved players suggesting, encouraging, asking, forming alliances and agreements. This was the case in Canelli where the Council needs to deal with urban renewal that can no longer be procrastinated. The Strategic and programmatic document (Sdp) has become a public document approved by the town Government (Giunta municipale); it states two main aims: – as strategic, the Sdp outlines realistic and shared socioeconomic and environmental development scenarios; – as programmatic, the Dp it indicates projects and initiatives that can be developed and implemented also before and during the drafting of the new local Masterplan (Lmp). The following four main issues were included in this Document: – a geographic overview of the town and its surrounding territory; – a sociological listening and reading of public opinion (Gabellini 2008); – coordinating sector activities such as urban mobility and the regeneration of abandoned former industrial zones and estates. Spatial visualization and communication with the public on the urban development perspectives and opportunities offered by the city planning procedure (an urban design workshop). The drafting of the document (Sdp) was conducive to an overall reassessment of the existing local Masterplan (the Prg) and above all it proved to be an opportunity to research and develop forms of community planning. The Canelli’s experience confirms the importance of the preparatory phase in drafting a town plan, which in many respects seems to override the importance of the actual plan, once it has been approved and implemented. Ideas, suggestions, positions, initiatives, public discussions make this drafting time a wealth of actions which very often lasts for a long period and which affect, the content of the new incoming Lmp. Plans generate very strongly felt discussions in the local communities. In the case of Canelli, the new Masterplan drafting activity raised debates and interest among real estate agents but also among sections of the community usually less involved in these topics, attracted by the images which the project is trying to produce on the city, its spaces and on the and prospects of change. A number of cases could illustrate this point but cannot be included because of lack of space. In summary the process of reviewing the plan, especially in its initial phase, raises a healthy debate for instance of the former industrial estates, on whether urban growth has to be limited, on land use, the demolition of buildings, the creation of a small urban park, the need for a new road and the regeneration of urban landscapes. Plan drafting is an opportunity to express one’s wishes, draft plans as well as being an opportunity to listen to voices rarely heard, whose evidence is useful to rethink the viability of future programmes. In the case in point, helped by the Unesco nomination, wine makers became the main promoters of public debates and conferences of the quality of the landscape. Debates on the plan and on the prospects on the future of the city led the debate to present public and private projects, some of which had been left lying in the drawn of the City’s technical office for years, to look at them under in another light, rethink and adapt them. The drafting of the local Masterplan questions the project s to transform a city or town, in some ways it increases planning, but in another sense it changes it. Urbanistica www.planum.net 2 Projects and implementation U 145/11 An interdisciplinary and community approach to the new town plan Alex Fubini, Daniela Ciaffi Planners introduced far reaching social listening and benefited from community experimental planning practices. Instead of being considered the last link of a chain in a higher decision making process the plan becomes a tool to interact both with economic subjects, develop independent and interinstitutional relationships and interface with external players. Locally the plan contributes to the outlining of policies and strategies as well as being an opportunity to identify a collective and shared project able to attract private and public resources. An urban blue-print plan such as this may be conducive to new spatial economies, such as establishing new magnets, developing the suggested or desired changes, although it may not be the best suited tool in developing social and financial policies aimed at promoting the development of a city. It will also be affected by the changes which planned policies entail in their implementation and management. An urban plan in the making is also an opportunity to outline the scenario of a near future: the interdisciplinary and community approaches proved the appropriate answer right from the beginning although initially research and more in depth case studies were carried out in a relatively independent way with limited important interactions. The approach could be more appropriately termed as progressive and parallel multidisciplinary rather than of actually interdisciplinary: examples of how this preliminary phase developed and the interaction among specialists are found in traffic, social integration, function of industrial estates as well as the quality of urban landscapes and of the old town centre. Another case in point is the interdependence between the former industrial estates, land use trends and the local property market ass will be explained in detail by the various contributions, the more central and strategic the issue, as in the case of the Unesco nomination, the more necessary specific skills are required in an comprehensive