The Territories of Urbanism: The project as knowledge producer [Hardcover]

This book addresses the ability of the design of the city and the territory to produce knowledge; this hypothesis pertains to the tools and the operations of design by which the research itself is constructed. To this end, the book crosses physical and conceptual territories as the result of direct explorations connected with a design practice that has produced original knowledge. The project contains, manipulates, and produces concepts as concrete forms of action in space that interpret, abstract and, at times, generalize. Its tools make it possible to cut through layers of differences and complexity like a knife. The project describes and reveals processes of individualization, as it recognizes situations and uncovers possibilities. It considers the future and then reflects on the city as the basis for an original form of knowledge and awareness. After the crisis of expert knowledge, and during a period of progressive marginalization and simplification of the practice of the architect and urban designers, a re-consideration of the epistemological status of the project is fundamental to rethinking its social role and developing a critical vision of the world.

Part I: CONCEPTUAL TERRITORIES  Chapter 1: Rethinking urbanism  Territory 1: The project of isotropy: a research project  Chapter 2: THE CONCEPTS OF THE URBANISTS/I  Chapter 3: THE CONCEPTS OF THE URBANISTS/II  Territory 2: Conceptual shifts  Conclusion: A space of abstraction / Part II: TERRITORIES OF DESCRIPTION  Chapter 1: NEW TERRITORIES: A META-DESCRIPTION  Territory 3: The phantom of porosity  Chapter 2: PROJECT AS DESCRIPTION  Chapter 3: PROJECTS THAT DESCRIBE  Territory 4: Elementary landscapes / Part III: territories of the future  Chapter 1: FUTURE IS BACK  Territory 5: SCENARIOS OF DISPERSION  Chapter 2: PHENOMENOLOGY OF TIME  Territory 6: Paleochannels of history  Chapter 3: IMAGES OF THE FUTURE  Territory 7: Scenarios of living together / Conclusion: That is how lÓ-