Urban Metabolism

The city, concrete representation of the civilizations that have been stratified, is an 'organism' in its more authentic meaning. It is 'set of parts that are closely connected and collaborating jointly for the same purpose' which show, in their succession, the distinctive characteristics proper of the cultures that have manifested them. Thus interpreted, the city presents itself as an entity in which the transformations are interrelated and dependent on the civil mutations which are concretized and which have tangibly defined the evolution of it. To try to analyze the “evident sign” of the process of progressive change which the city used over time, implies for the interpreters to have the ability to search for (and to employ) appropriate tools for the analysis, making possible to understand the causes that govern the transformation processes on the urban organism; at the same time, this tools have to be applicable in a flexible way to several and different cases of study. These tools of “reading” devices can be diversified in relation both to the diachronic character of the “type of town” examined and the “geographic-cultural area”, that shows these identifying characteristics. The teaching of Typological and Morphological Characters of Architecture and Architectural Design 1D, instituted at the Faculty of Architecture at the Polytechnic of Bari, concern the study of the evolutionary processes of man-made structures at different scales, by postulating the application of an analytical process applicable, evidently, also to the deepening of urban transformation. It is based on the fundamental hypothesis (partial and then integrated with other disciplines) developed with the processual-typological method (projectual) incardinated on the basic notions of organism and building type. So, is based on a theoretical view that "thinks" the city in its essence as a living organism made up of interdependent parts in continuous transformation. The city is a place where the social and typological distinctions, as revealed by the buildings over time, are put in correlation with the human need to have spaces for individual and collective functions; in this sense, its processual study according to the theory of the Husserl's phenomenology, allows to understand the social and typological characteristics in their concrete essence of variable structures and not as an “a priori” structure. Consequently, the transformation processes that reveals each type of examined city (ancient, medieval, renaissance, baroque, eight-ninth century, modern, contemporary / European, Asian, American, etc. ..), observed and subjected to comparative analysis, are critically evaluated to try to reconstruct the "logical rule" that govern them, to extract possible “mechanical control” of the project on the urban scale. In fact, the principal ways in which the urban organism manifest itself (with its many complex contradictions), become the original source of the projectual reasoning. This reflection highlights the dominant characteristic of our age: the ability to be active and proactive in changing the past. Attitude that can be adequately represented by the German word Machenschaft.

