The Roots of the City–Countryside Relationship: A Lesson from Post-war Town Planning in Italy

The chapter investigates the origins of the urban/rural relationship concept in post-war town planning in Italy. It focuses on the profile of Italian planner Giovanni Astengo (1915–1990) and one of his major works, the Plan of Assisi (1955–58), where he applies an innovative methodology to analyse the local agrarian economy and the food system. The objective of the Plan is to achieve a balance between resources and income in the locality and ensure local community’s wellbeing. The relevant contribution of the Plan to post-war planning discourse in Italy lies in its complex understanding of the productive and landscape features of agricultural areas and the implications on the issues of food self-sufficiency and city/countryside functional interdependence.