Urban proximity systems. Proximity as urban strategy for the southern periphery of Mantova
Creators: name: Borini, Martina
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Proximity
sustainability
resilience
inclusion
polycentrism

description: We are used to living in contemporary cities where time is marked by the dynamism and frenzy of activity that characterise them. The cities expand and transform relentlessly, making sure that citizens adapt to its changes; for this reason, work time, leisure time and living time are mostly spent by people necessarily commuting from one place to another to reach the different distant places in the city. At a certain point in history, however, this model fell down as it was deemed inadequate to solve the problems related to the economic and health crisis; the latter referring, for instance, to the COVID-19 pandemic that the country faced. This vision of a city of long distances to be travelled, therefore, has been joined by another concept: the one of proximity. The latter is not a newly discovered concept, but it has been taken up in urban planning in recent years, thanks in part to the introduction of the “15-minute city” concept defined by Carlos Moreno. The proximity, therefore, represents an attempt to converge life in a human-scale space, where everything people need can be found within a few minutes' walk or bicycle ride from home. It is possible to imagines a city diversified in functions, characterised by a mix of public and green spaces, residential areas, productive and commercial activities, where everything is linked thanks to the connections that encourage the slow mobility and the sustainable means of transport. By doing so, opportunities and dynamics are defined in the territory that can make people understand the essence of what constitutes the urban experience. I have tried to apply this concept in order to understand under which conditions proximity can generate new forms of living. After an initial phase of knowledge and investigation, for which I analysed some proximity projects in Paris, Barcelona, Melbourne and Milan, I felt it was necessary to try to ground this urban strategy. I concretized such a belief by choosing the southern periphery of Mantova's city as my project area. The lack of services, local activities, public spaces, and effective connections in this part of the city, means that it has become only a place of passage not experienced by people. The intention is to try to create an urban project in order to reactivate this peripheral zone, which is now void of identity and often abandoned by the citizens. The general idea is to define a polycentric vision that makes it possible to identify in the territory a series of centralities recognisable by function, which in turn are included in systems of urban proximity capable of establishing relations with their surroundings. These systems represent variable urban areas in which certain actions and interventions have been tried. It is to be acknowledged, that there are no models of a city of proximity that can be applied equally in all the urban situations, but there are only some guidelines that can foster proximity in the territory in order to achieve the inclusiveness, sustainability and resilience for the city.