The Evolution of urban space in the 21st century - Smart city, between new economy and environmental sustainability (Masters of Art Thesis Abstract) Dott.Marco Spagnuolo Graduation date: January 2017 The objective of this work consists in showing a description of the concept of Smart city and Smart community, where the indispensable protagonist of the progressive and qualitative development of the urban environment is the citizen. The present commitment aims to move the city dweller from a technical and static role to an active role in the field of urban governance. An anthropocentric vision of the urban environment, in which the rapid development of ICT is the means available to the citizen to realize his skills and competences, acquiring greater importance towards administrative institutions. A new role capable of revolutionizing both urban planning and housing architecture. The focus of urban governance is to work to overcome the technocratic urban vision, in which financial power and technological giants act as Deus ex Machina, moving towards an "socio-cratic" urban dimension, where individuals and institutions are strongly interconnected in a spirit of complicity in facing challenges; • socio-cultural integration and loss of place identity; • economic due to the financial crisis and the greater demand for competitiveness in the globalized world; • environmental consequences of air and water pollution, excessive energy consumption in urban areas. The following paper aims to examine in detail the various perspectives emerged in recent years on the topic of smart cities. The "smart" design indicates a remarkable commitment of the technology; from sophisticated digital devices, three-dimensional processing, powerful management software and modern energy supply technologies; from this point of view the term "smart" may appear misleading and too tied to the major technological groups (Siemens Ag - Microsoft - Lenovo etc.). This work aims to focus on the more complex meaning of smart, addressed not only to construction techniques but to a way of living and taking over a space, configuring it as a place. The goal I propose is to consider the term smart as a presupposition for a new social paradigm in which the identity of the place finds its perfect applicability in an urban space.The paper is divided into four parts; in the first two are analyzed both the social evolution of smart city & communities and the technical applications, demonstrating how the community is the mind and the apps are the arm of sustainable development in the urban environment. The third part provides the overview of the emerging hyper-technological but totally uninhabited cities, and of European "soft technology" projects characterized by less architectural and engineering unscrupulousness, but by a wiser and respectful vision towards aspects linked to the citizen and his needs. In Europe the word smart is mostly related to redevelopment actions contained in districts and neighborhoods in a state of degradation and / or abandonment, rather than urban renewal works. The last chapter of the paper, divided into two macro-themes, intends to give voice to the citizen and his works "from below", involving the reader in the so-called social innovation, a phenomenon expressed in the spread of creative communities redefining development local, focusing on the cultural dimension to recognize and emphasize the identity of a territory, a real Cultural Planning. The second macro-theme concerns the European situation, analyzing the most significant institutional projects and the commitment of citizens and their "bottom up" initiatives, illustrating the inventive capacity of the fablabs and urban living labs as well as the management and recovery capacities of deserta loca (De Rosa, Nocca et al., 2013). Cities are the key elements for the future of humanity; play a role of primary importance both as regards socio-economic aspects and natural resources, as they are omnivorous consumers of elements of all kinds (Ratti, 2012). The city is an organism, which ingests goods and produces garbage with enormous amounts of negative externalities, which amplify economic and environmental problems. In this scenario the importance towards urban sustainability grows exponentially, and the objective of urban development policies tend to search for new methodologies and new balances able to combine economic progress and environmental sustainability. Every Western city is equipping itself with a specific environmental plan as a huge range of growth opportunities. The European urban areas are preparing actions and projects of great value characterized by high investments in innovation of services and integrated technologies, aimed at improving buildings, air conditioning systems, public / private transport, 360° diffusion of wi-fi and other services . In 2009, world urbanization has reached a historical and critical moment: the population present in urban areas has surpassed that which lives in the countryside; the urban phenomenon is well represented by this figure: 3.42 billion inhabitants compared to 3.21 in rural areas. The 84% increase is attributable to the least developed countries, which urban areas will have a population of about 5.2 billion, in practice more than double that shown by the various forecasts, calculated for the first decade of 2010. In the western area instead, the increase will be more contained (from the current 900 million to just over 1 billion in 2050), due to the presence of a much older population, a birth rate slightly above 0% (slightly attenuated from the arrival of numerous immigrants from the Middle East) and the greater possibility of study and work for the feminine world that delays marriage and conception (UN, 2008). The problems that most afflict contemporary cities, administrations and inhabitants are related to air pollution caused mainly by road traffic and the energy supply of buildings. Road traffic is one of the main causes of the alarming growth of atmospheric and acoustic pollution, and its effects are particularly deleterious. Public opinion, after decades of excessive tolerance due to the lack of information and a new position, suddenly becomes demanding, demands firm and practicable solutions. The consequent effects of congestion, pollution and health benefits are so serious as to require immediate "buffer interventions", but it is essential to start programs and methodologies that allow the rebalancing of a healthier atmosphere. Today urban governance brings into play a whole series of analyzes and simulation models that allow the maximum compression of the phenomenon. It is now possible to know in advance the effects on traffic, congestion, public health, public transport, or rather it is possible to identify the necessary infrastructural and management interventions. Italy has the second highest motorization rate of the 28 EU states and the number of cars in circulation in relation to the population is at the very top of the list even in the world rankings (UN, 2008). The years we live are those determined by the phenomenon of the globalization of the economy and of communication, this has allowed urban areas to be networked with the whole world; has extended to the global scale all the production circuits and the exchange of goods and information. The economy is made up of flows, in turn composed of people, information, money. In the scenario built on the dictates of globalization, cities have become a fundamental meeting ground between public and social actors that interact to achieve adequate development. The consequence, on a purely social level, it is the reinforcement or rebirth of an urban social identity whose goal is to avoid the specter of creative standardization and depletion. A sort of urban guerrilla that aims to bring out and show its specificity to the world. The formation of an active creativity capable of translating into competitive advantages (Porter, 1999). The extreme and disruptive competition of this century, risks giving space only to the productive processes with an economic return and "false colors" image of a city, losing those intangible assets born from the sense of belonging, culture and quality of life . (Governa and Memoli, 2012). The central issue is to create virtuous competition that makes one competitive city and at the same time make the whole participant. Achieving this goal is only possible with the sharing between private and public actors, opening up communities to develop all kinds of relationships on ever larger scales and complex (Dematteis, 1995).