management framework. Preliminary results on the geography, community mobility and chances of transforming the former industrial estates show how work proceeded in a specialized interdisciplinary approach. At this point in time, the two initial approaches were brought together: role playing on the basis of research carried out in the above mentioned fields, and secondly urban planning exercises proved necessary rather than an option. Such exercises tried to outline spatial and possibly architectural spaces along with the economic planning ideas as suggested in the course of the community planning and listening processes. This is why a workshop with students of the Turin Polytechnic and of the Boston Mit was organized: students and their lecturers spent a week facing up the topics and themes they considered most important: organizing the debate around topics which appeared important at the time, availing themselves of a range of experts proved paramount because of the content but also because of the need to have a set role in the community planning process, implementing dynamics of social interaction. As this project draws to a close, we would like to make a few remarks on the interdisciplinary and community planning approaches which were chosen from the onset and throughout. The team’s ex-post debate focussed on some of the topics most affected by interdisciplinary approaches and highlighted seven possible projects of urban and territorial transformation following an inductive method (two strategic and five operational ones). Specialised areas came together as can be seen in table 1 and as can be seen from the 6 specialist texts. We believe public debate to be a key issue, based on the recognition of the preparatory phase of the plan it requires a method and, if possible (which it may or not be), it should be standardized. The boundary between standardization and method is blurred and quite tricky: methods can be forever changing and greatly influenced by the economic and social settings, while standardization of definitions becomes a rule, a regulation, thus partly unmodifiable. Our experience suggests the existing tool (method) is already standardized (the Dp), and it has withstood the test of time. The authors believe an approach which call upon experts and public opinion to debate and compare ideas: identifies the main issues in the city and in the community, and offers the right answer using the appropriate expertise. Points two and three are implemented in the community and multidisciplinary approaches and is the core of the present report. A question remains to be answered, that is how the collectively developed strategic and programme solutions can be implemented becoming regulations and planning tools, or even new rules of land use and transformation. Generally there is a mismatch between the vision, the urban landscapes referred to, what the future communities wish for, experts and scientific communities planned their translation in a Plan not to mention its implementation. The question is how big is it and what is it exactly? Experience suggests a metaphor, the high jump when the bar has been set too far up and it is impossible to vault. Our suggestion is to work on the Dp and set the bar at a more realistic height so that we can implement it. Urbanistica www.planum.net 3 Projects and implementation U 145/11 Canelli: its geography and its appreciation as a tourist destination Alberto Vanolo The geography of Canelli included the main social and economic landscapes of the town, blended together so as to outline a landscape of opportunities and weaknesses (threats) in the community to further the later steps of the project. The choice was to not focus on the town but to see how it interacts with the greater networks and spaces, for instance with the organization of the industrial networks and production chains, or how the local labour market relates to the other municipalities of the area district. Canelli is described using statistical data and interviews to known social players and experts in the local context. A first part of the description concerned the social and population trends, for instance highlighting how the ageing of the community has been offset by major migration flows from eastern Europe. Secondly, the industrial sector and specifically the small and medium-sized enterprises (Sme) as well as some large ones, active in oenology and oeno-mechanical machinery. At the time of the data collection (2008 and this before the recent world crisis) the district was well established and solid, with a strong penetration in markets outside the local district. In terms of the geography of the area, it was far from saturated thanks to the former industrial estates now vacated and to the presence of companies able to handle the logistics, established in the municipalities near-by, which means goods can be easily handled and shipped. Given the above, tourism seemed a good opportunity to diversify the economic base, appreciating landscapes, cellars and local events: an economic potential to be developed in an area which is used to seeing itself as a wine-making area and considers it its vocation. This opportunity appears underused and promising: there is no organized offer, tourist operators, and adequate accommodation and catering facilities. The local community seems to have acknowledged the ingredients of this industry and has become proactive in promoting projects to appreciate the district. In particular the fact it has been nominated as a Unesco world