urban essays

Cities have always been described through what we see. Buildings. Skylines. Architecture. But cities are not shaped by what we see. They are shaped by what makes them possible. Infrastructure has always been the invisible force behind urban life. It determines how cities grow, how they expand, how they connect, and how they function. Each historical era has been defined by a dominant system —one that quietly reorganized space, movement, and society itself. Today, we are once

Cities are often described through their buildings, their infrastructure, their growth. But what defines them more deeply is something less visible: the way space is shared, or not shared, between the people who inhabit them. There is a delicate balance in every urban environment between what is private and what is collective, between what belongs to individuals and what belongs to everyone. This balance is not fixed. It shifts over time, influenced by economic pressures, cul

We’ve learned to put trees on towers and call it green. But that’s not green architecture. 👉 Real green architecture is not about planting trees on top of buildings. It’s about recognizing them, and planting them in the ground. Because they already build the architecture. 🌳 They shape space 🌿 They regulate climate 🪺 They host biodiversity 💡 They carry meaning 🫁 They absorb carbon This post compares five urban climates — Tropical. Temperate. Mediterranean. Alpine. Arid.

Sidewalks tell the story of our cities. And maybe also their future. 1️⃣ Before the sidewalk: Streets were shared — people, animals, carts all in the same space. 2️⃣ The birth of the sidewalk: Industrial age. Cars took the road, pedestrians were pushed to the margins. 3️⃣ The boulevard age: Sidewalks widened, trees and civic life returned — but still separated from traffic. 4️⃣ The end of the sidewalk: The real innovation is not a wider strip. It’s dissolving the strip itself

The recent post about forest groups  in cities generated an unexpectedly intense discussion. Many readers immediately recognized the ecological intuition behind the idea: trees rarely grow alone in natural environments. They grow in groups where soil, shade, water and biological interactions create a shared living system. Others, however, reacted with skepticism. Some questioned whether clustered vegetation could reduce visibility and affect safety in public spaces. Others ra

why urban nature cannot be designed as a green layer ​​ The post A Tree Is Not a Pin resonated with many readers because it touched a recurring problem in contemporary urban design. ​ In drawings, masterplans and planning documents, trees often appear as small green symbols placed across the plan. They seem to represent nature. Yet in many cases they are simply graphic placeholders—signs that indicate environmental intention rather than ecological reality.​ ​ The question be

Slide 1: 🚫 This is not nature. It’s architectural ego in green clothing. An iconic object. A disconnected episode. A visual gesture that does nothing to reshape how we live, move, breathe. Slide 2: ✅ This is. A boulevard with trees that have space. A green urban system that cools, shades, connects. A living street — not a rooftop illusion. We don’t need forests on buildings. We need forests in the city. Design is not just about making objects look sustainable. It’s about mak

Urban nature didn’t begin with vertical forests. It began with boulevards. In 19th-century Paris, Haussmann’s tree-lined avenues transformed the city: they brought light, order, shade, and a new rhythm of public life. They were modern. Monumental. Civilized. But let’s be honest: 🌿 These boulevards were not ecosystems. They were aesthetic infrastructures — elegant, but ecologically inert. Today, we need more than promenades. We need living systems. Urban nature is not a decor

Same density. Different mindset. Two models of social housing — One repeats. One regenerates. On the left: Standardized blocks. Efficient. Isolated. Lifeless. Nature is residual. Community is abstract. On the right: Still social housing. Still affordable. But fragmented, varied, rooted in soil and care. Trees have space. People have reasons to stay outside. It’s not just “green.” It’s living structure. 🌿 Urban Nature is Not a Decoration — It’s the foundation of social inclus

Too many “iconic” projects move squares and courtyards to rooftops or inside private buildings. Spaces that are: 🚫 Hard to reach 🚫 Often semi‑private 🚫 Disconnected from daily life They look spectacular in photos. But irrelevant for real urban life. ✅ Real courtyards are different: 🌿 Public or semi‑public 🏃‍♀️ Accessible, permeable, lived in 🌳 Shade, trees, biodiversity 👨‍👩‍👧 Places for connection, play, care 1️⃣ The value of courtyards A well‑designed courtyard is n