The main trouble for a big city - as a megalopolis - is the disintegration of the traditional Forma Urbis idea and of the urban identity. Even if in the US metropolis is characterized by exasperated serial iteration, made in this way in just 3 centuries, is still possible to recognize the necessary relationship between different territory parts and it’s still clear the dialectic between buildings and countryside, between downtown and periphery, between housing and production area. While in new realities everything is uncontrolled and often reduced to shapeless heap of built up. The concentration of millions of inhabitants, as a result of an extreme process of urbanization producing an amplified confusion of urban spaces, is causing a new and unexpected level of use the area and the downfall of every social equilibrium. This kind of places are ruled by the indifference of the whole hierarchy built and lack an order well-balanced between housing, Tertiary’s sector areas, commercial areas, production areas in all urban space scales possible, as is made in the best tradition of the city (in metropolis too). This space is assuming the paradoxical “a priori shape” aspect and seems in lot of its parts equivalent and homogeneous. New icons of representation, the so-called “containers”, are accidentally put into the city, as effort to ri-polarize it. These are complex urban situations and architectures that seem to evocate today the fast dynamism condition, typical in the new millennium, showing ephemeral dimension and communicate the idea of transparency, lightly and movement. The courses “Typological and Morphological Characters of Architecture ” and “Architectural Design”, in the Department dICAR, Polytechnic in Bari, left to the writer, are focused on the research on the evolutionary process that recalls, generally, the urban complexity and also to spread the necessary knowledge to understanding urban development. Moreover the ways that urban organism shows itself, with its contradictions, considered in a conceptual "shape", are the beginning of the planning thinking. This attitude, especially reported to the complex urban situations, express our capacity of being able to be active in our epoch, through a critical and not parasitic exercise breaking with the past but in continuity with what has been historically transmitted and inherited.

e-science.unicamp.br

Any urban environmental problematic quarrel about cities demands the clarification on what it is the "urban space", its production, composition and dynamics of sócioespacial organization, as also of that it is the "urban environment". When the urban space in its social and natural dimension is analyzed it is impossible not to consider the ambient question and the social in the quarrels on the social transformations and the consequences of the new social produced arrangements in the cities.

