ABSTRACT

The heart of any contemporary metropolis is very different from the International Space Station orbiting the Earth, but they are both urban. The urban phenomenon is spread around the world, connected by streets and bridges, but also by garbage and broadcast frequencies. In recent decades, there has been an intensified transformation from clearly defined urban nodes to systems of human concentrations in much more extensive and diffused areas. The urban population will practically double by 2050. This mass growth spreads across the world as one of the trademark phenomena of the past century and this one so far. Urban areas are spaces of innovation and concentrate more than 80% of the global GDP. They are the protagonist of the knowledge and agglomeration economies and have the possibility to effectively and sustainably address many problems thanks to the ideas born from the intense human interaction that characterizes them.