Three Images of the Contemporary City

Three comprehensive and synthetic images of the contemporary city: the poly-centric metropolis, the urban archipelago and the generic city, seem to be pervasive in a vast panorama of narratives and discourses ranging from the geographer account to the spatial-development policy document, from the architectural criticism to the design summary. The aim of this paper is to investigate these three prevailing images considering them as real “influential metaphysics”, underlying the way urban territory is perceived, conceptualized and designed and to discuss their pertinence in empowering the project on the contemporary city.