Overview
Date/time interval
Syllabus
Course Objectives
In order to achieve the expected results for the course program and the proposed experimentation, the didactic offer divided into the different activities pursues the following
- Qualifying educational objectives: strengthening of knowledge, understanding and critical interpretation of the main issues related to the salient themes of contemporary urban planning and the design tools of the discipline, indispensable for carrying out the activities “usually carried out with the professional title of architect”, pursuant to Directive 2005/36/EC - ex Directives 85/384/EEC, 85/14/EEC, 86/17/EEC).
- Specific educational objectives: acquisition of the method of research on urban phenomena and strengthening of knowledge necessary to critically interpret the possible configurations; ability to address the basic issues of design through the experimentation of an application experience of synthesis of knowledge, able to relate the global challenges of the UN Agenda 2030 and of the ecological transition to the possible solutions at the local scale through the tools of urban planning.
Course Prerequisites
In order to ensure the consistency of the training course, and with reference to the preparatory nature provided for by the Teaching Regulations, students should have already taken the exam of the “Fundamentals of Territorial and Urban Planning” Course before starting the Course of “Urban Design for territories and cities between sustainability and innovation”, to have the knowledge relating to the main tools of the discipline, the ability to understand and critically interpret the main issues relating to the salient themes of contemporary urban planning, the foundations of territorial and urban planning.
Teaching Methods
1_ COURSE STRUCTURE AND TEACHING
The course is structured into frontal and interactive lessons, seminars and days dedicated to deepening the theoretical themes and the exercise, to the verification and revision of the work done by the students.
Students must formalize their enrolment through the course mailing list (by accessing their personal area through own credentials), no later than the second week of classes.
The course attendance, according to the Academic Regulations the Degree Course, is mandatory and students are required to attend at least 70% of the lesson hours to be admitted to the final exam-
Lessons (hours / year in the classroom): 22 hours / semester
Exercises (hours / year in the classroom): 38 hours / semester
Practical activities (classroom hours / year): -
2_ AUTONOMOUS LEARNING OF THE STUDENT
1 credit-ECT = 25 hours (10 hours of classroom lessons / 15 hours of individual study)
Student's autonomous activities, which must take a total of 90 hours, are divided as follows:
- 40 hours of individual study to critically rework and consolidate theoretical contents;
- 50 hours of independent work to be dedicated to the completion of the graphics produced during the didactic activities.
Assessment Methods
Attendance is mandatory, with ongoing assessments of learning and of the progress of the exercise (aimed at preparing for the final assessment of the exam). These will be carried out on the dates and in the manner that will be communicated from time to time by the teacher (reports, tables, power-points, etc.)
Method of carrying out the exam: Theoretical part and discussion of the project exercise
The final exam will be taken by the candidates individually and will focus on the discussion of both the elaborated project proposal and the theoretical principles and bibliographic references.
The vote will be based on evaluation criteria that refer to: frequency; ability to exhibit with language properties and critically re-elaborate the various topics; quality and pertinence of the proposed project contents; graphics quality; presentation and organization of work performed. It takes into account the indications of the Guidelines for the Compilation of Teaching Sheets (Syllabus) (v. 1.0) (PQA, April 2025).
Texts
ASviS (2022), Infrastrutture verdi urbane e periurbane, Position Paper 2022, Gruppo di Lavoro sul Goal 11 Città e comunità sostenibili, https://asvis.it/position-paper/
Carrà N. e Pultrone G., LEAVE NO PLACE BEHIND. Politiche e strategie per la transizione. Processi e progetti di rigenerazione territoriale inclusiva, Aracne, Roma, 2025.
Pileri P., 100 parole per salvare il suolo. Piccolo dizionario urbanistico-italiano, Altraeconomia, Milano, 2018.
Pileri P., “L’urbanistica del togliere”, in Quaderni della decrescita N. 5, Anno 2 (2025) Maggio/Agosto 2025, https://quadernidelladecrescita.it/2025/04/30/lurbanistica-del-togliere/.
Pultrone G., “Oltre la poli(s)crisi: processi innovativi per la transizione eco-sociale in ambito UE”, in Urbanistica informazioni, 306 s.i., 2022.
Further information will be provided in the classroom during the lessons.
Contents
1_DESCRIPTION
The teaching of “Urban design for territories and cities between sustainability and innovation” aims to contribute to the general objective of training for carrying out the activities “usually carried out with the professional title of architect” (directive 2005/36/CE - ex directives 85 /384/EEC, 85/14/EEC, 86/17/EEC).
At the conclusion of the first three-year cycle of the course - mainly oriented towards basic training and the experimentation of experiences of applied synthesis of knowledge - the teaching completes the training relating to the foundations of urban planning, in relation to the method of reading and critical interpretation of the city , of the territory and of urban phenomena at different scales, to the analysis and understanding of urban planning instruments (general municipal urban planning plans and implementation plans).