2009

The present employment seeks to approximate the city as a specific anthropogenic transformation of the biosphere as well as a distinct reflexive human design approach towards the environment – ultimately as "culture and geography's largest artifact, the product of a very complex play of greatly varied forces" (Vance Jr 1990: 4). In short, this statement not only points out the object of research to be covered but also enfolds its quandary: What makes us characterize so diverse entities, such as Rothenburg, Ur and Mexico City, which originated in topographically completely unlike settings at a time difference of well more than 3000 years, with the same term – city (Jansen)? And what allows us to draw one transition line from our contemporary urban forms back to the Bronze Age, in which – to common knowledge – the city has its origins? Exactly for its variety and constant transformation the 'artifact' city is hard to grasp, why most researchers abide by functional aspects for a general understanding and focus formal aspects only in a historical perspective. Still, in addition to the variety of functional assessments there also persists the notion of a formal urban continuum, which appears to be only partly explained by the diverse functional definitions. This present thesis thus shall add to the according manifold functional examinations and ratiocinations, an approach to the city by means of considering the significance of its continuing form and investigating the general factors that determine this form. To this end factors and systemic relations will be elaborated that generally determine urban form, beyond their factual existence and diversity in time and space, an thereby allow for a consistent formal term. The starting point for this contribution to basic urbanistic research constitute two considerations, which both however do not belong to this discipline: The first comprises a phenomenological reasoning, that suggests a differentiation and yet intrinsic relation between factual cities and a theoretical concept that serves as an ideal perception of how a city should be. This ratiocination, which was well established by the art historian Giulio Argan in his "Storia dell'arte come storia della città", forms the basis for the suggested perception of an abstractum urban form that consequently allows for an examination of its constitution and characteristics. The second involves a systemic understanding, that implies a distinct interrelation of various factors that yet erratically afford cities. This ratiocination goes back to the sociologist Niklas Luhmann, and allows explaining the variety as well as the unpredictability of factual urban forms in course of the diversity of opinions and interests involved, while he concurrently insinuates the investigation for conditioning and contingency formulas that determine the process of interrelation. These considerations together constitute as a thought model the Urban Matrix, a dissipative, that is an open dynamic system, in which time and space independent parameters by interrelation cause the origination and development of time and space dependent urban forms. Thence the system itself remains abstract, yet determines the concrete motivations of those participating in the design process and ultimately the very factual formal result 'city'. These thoughts imply that the suggested approach is primarily a theoretical-normative occupation, dealing with abstract concepts rather than the actually built environment. Thus, the reader will be confronted with a search for preferably simple and yet copious wordings that shall explain the features of the different conditioning parameters as well as their interrelation within the Urban Matrix. Still, for the purpose of unambiguousness, this endeavor effects a demonstration of complex circumstances, from which sometimes suffers a convenient readability, as well as familiar expressions have to be put in another context and, where necessary and appropriate, neologisms have to be introduced. Likewise, the argumentation at times has to revert to other disciplines that obviously feature their own language use, which might at first appear to be alien to an urbanistic approach. Of special interest are here the Formal Concept Analysis by Bernhard Ganter und Rudolf Wille, as well as the consierations on Semantics by Gottlob Frege. The key hypothesis for the suggested approach is the differentiation between Quality and Quantity, which in formal concept analysis is expressed by the correlation of Attributes and Objects, and in semantics by the dichotomy of Intension and Extension. In this context urbanistic quantities are bound in time and space, whereas urbanistic qualities allow for an induction of general aspects. These are examined against the background of an idealized urban foundation and eventually summarized to parameters of urban form. Thus, usually only a safe and healthy place is attractive for the establishment of a city; thence safety and health become criteria for the whole urban development, and ultimately refer to a parameter attractiveness'. The key conclusion of the thesis however points to the existence of a conditioning system, which factors can be scientifically determined, when yet it offers no injective, surjective, or bijective relations (Eineindeutigkeit), nor any other mathematical formula that insinuates a calculatory approach towards urban form. With this system a retrospective explanation is possible, a prospective predictability still impossible, comparable with Heinz von Foerster's 'Non trivial machine' (Foerster 1985: 62 ff.). Accordingly, the attractiveness of a city can be explained by its safe and healthy location, but not all attractive cities need to locate at especially healthy and safe places, nor give such places a warranty for future attractiveness and prosperous development. Altogether the thesis consists of four main parts: 1. An introductory Western Reflection of Western Urbanism since the industrialization, which with the development of urbanism as an academic discipline forms the starting point and the scope of an urbanistic basic research – whereas for the lack of a concise field of research this reflection does not represent a classical introduction, but a summarizing intellectual and receptional history followed by the suggestion of another approach and its hermeneutic predicament; 2. The explication of a thought model, which conceptually describes the Causes of Urban Development with its phenomenological and systemic principles and consequently a derivation of abstract factors, whereas this procedure builds the basis for the induction of qualitative parameters of urban form; 3. A Commonsensical Catalogue, which defines the qualitative parameters and their criteria – as well as considerations regarding the establishment of secondary factors within this parametral frameworks; and 4. An Outlook onto the Urban Matrix as an integrating system, which conditions the origination and the development of urban form – whereas firstly the parameters are calibrated with those concepts introduced earlier, secondly the interrelation amongst the different parameters are discussed, and ultimately some rough ideas on possible practical applications are presented. As stated in the subtitle of this elaboration, the suggested thought model does not represent a concluded theory despite its aimed conceptual conclusiveness; on the contrary shall the discussed phenomenological and systemic considerations initiate further theoretical employments in an urbanistic basic research – last not east, to eventually produce a common perception of the city as very own field of research and work, despite the ongoing acceleration of urbanistic processes that aggravates this task (Seifert 2003: 11). Many of those topics discussed in this thesis derive from the author's experiences during his employment at the Department History of Urbanization (RWTH Aachen University); and many impulses stem from discussions with Michael Jansen, which altogether dealt with the in its substance irresolvable question 'What is a city?' Argan, Giulio C.: Storia dell'arte come storia della città, Riuniti, Roma, 1983 (1989, Kunstgeschichte als Stadtgeschichte, Fink, München). Foerster, Heinz v.: Entdecken oder Erfinden. Wie läßt sich das Verstehen verstehen? In: Gumin, Heinz & Heinrich Meier (eds.): Einführung in den Konstruktivismus, pg. 41-88, Oldenbourg, München, 1985 (1992, Piper, München). Frege, Gottlob: Über Sinn und Bedeutung. In: Zeitschrift für Philosophie und philosophische Kritik, vol 100, pg. 25-50, 1892 (Patzig, Günther: Gottlob Frege. Funktion, Begriff, Bedeutung, Fünf logische Studien, pg. 40-65, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1962/75; Frege, Gottlob: Sense and Reference. In: The Philosophical Review, vol. 57, pg. 207-230, 1948). Ganter, Bernhard & Rudolf Wille: Formale Begriffsanalyse. Mathematische Grundlagen, Springer, Berlin (1999, Formal Concept Analysis. Mathematical Foundations, Springer, Berlin / New York) Luhmann, Niklas: Einführung in die Systemtheorie, Carl-Auer, Heidelberg, 1992. Seifert, Jörg: Urban Research: Biopsy and Density, VDG, Weimar, 2003. Vance Jr, James E.: The Continuing City. Urban Morphology in Western Civilization, John Hopkins, Baltimore, 1990.

