Ricerc@Sapienza

An appealing city, if we assume that the concept of beauty goes beyond purely aesthetic limits, it’s first and above all a city where people live well. It is an “adequate city”, capable of communicating adequacy (the concept of "adequacy" is used in the general-holistic sense that the philosopher Lucacks attributed to it in the treatise on Aesthetics). It’s a healthy city, that can promote virtuous lifestyles, allowing as many people as possible to spend their lives in fullness and satisfaction over time and in good health.
It’s probable that the city will become paradoxically – now that the urban population has surpassed that of non-urban areas and is constantly growing – in a antrophophagus system; However, as already mentioned, it was born to improve the quality of life of man. The city runs the risk of losing its pedagogical and maieutic role if it cannot transmit positive values and promote virtuous lifestyles.
On the other hand, it’s a fact that the imaginary of the contemporary city is linked to movement and congestion and is negatively represented by the disorder, the non-integration of infrastructures and traffic.
The issue of health is closely linked to the quality of the habitat and this is fundamental to guide our reflections and our activity as designers. In this context, it becomes essential to understand how the urban space can positively lead the spontaneous behavior of people, redirecting them towards a more active life in which movement is part of everyday life and produces beneficial effects on health. Therefore, it’s a priority detect proposals, strategies at a metropolitan and local scale that encourage movement, particularly walking and cycling.
The contribution intends to develop these themes in the context of the contemporary urban project.