heritage Site (with reference to its landscape) and the Muda programme (Programma territoriale integrato del sud artigiano Integrated territorial plan for the southern craftsmanship) which foresees appreciation of the landscape, the development of new skills and the promotion of sustainable tourism). As for the research project, this submission is a good example of multidisciplinary interaction. In the case of urban transport, the need to promote the area as a tourist district led to need to ease the existing conflict between traffic and town, developing a system of accessibility to all the key tourist venues. Furthermore, the overlap with the theme of the industrial areas both in use and no longer used: they often have major architecture and hide a warren of cellars that might turn into a tourist attraction. The development, maintenance and possible conversion of these areas is one of the key themes for the (urban) future of the town. By appreciating their activity the wine making production network may be maintained alive and portions of the community may find new life. The correct zoning of the disused areas will make space available for the implementation of radical and innovative urban policies. Urbanistica www.planum.net 4 Projects and implementation U 145/11 Social integration and public spaces Alfredo Mela, Roberta Novascone The need for social integration and meeting places is one of the main themes which emerged from the project analysed in Canelli especially during the interviews to actual or privileged witnesses. Many of the interviewees appeared extremely interested, motivating it with the widespread feeling that Canelli has proved unable to develop a balanced mix of social strata and ethnic groups. In fact there appears to be an unbalance as groups are unevenly spread in the various areas of the city. Unquestionably work is the environment where social and cultural ingredients mix and work, its needs and values being a point in common among many actors, the incubator of social synergies. This is true for foreign residents, prevalently Macedonians, who are thought to integrate successfully in the work environment, and whose arrival has not generated any particular problems. However, opinions differ greatly if one considers civil society (the community), culture and meeting in public places: the town has a wealth of groups and associations although they appear to focus mainly on specific activities. There do not seem to be many areas devoted to retail and leisure, except for a few bars, nor is there a great offer of meeting places except for sport facilities or school services. This is why the residents of Canelli prefer to spend their free time in other places either Acqui Terme or Nizza Monferrato or are attracted by the hills or the Rivera in Liguria. Foreign residents the lack of the afore mentioned spaces reduces opportunities to meet and mingle with old residents and pushes them more and more into developing more private relationships in their community. The physical lay-out of the urban spaces seems to mirror and reproduce the unbalanced situation: associations are thriving but their activities are not projected into the public arena, as a common space might be: their ability to address socialization needs for the young and elderly segments of the community is very limited. The most obvious spatial translation of the above is the lack of appeal of the old town centre (historical centre): in spite of its squares and central thoroughfares which at times display a high standard architectural buildings, the town centre is lacking in opportunities: there is no meeting point from which to stroll, or to access the centre for leisure and consumption. Interviews highlighted a difficulty in outlining the boundaries of the town centre. There are two drawbacks to the area which curtail its potential as a public space: the lack of a lively retail trade and the fact that many squares as used as car parks and there is heavy traffic. The business and manufacturing production areas which in many respects have a strong symbolic value are a de facto barrier separating the sections-neighbourhoods of the town and help keep the built up areas away from the river banks. In conclusion a rebalancing of Canelli’s ‘dimensions or activities’ is needed: this process requires diverse but mutually integrated processes and above all it requires reorganizing the built up areas and its use by all the local communities. Urbanistica www.planum.net 5 Projects and implementation U 145/11 The new bridge on the river Belbo and the by-pass road lopment of the new road and the town plane will have to zone them accordingly. Giovanni Alifredi Structure, lay of the land, the hills, the Belbo valley and the river bed, as well as the consolidated built facilities such as railway, network of the Province’s roads and built-up areas mean that Canelli has a system of infrastructures, a network with no alternative routes outside the town boundaries. Road network accessibility is strongly conditioned by the quality of the urban development and location in terms of location and frequency of use. The new development Plan (Dp) is an opportunity not to be missed to rethink all the area between Belbo and the railway, the town beyond-the-Belbo (città oltre Belbo). However, the infrastructural network which could and should become the backbone of the existing and future town structure must also be considered: at first glance the layout seems not to easily offer spaces for new infrastructural projects