At the Crossroads between Urban Planning and Urban Design: Critical Lessons from Three Italian Case Studies

Planning experiences in Milan, Rome and Bologna are presented as critical laboratories for discussing new directions in research at the crossroads between urban planning and urban design. Drawing on these cases, it is suggested that issues tied to physical design are crucial in managing contemporary planning processes. The medium- and long-term strategy of a city can become effective through the design of a structural and spatial vision that takes into account morphological aspects and coherently prioritizes a set of development projects. Planning codes and urban policy tools can be improved through the preliminary control of typological and morphological requirements. In this sense, typical urban design themes and problems require further attention in both theoretical debates as well as in planning practice.