An “Urban Mending” Case Study: Designing a New Social-Housing Complex

Abstract

The case study described here is part of an urban-regeneration project in Calenzano, one of the peripheral municipalities that form part of the metropolitan area of Florence. It is considered in the light of some observations made by Pope Francis in his encyclical, Laudato si’. When the Pope argued that “It is not enough to seek the beauty of design” (§ 150), he attributed a wider role and greater responsibility to the architect, who must take into account people’s quality of life, the ways in which they adapt to their environment, their social life and their need for mutual assistance. At the same time, the encyclical suggested that experts should take account of the limits of the “technocratic paradigm” (§ 101), which leaves the solution to environmental problems to technocrats and market forces. Renzo Piano devised the concept of “urban mending” as a means of renewing the urban periphery, and it seems to go in the same direction as the encyclical. This paper describes how the project was carried out, with particular attention to how decisions were made in line with the Pope’s encyclical and Renzo Piano’s vision.