Extended abstract
Alberto Magnaghi (a cura di) La regola e il progetto. Un approccio bioregionalista alla pianificazione territoriale ISBN 978-88-6655-621-3 (online) 978-88-6655-624-4 (print) Š 2014 Firenze University Press
Alberto Magnaghi Presentation of the text: Rule and design. A bioregional approach to territorial planning. The book is divided into two sections: 1) the principles of urban bioregion; 2) local designs towards a Tuscany made of urban bioregions. The first section investigates the theoretical and methodological principles shaping territorial design in its stages and building components, applied through the bioregional approach and the distinction (widely adopted in the research) between statutory rules and design elements (A. Magnaghi). The first section is supported by several in-depth analysis of the bioregional approach relevant to those areas where the major changes in the urbanisation processes occurred, which is to say in the fringe territories between town and country, laboratories to experiment new concepts of public space taking into account the new relationships between urban and rural areas (D. Poli); the same agri-urban territories are investigated in their socio-economic potential towards the construction of local economic systems apt to enhance the spatial complexity of the bioregional territorial assets and its suitable forms of governance (D. Fanfani). Finally, in order to promote forms of partaking and self-government of the bioregion, specific forms of representation and communication of statutory rules for the public discussion (figured standards) are stated, using the methods and techniques developed along the preparation of the Tuscany landscape plan (D. Poli). In the second section, the building components of the urban bioregion are exemplified through design extensions conducted on diverse Tuscan territories: experiences of participation at the local level where bioregional issues are addressed in planning and territorial government tools for the municipalities of Lastra a Signa, Montespertoli and Montecatini Terme (A. Rubino); projects for the redevelopment of urban fringes and the redefinition of urban standards in some suburbs of Tuscan cities, especially for the reconnection of periurban agricultural areas to the city (G. Ruffini); studies for the definition of the building rules of urban space pointed at the place statutes,