Urban proximity: from theoretical evolution to new planning strategy. The case study of Mantova

The Covid-19 pandemic significantly impacted daily life, shaking economies and healthcare systems, while revealing the vulnerabilities of contemporary cities. Progressively, cities designed for efficiency and specialization evolved into fragmented spaces characterized by different functional areas. This subdivision required constant people’s movement between zones to reach diverse services, highlighting and creating vulnerabilities that were exposed and collapsed during the pandemic emergency. The health emergency’s radical confinement imposed by Covid-19 disrupted the ‘city of distances’ model, as defined by MANZINI (2021), where everything requires long distances. It also accelerated other urban crises related to social, public health, environmental, and well-being issues. The need to rethink cities emerged, focusing on enhancing public and green spaces near residential areas and essential services for citizens to improve quality of life and create more resilient, sustainable cities. This shift required transitioning from a ′city of distances′ to a ′city of proximity′. The concept of proximity envisions human scale cities with easily accessible amenities for all, reachable on foot or bicycle. It includes a ′functional proximity′, combining an integration of public spaces, residences, and activities, with a ′relational proximity′, fostering connections between individuals and communities. Proximity encourages relationships, collaboration, shared identities, and mutual care to improve quality of life. Given this awareness, it became essential to rethink city planning to address ongoing urban challenges. Also, implementing proximity as an urban strategy could guide regeneration processes, creating dynamic cities with diverse functions, green spaces, and sustainable mobility. It should be emphasized that the concept of proximity is not new in urban planning discipline; it builds on principles studied and shared by many researchers in both national and international debates. To integrate proximity into planning, it is necessary to rediscover and reinterpret the model of the past and understand the features and characteristics that allowed for their effective urban functioning at the neighborhood scale, designed for human scale. Rediscovering the organizing principles of these urban models represents the starting point of the research to rethink contemporary cities and their contemporary issues according to the evolving challenges. In this direction, Mantova represents a significant case study for exploring how urban proximity can be integrated into local planning tools.