Not Just Plan

Italian town planning has for long been centred on the “master plan”, in practice and in discussions on the contents of plans, to find a “scientific” basis, and perhaps to outline their “political” nature, or to raise the professional status of town planners. Which seems odd, with an eye to history. Ever since the nineteenth century, in fact, town planning has been the prerogative of engineers, with plans being essentially “designs” marked out on maps, on which future urban expansions were indicated. Far less, on the other hand, were marked the parts already existing to be upgraded.