Hypotheses of urban regeneration. Small towns in the Veneto region, Italy

This work considers the small towns of the Veneto region, Italy, as a case study, concentrating analysis and proposals for a new urban design on areas that has been affected by a rapid post 2nd world war reconstruction and by following building speculation, thus losing their organic unity with the surrounding parts. The violence that often characterizes the insertion in the twentieth century of disproportionate volumes into the urban fabric inherited from the medieval culture and enriched by Renaissance masterpieces is easily recognizable. This is the reason why a lower standard of living is now perceived, if we accept the idea that standard of living is proportionated to the level of culture expressed by the context. The methodology looks at the town as a result of its spatial structure. More than political, social, and economic systems, reasons for its special nature can be found because of its constancy. Planning new buildings starts from understanding the context, that is, its physical structure. The method adopted is based on studying the history of the place to understand the urban morphology of it. The physical specificity of the urban form is explored with the aim of elaborating a design process to reinforce the public space as a reference point for the community. The spatial aspects and formal image of the transformations have been studied as a premise for the design of the new architecture that has developed because of necessity and the events that have occurred in the territory. Intervening through a process of urban redevelopment inside the city involves measuring according to the values that have become rooted in the areas with the passage of time. Good regeneration practice must not leave recovering the old together with its values out of consideration. This point of view leads us to consider that urbanism as a group of skills and bureaucratic apparatuses must occupy itself with the city and above all with its formal structure rather than be occupied so much with the contents of the legal, financial-economic, and administrative order.