Teaching Urban Morphology in a Sustainable Perspective

Abstract

If, on the one hand, sustainable architecture has been viewed very largely through the lenses of technology and energy performance, remaining at the margins of architectural culture, on the other, urban morphology has acquired, for several years now, a globally recognized role among the disciplines that deal with urban analysis. This role has then grown further, thanks to the irruption of sustainable topics nominating urban morphology as a disciplinary ‘plug-in’ between architecture, urban design and landscape. Urban morphology can thus be a valuable tool connecting the technological aspects typical of sustainable strategies to the various cultural, social, civic and formal aspects of urban design and architecture. That is why teaching urban morphology in a sustainable perspective is of the upmost importance. An educational methodology, morphologically-based, allows students and practitioners to develop a design and sustainable culture within the body of the architectural discipline giving them the needed awareness to face with the wide and complex topic of sustainability.