Ricerc@Sapienza

We investigated local-scale urban profiles by analysing the spatial structure of 124 territorial indicators to identify possibly relevant dimensions influencing urban evolution and promoting socioeconomic transformation. To assess patterns and processes of urban expansion, Athens (Greece) was taken as a prototype of metropolitan systems with a diversified morphology and entropic functions.

The architectural culture of the twentieth century has addressed a very specific theme: the search for a rule of construction of open spaces in the contemporary city, which is identified and shared as was that of enclosed spaces in the pre-nineteenth and nineteenthcentury cities.1 Unfortunately the attempt is still failed, because, as declared by Vittorio Gregotti, the contemporary models and theories have degenerated into the deregulation of the city, where the relationship with open space has been transformed from a structuring element of urban places to dispersion and fragmentation.