Città sostenibile e spazi aperti – Sustainable city and open spaces

by Lorenzo Vallerini (editor)

Pitagora Editrice, Bologna, Italy

© 2005

Italian text and English Summary

280 pp., ill., cm 26×18, € 23,00

ISBN  9788837115388  ISBN-10 8837115385

Urban areas represent both the most extreme border of the “incompatibility” between human activities and environmental balances, and the most representative challenge of the application of sustainable development.

The indicators taken into consideration to evaluate sustainability in an urban area are related to various aspects, but those related to the open spaces (be they public or private, recreational or productive) play a significant role as  factors of environmental compensation and  as a framework  for improving the biotic capacity  of the urban ecosystem.

The public landscape is where we live. Is it what is left over, between the streets and buildings, or does it define our cities and regions? How do we ensure that the public landscape plays a critical structuring role in our decision making? Has this public landscape economic roles, community roles and ecological roles? Is our public urban landscape the backbone of the city?

In relation to these questions, this text brings together experiences of planning and open spaces design in some urban-metropolitan areas of British Columbia-Canada and Italy, organizing them according to the thread of a reasoning that intends to reconnect the general principles of urban sustainability, a framework of intervention methods and a review of case studies of plans and projects (Vancouver, Victoria and Surrey, Bologna, Rome and Turin, Reggio Emilia, Ferrara and Empoli).

Perhaps the most important aspect of this book concerns the transition from the idea to the action and how the governments of Italy and Canada support this new way of looking at our cities.