La città è il messaggio. Pianta ortogonale, democrazia e media

The article investigates the link between the grid plan and democracy through ancient, modern and contemporary examples. The grid plan is interpreted as the medium of a transparent political message of civic equality. Today, the political message of urban layouts is more difficult to convey because of the unresolved conflict between a city that works through territorial borders on the one hand, and a nascent city that works through digital networks on the other. In order to cope with this complexity, scholars of contemporary urban space should investigate the impacts that new means of transport and communication have had on the city: from alphabetic writing to mobile phones. The article promotes this goal relating the examples of orthogonal city planning with the technological development of communication media.