In Favour of Spontaneous Urban Growth

The dynamics of the contemporary world has ruined the dream of permanence which dominated the field of planning for decades. The increasing amount and frequency of unpredicted urban transformations that take place in today’s cities have led to a state of urban development where planning and reality seems to be poles apart (Urban Catalyst, 2013). This reflects on the (re)development of modern cities and highlights the fragility, temporariness, vulnerability and inclination to constant change of the urban spatial forms. Within this context the traditional planning approaches of the past does not seem to be adaptable and flexible enough to bridge the gaps between the large-scale, long-term urban strategies and local, urgent needs (Urhahn, 2010; Bishop & Williams, 2012; Pfeifer, 2013). In order to deal with this issue the philosophical belief that “the only certainty is that everything changes” is adopted as a starting point of this design project. It focuses on formulating new, innovative, highly flexible modes of urban transformations, which can be an appropriate urban regeneration approach in 21st century. In particular, the developed method relies on morphogenesis approach, spontaneous urban growth and temporary land-uses that are operationalized within the context of Turin (Italy). Through the executed design experiment this project explores the practical application of the aforementioned concepts and provides a critical reflection on the current models of spatial (re)production.UrbanismUrbanismArchitecture and The Built Environmen