PUBLICNESS: LE SFIDE DELLA DIMENSIONE PUBBLICA NELLE CITTÀ E NEI TERRITORI
37th Conference of Società Italiana degli Urbanisti (SIU)
Milan, 18-20 June 2025
The public dimension lies at the heart of profound transformations that are reshaping its meaning and significance across many domains of collective life, including those related to the role and responsibility of urban planning, as well as the practices of planning, design, and governance of cities and territories.
Publicness is the English term that effectively synthesises a broad and heterogeneous set of aspects defining the “condition of being public”—a condition that today appears increasingly eroded by multiple and diverging social, political, economic, demographic, and climatic factors. These dynamics have significant consequences for the forms of public action: its goals, target groups, fields of application, and ultimately the very nature of spaces and services.
Placing publicness and its different meanings at the centre of debate means reflecting on the very purpose of doing urban planning. It entails a critical interrogation of what “public” means; who builds or sustains the public dimension, and how, in balance with legitimate private interests; with what responsibilities and tools; and who the intended beneficiaries—present and future, vulnerable or not, temporary or stable, human or non-human—of projects, plans, and policies are. It also means bringing back to the core of reflection on planning practice its political dimension first and foremost, but also its economic and managerial dimensions—inescapable when the goal is to promote long-term environmental, economic, and social equity and sustainability.
On these themes, and on the challenges that such changes pose to practice, the 27th National Conference of the Italian Society of Urban Planners (SIU) aims to invite contributions and stimulate discussion.
Organisers: SIU – Società Italiana degli Urbanisti, and the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies (DAStU) – Politecnico di Milano, in collaboration with CRAFT – Competence Center Anti Fragile Territories (DAStU) and the Department of Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering (ABC) – Politecnico di Milano.
Conference proceedings (forthcoming)
Conference contributions
- “I SERVIZI ECOSISTEMICI CULTURALI NEL DISEGNO DI UNA RETE CICLABILE TRA VERONA E VICENZA”, Silvia Marchesini, Catherine Dezio, Mauro Masiero, Session 4 – Publicness come accessibilità e diritto alla mobilità nella città e nei territori – Mobilità attiva