La interpretación de los procesos de transformación urbana siempre ha planteado grandes dificultades. El esfuerzo normativo desarrollado en el plano internacional sobre el ámbito que nos ocupa, ha generado una ingente cantidad de documentos relacionados con el denominado patrimonio monumental, arquitectónico, construido o edificado, cuyo análisis pone de manifiesto la propia evolución conceptual experimentada desde las primeras definiciones que consideraban al monumento de forma individual, hasta derivar en una percepción mucho más compleja con los conceptos de conjunto histórico o centro histórico y posteriormente con los de ciudad histórica o área urbana histórica. Este recorrido conceptual, nos ha conducido en la actualidad a la idea de paisajes urbanos históricos, aún en proceso de consolidación. El espacio urbano de las ciudades históricas actúa como un organismo vivo que evoluciona de forma paralela a los procesos de transformación social conformando el sustrato material expresión de la identidad y la memoria colectiva e incorporando muchas otras vertientes patrimoniales. En el S. XXI, la globalización y la sociedad de la información han originado que gran parte de estos procesos socio-económicos se hayan acelerado con unas repercusiones que aún no somos capaces de advertir en su totalidad. En este contexto, las ciudades tienen la necesidad de adaptarse a las dinámicas generales del desarrollo urbano y la integración de las actuaciones contemporáneas arquitectónicas y urbanísticas con su entorno natural, material e inmaterial, constituye un obstáculo de dimensiones considerables. Ni los agentes encargados en la tutela y gestión de las ciudades históricas, ni el nuevo marco conceptual y teórico en torno a la noción de paisajes urbanos históricos han sabido precisar cuáles son los “límites de cambio aceptables”, de forma que estos suelen hacerse a posteriori y de manera subjetiva. Este hecho ha originado que el carácter holístico, dinámico y transversal de este nuevo concepto, en muchas ocasiones pueda ser utilizado como un subterfugio al servicio de determinados agentes, que lejos de preocuparse por la preservación de su memoria, están priorizando otros intereses e naturaleza más lucrativa. Con el presente artículo, se persigue un acercamiento inicial que permita centrar la atención sobre estos problemas estableciendo propuestas para el desarrollo de metodologías de límite de cambios aceptables y evaluaciones de impacto sobre las que asentar las políticas y los modelos de gestión urbana.

