27 May 2015

The lecture describes a city that exists, though it is little perceived and little governed as such. An uncertain city that risks becoming a periphery: perhaps more now than in the past.

The Italian Adriatic city, in the studies that so far describes this urbanization phenomena, appears comparable to a longitudinal sequence of settlements focused on maintaining its historical individuality under the homogenising pressure of the logic of out of scale linear urbanisation.

Instead it is becoming a sort of “supercity” of variable depth, an uninterrupted ribbon that extends for kilometres, composed of multiple patterns of settlement welded to a common infrastructural spine, polarised in correspondence with the transversal valleys of the inland areas and with relations that now also project towards the Balkan coast, giving form to the embryo of a Euro-Adriatic region that begins to impose itself on singular local or national dynamics”.

The lecture tries to answer these questions: what are the specific characteristics of the "Italian Adriatic city"? What are the distinguishing features? What are the implications on the cities of the coastal tourism?