which makes the town beyondthe-Belbo area an opportunity, possibly the only and the last one, to give the town a more adequate road network system. The aim is to avoid through traffic in the town centre especially as most is made up of heavy vehicles, but this requires infrastructures to be completed so that the main flows are kept away from the central areas, the Risorgimento-Indipendenza-Italia axis. Briefly, the suggested new road facilities are not the result of good intentions but the natural outcome for the city to outline a development compatible with the need to maintain high standard for the town area. In any case the cross between: – the redevelopment potential of the Town beyond-theBelbo area; – the need to regenerate and consolidate the town centre, – the intention to promote compatible development appreciating Canelli’s special call including the nomination as a Unesco world heritage Site. All the above hasten the need for new essential infrastructure which are the building blocks for the success (functionality) of present and future activities. The new road beyond the river Belbo will connect viali Risorgimento-Indipendenza–Italia which becomes an axis involving the whole town freed from through traffic taking on the look and nature of an urban avenue. This road will be the backbone of the new Town beyond-theBelbo guaranteeing accessibility to existing production and manufacturing sites outside the town and in future looking to the new functions that may settle there. The importance and complexity of the work require the Plan to take a two pronged approach: implementation in steps without making regulations on activities and business still not yet established too strict; not letting any projects which are inconsistent with the new road network consolidate. As a result a number of strategic infrastructural nodes have been identified for the deveUrbanistica www.planum.net 6 Projects and implementation U 145/11 Industrial areas and the town centre (Dr zone) Marco Aimetti The industrial areas or estates in the town centre identified with the acronym Dr in the town Plan were one of the topics considered: Drs are a key issue and cover all the features debated by the planning team. Some of the socioeconomic features of Canelli are discussed below to better understand their impact and relevance: the history of this town, community and surroundings were shaped by the area’s main produce, grapes. Since the mid 19th century, wine-making, and especially sparkling wines, led to large facilities to be built in the area to the point a unique wine making district developed, for which a dossier has been submitted for the nomination as a Unesco world heritage site. Some of the facilities and cellars are still working and are to be found mainly in the old historical town centre Contratto, Coppo, and in the central section of the town that lies between the Belbo river and the mainline tracks, fratelli Gancia, Riccadonna and Bosca. The facilities and cellars still take up a large section of the town’s centre: their future is one of the most important and tricky matters to deal with in the future draft of the new development Plan (Prgc) regardless of the choice being to maintain the district, to strengthen or to redevelop it. Professional approaches have differed in time and have taken one of two approaches: the first is aimed at fact finding in the area and was carried out separately from the other research by the planning team; the second approach was aimed at identifying planning solutions and projects and was carried out according to a content sharing and interdisciplinary approach. Each site was listed according to data (objective parameters) gathered after the interviews with the owners and during the field trips: results are included in the works and make it possible to appreciate the features of area in depth and gain a critical overview of the issues at stake. Information sheets (forms) include historical information, measurements, photos and notes on details. All possible overlaps and interactions among and between the above were considered so as to identify places of special planning interest where urban redevelopment might take place. The sharing of information and contents produced to that point made it possible to improve the standard of the draft: Drs which had been considered as being all the same under the current development Plan (Prgc) because they lacked the socioeconomic and urban dynamic and complex information were broken down one by one and related to more complex and structural scenarios. This led to the identification of several groups of industrial areas in the town centre: strategic Drs (strategiche) which coincide with the focal points to manage urban redevelopment; historical documental Drs (storico do- cumentali) because of the formal features of the area and possibly identify a tourist-productive vocation for the area, and lastly transformation Drs (di trasformazione) lacking the identifying features of the two above groups and which give planners more and freer opportunities for development. In conclusion specific actions and project scenarios were outlined for the above mentioned productive areas according to those three groupings: the best suited planning tools were also considered to best manage urban redevelopment. Urbanistica www.planum.net 7 Projects and implementation U 145/11 From ‘Idea postcards’ to role play: Prg Pianificare realmente giocando/Planning by playing the one which asks for ideas to solve them, reiterate some of the topics