ABSTRACT
This chapter presents and discusses some of the outcomes of a recent research project commissioned by the Plan Urbanisme Construction et Architecture of the French Ministry for Ecology, Sustainable Development and Planning and coordinated by us at the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies of the Politecnico di Milano. The research project aimed to answer the main theme and question raised by the call for proposals, which is the following: How are contemporary insecurities influencing and shaping contemporary policies and projects of urban development in European cities? Our research project concerned two large Italian cities, Milan and Turin, and three urban areas in each (an area of urban rejuvenation; a social housing estate; and an area of new, large-scale urban development) that could facilitate investigation of the way public action is currently exercising its power in dealing with urban and social transformations in the face of the emerging frames of social and civil insecurities. Our first approach chose to explore and analyse urban policies and projects through the material spaces they produce. Moreover, we intended to stress the consideration of space as a concretion of public action, and we have assumed a definition of public action as the combined result of joined—and disjoined—actions and practices developed by public and private actors (Bricocoli & Savoldi, 2010). The focus on observing the ‘concrete life of places’ was to identify the missing links and lack of feedback that often manifest themselves in the process of conception of urban planning and design and its outcomes, as well as to offer insight on research in this field.
