Il disegno urbano nelle riviste italiane di architettura e urbanistica, 1945-1980

The research about meanings and ways in which Urban Design has been interpreted during last century in Italy involves some issues. The last ones especially deal with the meaning of the expression "Urban Design", the identification of the most significant sources, the definition of some interpretative categories. This article deals with some methodological issues necessary to start the outline of a critical phenomenology of Urban Design in the Italian architectural and town planning journals published between 1945 and 1980. It offers as well some first interpretative hypotheses of the outcomes of this research. Among others, the one that highlights the significant role played by Urban Design in the Italian architectural and town-planning culture of the late Twentieth Century.