It aims to develop an updated critical-cognitive and planning sensitivity adhering to the major settlement and environmental issues of the territories and of the contemporary city, to the objectives of Agenda 2030, of the European Urban Agenda, to the PNRR and to those of the ecological transition and digital The educational objective is to provide, through practical applications aimed at comparing strategic and programmatic visions with design ones capable of affecting the conformal quality of places: the specific knowledge at the basis of urban and territorial planning; advanced knowledge in the field of critical reading of urban and territorial settlements; the tools to promote sustainable development of cities and territories that provides for the rational use of available resources and increases their resilience.
2_COURSE PROGRAMME
The course program will focus on the main issues related to the salient themes of contemporary urban planning and on the tools and techniques for urban and territorial planning oriented towards the sustainable development of the territory, due to its cultural landscape and identity values, in line with the Goal 11 of the UN Agenda 2030 (Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable). In particular, the theme that will be developed from a theoretical-methodological and applicative profile (with the possibility of having the support of external experts for seminars and/or supplementary activities) is the following: “Facing the challenge of the ecological transition: green infrastructure, ecosystem services and the quality of public space for regeneration and sustainable urban development”.
The theoretical-methodological approach will be closely related to an exercise/experimentation applied to the complex multidimensional reality of the contemporary city and territory in an innovative way (also with the help of geographic information systems where deemed appropriate), taking into account the fact that the the need to facilitate the ecological and digital transition opens up new scenarios and design approaches in the urban planning sector, in order to promote balanced and sustainable development, which provides for the rational use of available resources, within the elaborated framework of the transformative actions of the projects.
The course will therefore be divided into a theoretical-methodological module and an exercise as specified below, with the related contents that will be the subject of discussion, development and study:
THEORETICAL-METHODOLOGICAL MODULE
• Cities, climate change, global challenges, role and responsibility of Urban Planning
• UN 2030 Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with particular reference to Goal 11 “Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”
• Policies, strategies, tools and experiences at EU level to face the challenge of the ecological and digital transition
• Land use, Green Infrastructure (GI) and Ecosystem Services (SE) for regeneration and sustainable urban development
• Integrated strategies of urban and territorial regeneration in the EU through Sustainable Land Use (SUL) and Nature-Based Solutions (NBS)
• Planning tools, guidelines and regulations for urban plans and projects on the international scene.
• Urban planning and SE in the national landscape: key issues, references, experiences, perspectives.
DESIGN EXPERIMENTATION
The design experimentation is aimed at the construction and application of a methodology for sustainable planning/regeneration of the city and the territory focused on green infrastructure with related ecosystem services and on the quality of public space, taking into account the interscalar nature of urban planning. The theme will therefore be tackled considering the different territorial dimensions and the need to compare the strategic and programmatic visions with the planning ones capable of affecting the quality of the places. The proposed experience will also be an opportunity for a design approach that can offer a minimal contribution to the resolution of one or more challenges of the contemporary city, in relation to the SDGs of Agenda 2030 and the ecological transition. The exercise will be organized for small working groups, through classroom activities, field surveys and workshops with reference to the territorial area that will be identified as a study area and will be structured in two main phases of work:
1. Interpretive reading of the physical, settlement and relational system of the study area, aimed at identifying their relationships, identifying the relevant characters and the spatial systems that characterize them, with specific attention to issues related to sustainability, green infrastructures and to ecosystem services.
2. Construction of an objective scenario/Masterplan relating to the study area with hypotheses of possible strategies on which to focus to shape this scenario and with in-depth analyses of scale, and with reference to the SDGs of Agenda 2030.
The work to be presented for the final exam is that presented at the deadlines foreseen for each step, systematized, reorganized, and corrected on the basis of the indications provided by the teacher in the various moments of discussion (revisions and workshops).
3_EXPECTED RESULTS
At the end of the course, and of this first three-year cycle of the training course, the student must have acquired adequate knowledge, skills, abilities and skills of a theoretical-methodological nature, in the use of rules, standards and instrumental apparatuses of urban planning.
The exercise, carried out individually or in small working groups, will allow the critical re-elaboration of knowledge in order to then apply methodologies and tools useful for the cultural and professional training of the European architect.
With reference to the Dublin Descriptors the student will have to achieve the following learning outcomes:
1. Knowledge and understanding. The student must strengthen knowledge and understanding of the main tools and techniques for analyzing and interpreting urban phenomena and the methods of representation.
2. Applying knowledge and understanding. The student must strengthen the ability to read, interpret and represent the transformations of the city and the territory in relation to both the morphological and functional aspects, through the tools of urban planning, considered in the context of global challenges, the UN Sustainable Development Goals and with reference to the ecological transition in progress.
3. Making judgments. The student must consolidate the ability to integrate the various knowledge and critically reflect on the complexity of the topics proposed. You must express a personal autonomy of judgment regarding the most appropriate choices to make in the operations of reading, interpretation, representation, planning in relation to the design exercise.
4. Communication (communication skills). The student must strengthen the ability to communicate, in the form of dialogue, written and graphic, the contents learned and their proposals, adequately arguing in moments of constructive critical comparison both with other colleagues, during the teaching activities, and at the final exam.
5. Learning skills. The student must consolidate the necessary skills that allow him to independently document himself on the topics studied, to deepen the level of knowledge of the various disciplinary fields, to update himself to understand the cultural and operational evolution of the technical disciplines, theories, practices and apparatuses technical-regulatory reference.