2015

The first course in Urbanism at the School of Architecture of Alcala is organized in two related parts, theory and practice, and introduces students to urban design and planning. On the one hand, students acquire a solid, yet incipient, theoretical knowledge and, on the other hand, they start designing projects in the city. Both tasks are part of a morphological approach that inherits some methods from Manuel de Sola-Morales’ Laboratori d’ Urbanisme de Barcelona and some from the Italian school.The theoretical part is subdivided into two segments. First, the main concepts of the morphological approach are presented to students, who are then exposed to a brief history of the traditional city and its urban form, from the Pre-industrial era to the urban renewal in the 1970s.The practical part includes both analysis and proposal. The analysis deals firstly with the structural scale, framing a site through different inquiries; secondly, it looks closer at diverse morphological aspects. I...

The suggested reproduction that we intend to explicate shows, in short, the results of a project research carried out within the framework of the Architectural Design courses in the Department of the Polytechnic of Bari dICAR, assigned to the writer, based on a theoretical view that is based on the method of “operating history” as a instrument for interpretation of a built and pre-vision of transformation of reality in relation to the cogito projection idea. It is based on the fundamental concepts of the architectural organism and the building type. Such methodological conception refers to a current of thought that studies the architectural and urban events in their essence of organisms made up of interdependent parts and in continuous transformation, processual examined with reference to phenomenal husserlian array that allows you to understand their concrete nature of variable structures not “a priori “existing beyond the experience of the becoming. Only for illustrative purposes and as proof of the usefulness and indivisibility of the concepts in question, some didactic examples are proposed that explain the method used. Each sample shown is intended as a result of a process of "re-design" that considers the present city and, therefore the one which modification is proposed, as provisional terms of ongoing "transformation" processes where, as always in the history of cities, urban trails, housing, specialized construction are linked.

Ecological and environmental conditions in and around cities are under pressure: transportation distances grow, protection and qualities diminish, and infrastructures get more complex, less robust and less visible, which result in a decline of sustainable commitment and behaviour of users. Yet, citizens are concerned that environmental degradation is affecting the quality of life in their neighbourhood. Composite measures of sustainability provide useful insights to the environmental impacts associated with human activities, but, in themselves, are not the solution for abandoning traditional paradigms. Spatial planning must be able to conduct the spatial consequences of these developments. Therefore, it is necessary to look beyond boundaries: not only physical boundaries (between areas or countries), but especially boundaries of the various scale levels of solutions, the interrelated networks, the public space and, particularly, of their reciprocity. It induces the explicitation of ...

Proceedings of the 2019 International Conference on Architecture: Heritage, Traditions and Innovations (AHTI 2019), 2019

From the middle of the 20th century, a firm position has been formed about the value of each stage of historical development of populated areas and preservation of their uniqueness. Historical science, as a rule, investigates architectural objects, established urban ensembles or historical cities. Applied research and practical urban planning should focus on functional zones, structure, and infrastructure of populated areas. Urban areas of different scale as objects of cultural history that function actively in all their problematic complexity mostly remain subjects of scholarly debate. Thus, there forms a strong contradiction in the understanding of approaches to the renovation of a modern city. In the early 21st century, the urban theory forms definitions such as “postindustrial”, “post-carbon” and other city types, due to technological alterations and dynamically changing lifestyle of a modern person. Such trends lead not only to radical shifts in the structure of a town, but als...