developed in the various sections of the Sdp, and specifically services, public space and the reorganization of traffic and mobility. Daniela Ciaffi In the second half of the Noughties (2000 to 2010) we experienced unusual movements of people and opinions stemming spontaneously to change the city and renew the style of government: this was not typical of quite a conservative local context but the same applied to the average city Governments in Piedmont. The situation seemed extremely promising from the onset, ideal for participation, a situation where local authorities would have to neither beg citizens to take part, nor fear empty meetings nor deal with long standing conflict. The Mayor felt he had to organize events to increase communication, animation and consultation. The results of the interviews to expert witnesses as well as studies on traffic and mobility, on the industrial areas and the social and economic scenarios of Canelli, in the end turned into the Prg. The idea of reinventing famous board games is not new (Driskell 2002) but in this case more than others the ability of the players to implement strategy as happens in Risk (as in Risico in Italian). Answers were a team effort as in Trivial pursuit faced with the simulation of physical transformations in various places, suggesting unexpected events and probable events with an initial budget (as in Monopoly). The simulation of the power balance between urban and territorial, local and supralocal players was not just limited to the economics of the simulation. The role of each player will be randomly selected at the beginning and will be given two sets of chips or counters: wine barrels (the local currency in the city of muscat wine (moscato), and votes, that is to say electoral success. The ones who form a coalition among players based on convincing projects and starting from actual knowledge of the problems discussed. Oddly enough, as in the script, the group of teenagers from the local technical school refused this approach and they developed one proposal saying they were tired of a divided town whose citizens were unable to unite. The Prg was the most interesting step in the participatory process (community planning) which could be described as caring for communication, tinkering with the normal mechanisms governing political and administrative communication in Canelli. The Prg acronym was also thought to mean Proponi riflessioni geniali (make brilliant suggestions) so that it could branch out more into the public arena: it was used to launch the Postcard of ideas, mailed to all households. This became a random survey without any statistical validity but a means to arouse curiosity and increase the awareness of the vaster public. Hundreds answered and 218 of the 4,546 who did, i.e.: 5% of all households returned the filled in card delivering it by hand to the Town hall. Interestingly, about half the answers in the section which identifies problems and in Urbanistica www.planum.net 8 Projects and implementation U 145/11 The urban design workshop Shun Kanda, Lorena Alessio Continuity-transformation has been a key study concept for many workshops developed in different cities and villages in Japan with students from Mit and other japanese universities. Since 1990, under the direction of professor Shun Kanda at Mit, workshop projects have included urban centers, towns and regional villages such as: Kyoto, Kinosaki, Kanazawa, Himeji, Niigata and Tokyo’s Omotesando. Lately, the Satoyama villages near lake Biwa is another primary focus given their ecological, demographic and potential demise from existence despite their more than thousand years of cultural, historical and sustainable past. Most of the workshops investigate the profound issues of transformation in the physical make-up of various communities in Japan, which in turn affect the way the governmental bodies, professionals and academicians respond to and/or sustain the continuity of a people’s connection to each other, to their natural surroundings, local traditions and long-established values of placemaking. This is a large topic, often culturally based yet a phenomena that is increasingly global and universal, altering the quality of life and the quality of the environment around us. Within this complexity, our studies focus at a slice of particularity in the actual lived, in context of rural villages, historic towns and contemporary urbanism. The interest is in the physical form and spatial quality, which respond to and sustain the continuity of a people’s connection to theirs natural surrounding, climate, cultural traditions and long-established place making. While we may value notions of continuity, we are most interested with what it is about the make-up of a sound, beautiful folk architecture or the traditional urban neighborhood, which needs to be maintained/sustained. Aspects which can be transformed to incorporate the emerging technology of materials and methods of construction, of an architecture closely aligned to the shifts in lifestyle, the place of the home and work, out in the street, the public environment, and the outdoors. Canelli’s workshop is an italian experience on continuity/transformation. The parameters of study are similar, where our living and knowing the area was fundamental for setting up questions and give tentative and variegated answers. All of the towns we study and others like them, present variable questions of a shifting continuity and transformation, of a people’s connection to place, of notions of progress