The term contemporary city is synonymous with a multiplicity of appellatives which are symptomatic of a territory in transformation and in a process of interpretation. Compared to the past, present-day urban conditions appear rich in differentiation with regard to the times and ways in which the city is used: in the modalities of inhabiting, working, moving and enjoying. In this framework, people and their activities are as important as the fixed elements around them and share part of the scene as co-protagonists. In this way, the city becomes a result of complex intersections created by multiple operators which modify the urban system for different reasons. With the arising of new typologies of places and the changes into the modalities of use of those already existing, cities with different urban conditions have appeared. New opportunities for socialization are created outside of consolidated urban spaces and assume different thicknesses until a dematerialization of physicalness is reached. New forms and practices of encounter - less traditional but not less full of meaning - are affirmed through a plurality of ways of appropriation of the space, creating new parts of metropolis. Railway stations are becoming places for shopping, libraries are becoming bookshops as well as shops for gadgets and restaurants; homes are transformed into places of work, cinemas into supermarkets and quiet streets into motorways. Widening of functions and conversion of uses are interweaved, creating new cultural problems. Starting from those premises, this work aims at identifying the new elements that characterize urban environments, investigating characteristics and effects on the territory with the objective of contributing to their sustainable planning and management. In this framework, the place - porous, but at the same time resistant and able to receive complex interactions - is meant as a micro-system within the city macro-system, able to make urban transformations comprehensible. New spaces of socialization, urban containers, virtual places and infrastructures, places of perceptions and territories of control - which, taken together represent the object of this study - constitute the main places which can define the contemporary city.
Urban diversities and the contemporary city: new habits and places
Marichela Sepe
2008
Abstract
The term contemporary city is synonymous with a multiplicity of appellatives which are symptomatic of a territory in transformation and in a process of interpretation. Compared to the past, present-day urban conditions appear rich in differentiation with regard to the times and ways in which the city is used: in the modalities of inhabiting, working, moving and enjoying. In this framework, people and their activities are as important as the fixed elements around them and share part of the scene as co-protagonists. In this way, the city becomes a result of complex intersections created by multiple operators which modify the urban system for different reasons. With the arising of new typologies of places and the changes into the modalities of use of those already existing, cities with different urban conditions have appeared. New opportunities for socialization are created outside of consolidated urban spaces and assume different thicknesses until a dematerialization of physicalness is reached. New forms and practices of encounter - less traditional but not less full of meaning - are affirmed through a plurality of ways of appropriation of the space, creating new parts of metropolis. Railway stations are becoming places for shopping, libraries are becoming bookshops as well as shops for gadgets and restaurants; homes are transformed into places of work, cinemas into supermarkets and quiet streets into motorways. Widening of functions and conversion of uses are interweaved, creating new cultural problems. Starting from those premises, this work aims at identifying the new elements that characterize urban environments, investigating characteristics and effects on the territory with the objective of contributing to their sustainable planning and management. In this framework, the place - porous, but at the same time resistant and able to receive complex interactions - is meant as a micro-system within the city macro-system, able to make urban transformations comprehensible. New spaces of socialization, urban containers, virtual places and infrastructures, places of perceptions and territories of control - which, taken together represent the object of this study - constitute the main places which can define the contemporary city.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
