The issue of urban sprawl appears affected by a paradoxical contradiction. On a one hand, for many decades it has been one of the most topical territorial issues, subject of discussion in the scientific debate as well as phenomenon of global interest, raising concerns and public sensitivity throughout the world. On the other hand, the issue remains vaguely defined, remarkably hazy in its outlines: what is to be understood by urban sprawl, how such a phenomenon can be ascertained and recognized, which causes is it attributable to, which the problems and weaknesses; what of course makes hard to agree on possible regulation and enforcement policies. The wide variety of problems, positions and points of view is here discussed in the first chapter. Addressing the controversial subject of urban sprawl by means of a configurational approach – as in the intent of this volume – allows avoiding the engorgement of interpretations and positions; a long way from the idea of adding a further voice to this crowded debate, the purpose is to suggest a different point of view for observing aspects of the phenomenon that otherwise are not visible and are arguably its intrinsic ‘constructional rules’. The thesis of the research, here presented in the second chapter, is that the sprawl is mainly – when not even essentially – a relational phenomenon: which is commonly perceived in the repugnant forms of traffic congestion, lack of pedestrian movement, depletion of inner cores, external concentration of shopping centres, uniformity and absence of functional variety, desolation of suburban landscape, loss of local identity of places: all undeniable issues and weaknesses, whose primary cause can be found in the configurational state, according to a clearly defined logic and in objectively measurable terms. For this purpose, the volume sets out the broad lines of the configurational approach to the study of urban space and, subsequently, in the last chapter applies the most suitable techniques to the analysis of some case studies, selected as highly significant for a comparative observation of the phenomenon of urban diffusion. The outputs of those empirical researches seem to validate the thesis sketched above: most of the phenomena that, for several decades now, have been feeding the debate on urban sprawl appear as the predictable – and, to some extent, inevitable – effect of the changes of the spatial relationships caused by the periurbanization. In such a view, the absence of a settlement logic, the lack of a pattern, the disorder of places and functions – the most recurring charges against sprawl – appear as off-target arrows. The presented researches, on the contrary, show that the layout of the dispersed city appear to respond to a rigorous logic, respect an order and suit a pattern that can be easily detected and recognized, provided that it is observed through appropriate lenses, sensitive and suitable for appraising the distribution and configuration of spatial relationships: the same lenses that, implicitly, suggest the guidelines of the governance policies of suburban areas.
La questione dello sprawl urbano è da ottant’anni uno dei temi territoriali più discussi, oggetto di attenzione e contesa nel dibattito scientifico e fenomeno di interesse generale, sul quale si accende la sensibilità dell’opinione pubblica dell’intero pianeta. A fronte di questo interesse, il tema resta affetto da condizioni di singolare incertezza, che ne rendono indefiniti e nebulosi i contorni: cosa sia da intendersi per sprawl, come sia possibile accertarne e riconoscerne la presenza, a quali cause sia da imputare, quali siano le criticità ed i problemi che ne derivano; ciò che naturalmente rende arduo convenire su possibili strategie di regolamentazione e contrasto. È una sterminata letteratura quella che si è concentrata sul dito (la confusione, la mancanza di ordine, lo squallore) senza guardare la luna che tali sembianze materiali stanno ad indicare: l’indebolimento dell’appetibilità posizionale dei nuclei storici ed il loro svuotamento funzionale a beneficio delle aree suburbane; la progressiva scomparsa della piccola distribuzione commerciale, tradizionalmente parcellizzata nel tessuto edificato, a vantaggio delle agglomerazioni concentrate sulla corona periferica degli insediamenti e lungo le radiali esterne; la perdita della mixité degli usi sul suolo urbano in favore di un appiattimento funzionale e sociale in vaste zone distinte e compartimentate; la massiccia utilizzazione dell’automobile per gli spostamenti, con le naturali conseguenze sul traffico, sui costi e sull’inquinamento; la marginalizzazione della pratica pedonale dell’abitato, con il conseguente impoverimento dei rapporti interpersonali; l’allentamento di rapporti di coesione e sinergia fra le parti dell’insediamento e la sua struttura