City Design

Abstract

This title introduces a concept that is notoriously polysemic. It can take on profoundly different meanings ranging from the revival of some pre-modern conceptions of the art of urban composition to the modernist dream of total control of urban form through architectural design, or to some instrumental contemporary trends that interpret urban design as a technique for increasing real estate value largely disregarding any planning logic. We will reconsider this range of positions in Part IV, but the point that interests us here is a different one.