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URBAN ESSAYS
Ideas, observations and critical reflections on cities, ecology and everyday urban life.
Urban Essays is a curated collection of long-form articles and shorter visual notes developed through more than twenty years of work in urban design, master planning and landscape architecture between Europe and Southeast Asia.
Some pieces expand ideas first introduced on LinkedIn; others are original essays written specifically for this platform. Together, they explore how urban form, nature, climate, mobility and public life interact in shaping the contemporary city.
Featured Essays presents the longer and more developed articles.
Urban Notes collects shorter observations, arguments and visual provocations.
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Urbanity: a definition
Nel testo ‘Esplorare la città’ (1992) Hulf Hannerz ha cercato di interpretare la città da una prospettiva relazionale, cercando di mettere l’accento sulle situazioni sociali, sulla partecipazione degli individui ad esse, osservando la città dal punto di vista della vita sociale dei cittadini. La premessa del suo discorso è l’interpretazione della città come raggruppamento di individui che sono esseri sociali in primo luogo attraverso i loro ruoli. Osservando le pratiche socia
Francesco Procacci
Nov 3, 20192 min read
The paradox of citizenship in the gated communities
Il caso delle comunità recintate (‘gated communities’) offre un esempio indicativo di come il processo di aggregazione di tante proprietà private porti ad un vero e proprio paradosso della cittadinanza. Una definizione di comunità recintata può essere sintetizzata nei termini seguenti: si tratta di aree residenziali con una restrizione all’accesso nelle quali normalmente gli spazi pubblici sono privatizzati; si tratta di aree costruite in funzione della sicurezza, con precisi
Francesco Procacci
Nov 3, 20193 min read
Living in a theme park
Expatriates real life in a tropical global city The experience of an amusement park is that of its hedonistic enjoyment, linked to the exaltation of pleasures and sensations, sounds and smells with a short time horizon, therefore linked to the maximization of sensory, emotional and erotic experiences in the shortest time available, allowed by the payment of the entrance ticket and usually within one or two days. Living in an amusement city or "Theme Park City" refers not onl
Francesco Procacci
Nov 3, 20193 min read
Green roofs to make up for real parks
Rethinking of urban planning standards in the globalisation era and crisis of the local and national governments. It is becoming more and more frequent, in architectural and scale design practices of major urban interventions, especially in countries with strong urban development dynamics such as South East Asia and Vietnam, to propose "green" solutions, placing mostly trees on the facade and in the balconies or unlikely lawns on top of the roofs. This trend is obviously not
Francesco Procacci
Nov 3, 20193 min read
Feng Shui: is that magical?
Another myth in the daily activity of architectural and urban planning in the realities of South East Asia are the rules of Feng Shui. Feng Shui is a pseudoscience originating from China, which claims to be a pseudoscience. Translated from the Chinese word "water and wind" , principles that literally can inspire the design of human settlements as well as individual buildings. Every designer who works in Asian contexts knows how important it is to design according to this pri
Francesco Procacci
Nov 3, 20192 min read
Gods of GFA: a confession
This is my confession, compared to 14 years of professional activity as urban planner in Vietnam and in South East Asia The first thing they teach you when you start working for an urban planning design office is the GFA: gross floor area . In Italy it is called gross floor surface (SLP). This is the surface of the overall construction plan, bounded by the perimeter walls of the building and which may or may not include extensions of the same such as terraces and balconies d
Francesco Procacci
Nov 3, 20193 min read
A private golf course in my garden
The importance of the local and urban planning dimension of citizenship as a constitutive dimension of local communities A "private golf course in my garden" is the tendency to design ever more exclusive residential communities, even with a mini golf course inside, as in the case of the new luxury neighborhoods of Phu My Hung in Saigon in Vietnam, according to a model of American gated communities that destroys urban values and the social, open and democratic character of ci
Francesco Procacci
Nov 3, 20194 min read
Hands over Saigon
The hands on the city is the translation of the speculative and predatory thrusts of private and financial capital on the public goods of the community and their plunder such as roads, parks, services and equipment of general interest "Hands over the city" (Italian: Le mani sulla città) is a 1963 drama film directed by Francesco Rosi. A film of civil commitment, it is a ruthless denunciation of corruption and speculation in Italy in the 1960s, the years of the economic and c
Francesco Procacci
Nov 3, 20193 min read
Designing new cities across Asia
Describing and illustrating more than 10 years of master planning and urban design in South East Asia and other Asian Countries is not an easy operation, especially in a “ portfolio ” format. Nevertheless, I can point out few main issues that we (as a team) have always faced during any master plan design, especially in a problematic context of a developing country. Local context (integration) New urban developments are designed seeking the integration between the new function
Francesco Procacci
Nov 3, 20192 min read
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