ABSTRACT
Growing immigration flows are causing new challenges for urban planning and urban design in many cities of the Global North. The need for new places of worship for minority religions is a case in point. The chapter examines this issue using the case of Italian cities, and specifically the city of Rome. Italy is particularly interesting because, unlike other European countries, it has only recently experienced the phenomenon of immigration. Moreover, new immigrants are settling in historic cities, where the urban fabric is deeply imbued with specific cultural and religious traditions (particularly the Catholic religion, which has largely dominated the religious landscape of the country for centuries). Therefore, these new immigrants challenge traditional ways of conceiving and practicing urban design and planning. Drawing from the case study of Italy, the chapter proposes changes in urban design and planning practices to better address the needs of multicultural societies and cities.
