Contributions to the debate on the teaching of urban planning and planning

Abstract

The Urban planning needs a cyclical disciplinary renewal to respond adequately to the transformations of the society within which it operates. The last twenty years have been characterized by substantial changes in relationship to new urban and territorial issues. In particular, the new urban question, analysed by Bernardo Secchi, focuses on three aspects that are as critical as they are fundamental for the city of the new millennium, namely climate change, accessibility and urban safety. Moreover, there are also procedural and operational changes, as well as the evolution of stakeholders: this leads to the need for more flexible training courses and more effective teaching methodologies.
In the professional field, the planner has always encountered obstacles in his work, also in relation to an operational rivalry with engineers and architects. The official recognition of the urban planner’s work took place only in 2001, renaming the Order of Architects into “Order of Architects, Planners, Landscape Architects and Conservators”. A few months ago, the CNAPPC defined a reform plan that once again places the architect in a generalist perspective, as an expert in all spatial issues at any scale and in any field, effectively making urban planning, like other disciplinary sectors, a post-graduate specialization to be entrusted to work experience in the field.
In foreign countries, on the other hand, although there is still a certain overlap of skills with traditional architects and engineers, the figure of the urban planner appears to be widely recognized, in the professional sphere, within public bodies and in specialist and private consultancy. The skills of this figure range from site planning to urban design, from territorial analysis to the application of programs and policies that include social participation and the use of information technology and the treatment of big data.
This issue of the TRIA magazine aims to explore the theoretical ideas of the XII INU Study Day dedicated to teaching urbanism and planning, through reflections and suggestions for the training of urban planners.