Reconquest of quiet. A research of public intimacy

The aim of the thesis is to discuss about an apparent paradoxical situation, namely of intimacy in public space. Intimacy is a difficult concept to analyze as the perception that the human being has of this stage is extremely variable from individual to individual and strongly influenced by particular conditions. The role of architecture is promoting the conditions for which man can reach this stage. The public space of our cities is becoming more and more disquiet, the uncontrolled development of large urban centers has led to an impoverishment of public places of quiet. The ''state of quiet'', namely the absence of movement and disturbance as opposed to motion in the contemporary city, is a difficult situation to reach. The issue was addressed by considering the public context of Chinese cities, with particular attention to the urban complex of Shanghai, radicalizations of the concept of disquietude, the big numbers that make them up have inevitably led to an imbalance in favor of the non-quiet. The thesis is developed through a deepening about the disquietude in the cities, resulted in particular from form, measure and fast movement of the entities that make it up, then the thesis moves through the understanding of the concept of intimacy and quiet, using as reference two places, one Italian and one Chinese, that create through architecture, the manifestations of these conditions: San Gimignano and Zhuge. The study of these two ancient masterpieces led to the analysis of some modern and contemporary projects that have also been able to recreate, in a disquiet context, favorable conditions for intimacy.