and of a shape of their future. The workshop’s objectives are to bring fresh, ‘outside’ perceptions and queries to the resident population, to engage in discussions as we inhabit their world and find ways to effectively convey our impressions, findings, speculation and recommendations to the town officials and residents on the final day of our sojourn at each location. Different is the ex- perience created in Veneto experience, which is an unconventional international education program based on knowledge acquisition by direct experience and active participation in actual settings of people and place. It is not based on responding to something, but more in questioning ourselves in discovering new perceptions, views, way of thinking and living. The program draws students and collaborators from around the world, of diverse backgrounds and age-groups to an enriched immersion of ideas, shared activities and concerted creative thinking. Seeing, thinking, engaging in unhurried time. Pursuing one’s own perceptions, inquiry and speculations there awaits associative narratives, wiser insights. In Veneto experience, the Carlo Scarpa’s masterpieces stimulate the study of the intricate and profound relationship between the life-work and Venice, each embedded in the other. As an academic activity, the Mit Japan design workshop are taught as a credit course for graduate students in the School of architecture and planning. The enrollment is kept to about eight students selected from a competing list of applicants each spring. During the sojourn, Mit students are always joined by a matching number of counterparts from the japanese universities, and in case of Canelli from Turin Polytechnic. Outside the walls of academia, workshops introduce an innovative instructional technique challenging students to the multiple realities of critical observation, periods of sheer camaraderie and shared talents. The ‘workshop’ format is a compelling vehicle for engaging not just students, but all those individuals who come in contact during our sojourn. We are constantly rewarded by the presence of three-generations of a community, the people’s immediate intimacy and spontaneity of genuine exchange. It’s an exceptional form of learning experience which I believe can only emerge from our residency in-place, temporal but focused, real, and collaborative. Urbanistica www.planum.net 9 Projects and implementation U 145/11 City and railway stations in the ecological perspective Francesco Domenico Moccia The more and more widespread perspective for sustainable city is becoming the concentrated multifunctional polycentric model in literature (Moccia 2009). Because the preferred transportation system is railway, and railway station are linked to central spots of the metropolitan area, the ways this infrastructure integrate in the urban fabric is a central issue in the research of the ecological change. The following is a review of developments occurred in some various settings and for different objectives judged useful to consider for the given tasks of our days planning. Prophetic pioneers In 2009 PlanNY (A greener, greater New York), housing policy will be developed in the already urbanized areas close to the stations of the subway. In the roots of the city the grand central Terminal story is called to demonstrate how proper this planning statement is. Given the connection between transportation technologies and types of developments, preference for railway depends on the inferred polar development model. The New York station created a pole of offices, shops and facilities letting employs and costumers to live in the suburbs. While we consider the central concentration a good result, the suburban residential dispersion is a problem to tackle with planning regulations. In the city centre the story shows how a technological upgrading of an infrastructure may be finely combined with good urban design, given the limits of the time and the dominating taste of that age. Human scale is sacrificed to the laisser-faire celebrating magnificence, but public space has a well identified character thanks to closure techniques and morphology has a homogeneous solution with the blocks built on the perimeter at fixed high. In addition, the increased value of proprieties was able to finance the costs of the new tracks and station buildings, letting an important transportation service to stay in the city core, instead of migrating to its border as was generally happening. It resisted too to the transportation mode preferences with the service elasticity and change getting commuters anchored to the railway operations. Real estate vs. transportation service Value of land in center city was the main interest moving to redevelopment of large railway areas financially disrupted railway companies, especially when new technologies seemed more convenient and attractive than noisy and smoky trains. In 1964, in New York, Pennsylvania station (1910) by Charles McKim, a classic architecture landmark is replaced by a Post office and Madison Square Garden. In Philadelphia Broad street station, the masterpiece of Frank Furness is sacrificed to the city Renaissance, because the ‘Chinese Wall’ (where tracks stayed) was considered an unconceivable blight, in this way, moving terminal on the other side of the Schuylkill river. All over the world, since the ’60es and until the ’80es, railway and city cores are often in a conflict solved with the train removal from the centre. The node consolidation Among european metropolis, Paris is the more