Promoting Historical Urban Open Space as a Convivial Environment

The city’s passage into the so-called post-Fordist era, an end to the intensive industrialization of the territory and sprawling urban expansion is causing more than just the decommissioning of former manufacturing sites and vast peri-urban areas. This condition has also initiated a new season of densification inside the city for at least two reasons. Firstly, because the building concentration tends to correspond with effects (e.g., a diminution in movements, optimization of services, reduction in toxic emissions), that compensates the unsustainability of the industrial city. Secondly, because high-density cities continue in any case to offer greater opportunities for employment, leisure, and culture, together with better living conditions, than more isolated settlements. These forced actions to modernize the historical city can be tied back to two principal actions. The first aspect is referred to the transformation of historical areas into enclaves for tourism leisure and the flattening of urban spaces to reflect standardized formal-functional models. For other aspects, the performative comparison with standards in large cities – based exclusively on vehicular accessibility, speed of movement and access to large commercial supply chains – has only depreciated the value of the historical city and its capacity to attract investments and new projects.