The paper states the need to rethink the planning approach that deals with housing developments of the future city. Considerations regarding the scale of the project, its role in a wider temporal context and the identity of the site where new extensions will be located,are necessary considerations in the field of urbanism. Between 2008 and 2009 Catalonia became a research field of exceptional interest in this series of reflections. During this short period of time a huge effort in planning and managingpolicies for housing development was done. AS AS a result of itthree major key Plans where undertaken by public administration. CSA CSA CSA rquitectes, the planning office of which the author of the article is a founding partner, was the only invited firm to actively participate in all three processes. Through the description of CSA CSA CSA rquitectes’ proposalsthe article argues the need to take in special consideration the concepts of scale, time and identity when planning new housing areas.
The role of architect in city-making has been the theme of unsolved debates in urbanism. Committed as performers and recipients of a holistic knowledge, architects-urbanists keep acting, still today, in-between idealism and pragmatism. The city, being frequently defined as a text, becomes the molten object where projects brought to materiality are able to build an intangible narrative. The paper presents the ongoing research 6by6, a compared analysis of cities where the apparent contradiction between idealism and practice is solved. Acknowledged American and European cities are analysed as a mean to illustrate the connections between the most extreme city-narrative – architectural manifestos ‒ with the most tangible material commitment – actual and implemented urban projects. This article announces them and reports on the manifestoes they are the cores of.
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