Design and the transformation of cities

The relation between design and the city has changed considerably over the last years. Quite a few factors have interacted to produce this change: some are bound to the evolution of design culture and practice itself; some are bound to the transformation of cities; and some are bound to the transformation of social relations and their interaction with technologies. In this context, the traditional disciplines of urban planning and architecture have undertaken profound transformations, but in the view of the author, the major changes occurred in the design that used to be focused on the small scale, where we had a progressive expansion of the territories of interest and application, which completely changed the role that design can play in the transformation of cities. The purpose of this chapter is to offer an overview of the evolution of the relationships between design and the city. The author discusses the main practices of design applied to cities from the early 1970s to the present day. The discussion introduces the different practices of design for cities as a consequence of the radical transformation of the design discipline. Then, evolution of some experiences, like that of the Milan “Fuorisalone”, is illustrated as clear representations of how the visions of the city that the author described coexist and are connected with the steady evolution of the culture of design.