Genova: piani e progetti 1975 / 2011. Contributi alla ricostruzione dell'immaginario disciplinare

How can we understand the rapid change in the planning attitude aimed at the city's future? How can we interpret the reasons that bring in the course of time to the radical transformation of problems identifiable in an urban context and social background? How can we assess their effects on city planning discussion and planning process that deals with this trouble? To investigate these discussion points entails to piece the facts together through the biography of planning activities in a specific situation. Nevertheless, it is essential to read in the context the elements that we could hypothesize to be an integral part of planners and architects imagination, comparated to collective imagination. The biography of planning activities in a city, it isn't only the sequence of projects or the masterplans' story. It's a study on the link between different events in the course of time instead. If it's a story, it could be defined the account of planning strategies that incorporates the various projects. The complex image of the city, its overview, is derived from these strategies and projects But also, it's due to the combination of different factors, dependent on the change in urban planning and in economy or society. What is the way and how often does the images of the past recurrence? What is the level of resistance to the innovations in the planning attitude that these long lasting images reveal? These questions makes it possible to think about the communication between the different planning processes, about the transmission of a mutual spur. There could be some answer that will play an important role in comprehension of the effects of planning processes. In another way, some aspect about the forms of the contemporary city will be clarify. I would introduce the biography of Genoa in the last thirty years. My Ph.D research deals with the planning policies and urban projects in Genoa during this period and in particular I studied its city-port system. I have examined the planning activity that began six years ago with the first thoughts about the new Genoa's Waterfront. The so-called 'Affresco' of Renzo Piano Building Workshop expresses those thoughts. For a focal part of my doctoral thesis I am studying the process started in May 2004 with the Renzo Piano vision, which subsequently evolved and trasformed into the planning activity, developed at the Urban Lab of the Municipality. After that I have recognized main themes and aims of the city's waterfront project by Renzo Piano, I'm interested in the work of township Urban Lab that transfer and implement them into the documents of the new masterplan. As a matter of fact, the near future of Genoa Municipality has a basic step: they have until 2011 to complete a new masterplan. I put forward the hyphotesis that there is a distinctive strong link beetween the planning activity for the waterfront project and the masterplan process.

Come comprendere i percorsi evolutivi dello sguardo progettuale rivolto sulla città? Come interpretare le ragioni che portano a modificare e articolare nel tempo i problemi individuati in un contesto urbano e sociale? Come valutare la collocazione degli stessi entro un sistema di temi progettuali orientato a trattarli? Indagare questo comporta la ricostruzione della biografia progettuale di una situazione e il riconoscimento nel contesto degli elementi che si ipotizza far parte dell'immaginario disciplinare. La biografia progettuale di una città non è solo sequenza dei progetti o storia dei piani, ma studio della comunicazione che fra essi si instaura nel tempo. Essa è storia dei temi emergenti da un insieme complesso di fattori, soggetto al mutare dello sguardo disciplinare ma anche alle condizioni dell'economia e della società . Con quali modalità e frequenze i temi del passato s’impongono? Qual è il grado d’inerzia d’innanzi all’innovazione rivelato dall'immaginario disciplinare tramite essi? Questi interrogativi permettono di congetturare sulla trasmissione dei temi da un processo progettuale all’altro, sulla loro reciproca attivazione. Questioni rilevanti, sia per capire gli effetti di un progetto, sia per chiarire alcuni aspetti inerenti il modo attraverso il quale oggi la città viene progettata. Di Genova sarà la biografia presentata. Questo perché - dagli anni Ottanta, ed ora con un nuovo PUC all’orizzonte – la città manifesta una straordinaria progettualità con cui pare opportuno confrontarsi.