complessiva ed il conseguente affievolirsi dei sentimenti di appartenenza e di comunità: temi e fenomeni che ormai da vari decenni alimentano il dibattito sullo sprawl, e che emergono in questa ricerca come il risultato prevedibile – e in certa misura inevitabile – dell’alterazione delle relazioni spaziali determinata dalla modalità rarefatta dell’urbanizzazione. La tesi è che lo sprawl sia nei suoi effetti, per una parte significativa – se non preponderante –, un fenomeno relazionale; il quale viene percepito sotto le sembianze ripugnanti della desolazione del paesaggio suburbano e della perdita di identità dei luoghi: temi di per sé indiscutibili, ma che proprio dell'assetto configurazionale risultano conseguenze, secondo una logica ben definita ed in misura oggettivamente rilevabile. In una simile prospettiva, l'assenza di una logica insediativa, la mancanza di un disegno, di un pattern, il disordine dei luoghi e delle funzioni – le più ricorrenti e condivise fra le imputazioni alla città dello sprawl – appaiono frecce fuori bersaglio. Gli esiti delle ricerche qui presentate mostrano al contrario che la struttura della città diffusa risponde in effetti ad una logica rigorosa, rispetta un ordine e corrisponde ad un pattern che è facile individuare e riconoscere, purché lo si osservi con lenti sensibili alla distribuzione e alla configurazione delle relazioni spaziali. Le stesse lenti che, implicitamente, suggeriscono le possibili linee di indirizzo per le strategie di governo del tessuto suburbano.
La forma del disordine: tecniche di analisi e progetto urbano ai tempi dello sprawl
CUTINI, VALERIO
2016-01-01
Abstract
The issue of urban sprawl appears affected by a paradoxical contradiction. On a one hand, for many decades it has been one of the most topical territorial issues, subject of discussion in the scientific debate as well as phenomenon of global interest, raising concerns and public sensitivity throughout the world. On the other hand, the issue remains vaguely defined, remarkably hazy in its outlines: what is to be understood by urban sprawl, how such a phenomenon can be ascertained and recognized, which causes is it attributable to, which the problems and weaknesses; what of course makes hard to agree on possible regulation and enforcement policies. The wide variety of problems, positions and points of view is here discussed in the first chapter. Addressing the controversial subject of urban sprawl by means of a configurational approach – as in the intent of this volume – allows avoiding the engorgement of interpretations and positions; a long way from the idea of adding a further voice to this crowded debate, the purpose is to suggest a different point of view for observing aspects of the phenomenon that otherwise are not visible and are arguably its intrinsic ‘constructional rules’. The thesis of the research, here presented in the second chapter, is that the sprawl is mainly – when not even essentially – a relational phenomenon: which is commonly perceived in the repugnant forms of traffic congestion, lack of pedestrian movement, depletion of inner cores, external concentration of shopping centres, uniformity and absence of functional variety, desolation of suburban landscape, loss of local identity of places: all undeniable issues and weaknesses, whose primary cause can be found in the configurational state, according to a clearly defined logic and in objectively measurable terms. For this purpose, the volume sets out the broad lines of the configurational approach to the study of urban space and, subsequently, in the last chapter applies the most suitable techniques to the analysis of some case studies, selected as highly significant for a comparative observation of the phenomenon of urban diffusion. The outputs of those empirical researches seem to validate the thesis sketched above: most of the phenomena that, for several decades now, have been feeding the debate on urban sprawl appear as the predictable – and, to some extent, inevitable – effect of the changes of the spatial relationships caused by the periurbanization. In such a view, the absence of a settlement logic, the lack of a pattern, the disorder of places and functions – the most recurring charges against sprawl – appear as off-target arrows. The presented researches, on the contrary, show that the layout of the dispersed city appear to respond to a rigorous logic, respect an order and suit a pattern that can be easily detected and recognized, provided that it is observed through appropriate lenses, sensitive and suitable for appraising the distribution and configuration of spatial relationships: the same lenses that, implicitly, suggest the guidelines of the governance policies of suburban areas.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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