Urban morphology in urbanism: towards a more holistic paradigm.

With an unprecedented speed more people worldwide choose to live in cities. These rapid changes are radically transforming the structures of our cities. The new settlements are unsustainable with isolated pockets of open space patterns, fragmented and mono-functional patterns, reinforcing social segregation and car-dependency. This ever-expanding city contributes to creating disaster-vulnerable environments which exacerbate the negative effects of extreme weather events and natural disaster which threaten the livelihood, health and safety of billions of urbanites worldwide. The answer to reconstruct and protect the city is often inadequate. The key lessons of Hurricane Katrina is related to what humans did to nature and how it came back to haunt all. It has demonstrated the appalling consequences of maintaining vulnerable populations in dangerous locations, the low-lying areas of the city. It is time to re-adopt more traditional urban morphology solutions that may seem now radical. The complexity of urban phenomena requires a scientific awareness capable of catalyzing different disciplines and expertise within the urban fabrics. We need to work with nature’s own processes to better protect the city and the world. A design-led planning practices, as traditional urban morphology in urbanism, have been re-gaining importance worldwide: a practices based upon physical form, watershed catchment patterns, ecological network, to foster tailored place-based spatial solutions by resettling scales and views in a more holistic way. The paper aims to raise questions in order to define the scientific coordinates concerning the changing urban form assumed effects, and how these disrupted prevailing regional and urban planning paradigms.