railway friendly. Gare Montparnasse renewal, twenty years before London, is not a removal, but only a short shift just to let Tour Montparnasse and Lafayette Gallery to be built together with the housing and office curtain surrounding tracks. At the end of the ’80es, the British railway become a private company. To cover the costs of the Liverpool street station renewal, it grants Rosehaugh and Stanhope 400.000 square meters of new offices in a prestigious location of the city close to its tracks. The real estate speculation has the noble aim to save a sustainable transportation mode for some thousands of commuters: railway is reconquering its credibility. In the same mood of financial need and central redevelopment is the Charing Cross 100.000 cubic meters office addition of Embankment place. The station building, originally raised over the former Hugerford Market, by South-eastern railway, in 1864 january 11, still has the Charing Cross hotel as an appreciated victorian architecture front. Terry Farrell arguments about its office project demonstrate that preservation culture is gaining consideration. He has not only to save the front hotel, but have also to justify the shape of the great arch over the gallery and office block in the historic London skyline. Industrial archeology and preservation Preservation movement has other episode at its stake. London Council’s historic building division, and among them, mainly Gavin Stamp took care of the Saint Pancras e King’s Cross stations, located in his neighborhood, documenting seriously and reporting to the Greater London Council committee in 1984 to obtain historical designation. The aesthetic appreciation of the artifacts of the industrial past contrasted the british rails program to demolish both stations and rebuilt one brand new for the new Channel line, connecting to the continent. The evaluation of historic local relevance extended from the architectural landmark to the other industrial buildings and to many spaces where there is a repository of collective memory. With the mobilization of the local community that places cared of, any former attempt to impose a project from outside failed, though had the sign of valued architect as Norman Foster and presented a high quality design strongly characterized by the central circular park. People, many of them immigrants, resisted displacement, defended social housing and facilities, small shops and firms. The length of the Urbanistica www.planum.net 10 Projects and implementation U 145/11 program gives the measure of contemporary urban redevelopment complexity when state programs have to confront with urban movement. On the other side, the timing was conditioned by the real estate market: office demand and offer put in competition docklands renewal with other city programs and is giving the go and stop orders to former and next projects. A social participatory policy addressed the people unrest toward shared governance, while more uncertainty obscure market previsions. tizens while serving for their commodity and urban spaces are free for pedestrians. Urban integration Despite Penn Center, the Philadelphia Edmund Bacon’s idea is useful to our discussion. He, with similar ambition of Kevin Lynch’s, was querying for a significant city form: selected focal points elevating on the urban skyline, should catalyze a system of open spaces and public places. Suggested by the cubist paintings he was aware of the time dimension and considered the people moving through the urban space the most important of its knowledge and experience. In the center city reshaping, he perceived the conscious objective of subway and regional railway system integration in urban fabric. One of the main transportation nodes is located in Market street close to City Hall. Addressing the complexity of circulation through the pedestrian ways, car circulation, railway tracks he find that to arrange them together a three-dimensional urbanism is needed. In the Gallery solution he arrive, after plans and designs involving Romano Giurgola and Skidmore, Owings and Merril at the construction of one of the first commercial centre (with two department stores) over a railway putting in a real town what Hilberseimer, from a functionalist point of view had theorized in abstract. His vertical city should be an answer to the need of high density in the modern metropolis overlapping many layers of different activities. At the same results of integration arrives step by steps the evolution of Montparnasse area. When Tgv (high speed trains) Atlantique arrive in that station in 1990, need an accommodation with important effects on the surrounding neighborhood. Then boulevard Pasteur, instead of crossing tracks as a bridge, become an urban street lined by Sncf offices and projected until circular squares designed by Ricardo Bofill, Les echelles du baroque (1985). Over the platforms, Jardin atlantique extents on a surface of 35.000 sqm with tennis courts, ping pong tables, shrubs and trees, at the center a metereologic observatory is completely surrounded by buildings taking the name of a landscape without views. In any case the attempt to gain to public and urban used the rail lands, in this case is clear and is the forerunner of the next Paris planning. In any other city you can count the some number of urban design building over railway tracks and freeway, demonstrating how more intensive and better use can be made of urban land and showing an urban model where infrastructure is concealed to ciUrbanistica www.planum.net 11