For decades, Milan’s urban policies have focused on 🏙️ central towers and high‑end projects. But no large‑scale territorial vision has emerged — one that could: 🌱 Redistribute nature across the metropolis 🏘️ Improve quality of life in first‑ring municipalities 🤝 Create new social and economic connections 📜 A legacy of rings Milan’s story is made of concentric layers: 🏰 Medieval walls 🛡️ Spanish bastions 🚋 19th‑century boulevards 🚗 Ring roads & motorways Now it’s time

I’m tired of hearing the propaganda. The “smart city” has become an ideology — one that puts engineering above architecture, urban planning, design, and even the ethics and responsibility of those shaping our cities. Yes — technologies can make urban life better: • Energy-efficient street lighting. • Apps for bike-sharing or e-mobility. • Futuristic panels that “clean the air” with algae. All fine. All useful. But without a structural vision — I’d say infrastructural — of how

Critical Notes and Projects for a New Green City “The future of green cities won’t grow from rooftops. It starts at street level — with shade, roots, and shared air.” Forget green rooftops and glossy façades. This book is a manifesto against the illusion of decorative ecology — and a call to design cities as living ecosystems. From Milan to Saigon, from the Alps to the tropics, Francesco Procacci exposes the myths of greenwashing and presents concrete alternatives: 🌳 Trees a

Urban planning was born with a modernist idea: divide the city by functions. Homes here, schools there. Factories at the edge. Each area with one purpose, clearly separated from the rest. But cities — and lives — don’t work like that anymore. Let’s look at four traditional urban functions and how they’re shifting: 📍 Home is no longer just “home” A place for work, care, learning, entertainment. One room, many lives. 📍 The street is a plaza Not just for cars. In many cities,

Urban Lessons from 20 Years in Vietnam A book by Francesco Procacci “You don’t frame the South to define it. You frame it to finally see where you’re standing.” This is not a manual. Not a portfolio. Not a memoir. It’s a collection of urban moments — lived scenes, unexpected lessons, built projects (and sometimes erased ones) — through which I slowly learned to rethink my profession. And myself. What you’ll find in this book 📍 20 years of design practice in Vietnam , shared

Milan and Saigon: A Dialogue on Water, Memory, and Urban Futures What happens when a city forgets its waters? And what future can we imagine if it chooses to remember? Milan and Ho Chi Minh City , two cities as distant as Europe and Southeast Asia, are brought together in this short visual essay—not by their similarities, but by the contrast in their relationship with water. Milan, once a city shaped by its Navigli  canals, buried its waters  in pursuit of modernity. Streets

Placing New York City's Central Park in the center of Saigon at its correct scale is not simply a naïve Photoshop exercise. This is a provocation to support the idea that the population of the metropolitan city of Ho Chi Minh City and its neighboring provinces strongly needs a regional park of such size to host countless recreational and sporting activities, as well as representing a green lung and home to biodiversity.  In this short research I have analyzed the most importa

The Great Ring of Hanoi is a visionary project and proposal for the creation of a large linear ring park for the Vietnamese capital city, of such dimensions as to be visible even from space (like the great wall of China). It is a project that takes inspiration from the Great Green Belt of London, a fundamental piece in the culture of urban and regional planning worldwide. In this particular case the green belt really takes the form of a large green ring, with a radius of 14 k

By living for 20 years in Ho Chi Minh City, I felt the necessity to create a "vision" for its southern region. I believe that one of the needs of the vast current urban region is to enhance the network of its rivers and canals, which can form the backbone for imagining a different urban development , more oriented towards green eco-compatible models. In this master plan I try to imagine this different development model, through the creation of an "eco urban park", that is, an

How can city planning encourage more sustainable cycle-pedestrian mobility? 🚲 🛴 🚶‍♂️ Based on my academic researches and my twenty years of experience in the urban design sector, it is possible to design cities more people and cycle friendly, for the benefit of the overall urban environment and the people health and safety. This brief research contains my main considerations and key points on the topic, with the hope that it can be useful for the community interested in th