40° International Making Cities Livable Conference Edoardo Salzano The Piazza and the City

1. 40° International Making Cities Livable ConferenceEdoardo SalzanoThe Piazza and the City The city is the square. A city without squares (without a square) is not a city. I speak about one kind of cities, not about any present city. I speak about the good European city: the city as the history of our civilisation build it, and as we want preserve it and restore it and build it today: for the people of today and for the people of tomorrow. The European City: that “uniquely european invention, intimately connected to the development of democratic and representorial self-government” (Suzanne Crawford Lennard) Edoardo Salzano, The Piazza and The City - http://eddyburg.it, eddysal@tin.it

2. Marcel Aymard, The Piazza in Mediterranean City • The public space of the city, where the man is held to appear, has a double identity. On one hand it is different from the home – from the site of the rest and the sleep, from the closed space, the private space, the feminine space, the space defended and to be defended. On the other hand, it is different from the flat country, from the empty country of the land, a open space but the space of the work and of the nature. • The public space of the city imposes himself as the space of the action without working: the site of the ceremonies and the festivals, of the gestures and of the games, of the leisure and of the jokes. • […] the city is organized for the exchanges between men: exchanges of signs and symbols also more than of goods. • The very centre of social life is not in the roads, it is in the piazza, where all the confused and chaotic circulation of the narrow streets flows. More and more defended from the trespassing of the privates, the piazza is the public space par excellence, a constant rule for town designing. It is the site of encounters and gossips, of the citizens assembly and of the mass manifestations, of the solemn decisions as of the capital punishments Edoardo Salzano, The Piazza and The City - http://eddyburg.it, eddysal@tin.it

3. Four main task of the piazza • The piazza is the catalyst for community engagement. • The piazza is a school for learning social behaviour • The piazza is the symbol, and the site of the representation, ofthe city identity. • The piazza is the market where the goods (the material, so as the im-material ones) are exchanged Edoardo Salzano, The Piazza and The City - http://eddyburg.it, eddysal@tin.it

4. A liveable City is the home of the community <<< Todi,Umbria, Italy >>>Culemburg, Nederland Edoardo Salzano, The Piazza and The City - http://eddyburg.it, eddysal@tin.it

5. A liveable City is the home of the community Aquisgranum, the main building and the chorus Edoardo Salzano, The Piazza and The City - http://eddyburg.it, eddysal@tin.it

6. the complexity of its functions and the richness of the interpersonal exchanges Edoardo Salzano, The Piazza and The City - http://eddyburg.it, eddysal@tin.it

7. the complexity of its functions and the richness of the interpersonal exchanges Tubingen, Deutschland Freiburg am Breisgau, Deutschland Capri, Italy

8. the centres of social life and the foci of the whole community Rome, Italy, Public Assembly Naples, Italy, The Market Sciacca, Italy, Carnival Edoardo Salzano, The Piazza and The City - http://eddyburg.it, eddysal@tin.it

9. A good relationship with its site and with the environment Carlofonte, Sicily, Italyfoto by G. Berengo Gardin Edoardo Salzano, The Piazza and The City - http://eddyburg.it, eddysal@tin.it

10. Some Piazza around Italy Greve in Chianti Faenza Vigevano Edoardo Salzano, The Piazza and The City - http://eddyburg.it, eddysal@tin.it

11. Siena, Italy - Piazza del Campo Piazza del Campo, Siena Edoardo Salzano, The Piazza and The City - http://eddyburg.it, eddysal@tin.it

12. Some Piazza, around Italy Ferrara, from www.carefree.com Edoardo Salzano, The Piazza and The City - http://eddyburg.it, eddysal@tin.it

13. What is the wealth of the open public spaces? Two sides of the question: • how does it go for the squares were they were leaving and liveable parts of the city – first of all in the historic centres? • how are the public spaces in the new parts of the cities – in the new settlements and in the new peripheries? Edoardo Salzano, The Piazza and The City - http://eddyburg.it, eddysal@tin.it

14. Four main causes of the risk • the disfiguring by arrogant and incongruous architectures • the invasion of car traffic and car parking • the flooding by mass tourism • the disappearing of normal functions Edoardo Salzano, The Piazza and The City - http://eddyburg.it, eddysal@tin.it

15. The disfiguring by arrogant and incongruous architectures Ulm, Rathaus Edoardo Salzano, The Piazza and The City - http://eddyburg.it, eddysal@tin.it

16. The disfiguring by arrogant and incongruous architectures Wien, San Stephan Platz Edoardo Salzano, The Piazza and The City - http://eddyburg.it, eddysal@tin.it

17. Also very little utilities can help to make alive a public space: a mail-box and a bancomat and some telephones can be useful, if the neighborhood is not so big to justify a bank or a post-office The open public spaces must be at the very Center of neighborhood. Many journeys must cross in it or near it. The public spaces don’t live only as a scenario, but typically as focus of a community The open public spaces must also be the Hinge between the neighborhood and the city - between indoors and outdoors. A hinge in two senses: the door from which you enter and the door from which you go out and you enter the city The open public spaces must be the sites where happened the events that can interest the community In the public open spaces you have the presence of Nature. You can have the view of the sea or some trees were you had once water of canals, or simple birds Some goals for leavable squares They must be partially closed, protected, but they must be in the same time opened on a perspective, a panorama, a flow The buildings that surround it must compose a chorus of background buildings, but in the same time we must have some soloist. The shape of the space must be regular, but also varied. Curve lines and straight ones can very well combine together The furniture must encourage different uses from different kind of persons The open public spaces must be alive and animated, in many parts of each day and in all the days of the week Edoardo Salzano, The Piazza and The City - http://eddyburg.it, eddysal@tin.it