Reinventing centralities: urban regeneration and mobility

The metropolitan areas are irrigated by flows that determine its economic vitality, its inclusion in a regional or global system, and the quality of life of its inhabitants. A Metropolis is not a place one can draw; it is a condition one can describe. The new spatial organisation leads on one side to a concentration of functions in major urban poles, connected to each other; on the other side, and at local level, to a network of polynuclear urban centres. The Metropolitan space, characterised by mobility and unlimited extension, is also fragmented, and the functional zoning leads to spatial and social segregation.

Therefore, communication within the neighbourhoods is important to reinvent a local identity in response to globalization, i.e. to rebuild the free relationship torn by monetisation of the urban development.

Today, sustainable development means for many denser and compact space, back to centrality. A sustainable metropolis cannot be built in the denser areas only without addressing the question of land use at the periphery, a condition for stabilization, countercyclical policy, and environmental opportunity.

Reinventing urban development can provide a meaningful insight into the complex reality of the city (the metropolitan area), and push to act synchronously (transcending the domains of knowledge, scales and sectors); encouraging the strong and helping the weak potential of the region; defining a sense of place of the different centres and neighbourhoods so they can diversify the urban region; encouraging innovation as the big driver; it is needed and it can deliver