Speakers
Description
The territorial scale is the most relevant and visible testing ground for the current ecological transition, given its systemic character as a complex interface of environment and society. In the context of post-growth planning strategies and policies, territorial design assumes a crucial role as a tool for implementing and realizing the transition itself. Non-metropolitan regions, and especially those located far away from globally interconnected urban cores, do represent an interesting experimental ground for post-growth territorial design due to their inherent features: ecological richness yet fragility, demographic stagnation with limited attractiveness, widespread small-scaled rurubanization, traditional yet recognizable economic system. The northeasternmost Italian region of Friuli Venezia Giulia provides a relevant example, even at the European scale, of such contexts. Post-growth orientations are here already fueled by long-standing growth-passive trends, which however does not mean necessarily socioeconomic marginality. How these specific “growthless” contexts could approach post-growth strategies? How can territorial design as a planning approach support the implementation of post-growth strategies, that is, to address transition?
These questions are at the base of the proposed contribution, which investigates the issue through an ongoing research project dealing with the definition of the new Regional Plan of Friuli Venezia Giulia (in Italian: Piano di Governo del Territorio – Territorial government plan). The planning and political initiative has been recently launched in the Region as a chance to overcome the previous failed attempts as well as to replace an outdated plan from the “growth era”. The research, which closely collaborates at the development of the new regional plan, is digging into the emerging concept of territorial regeneration as an integrated strategy and tool to effectively transfer transition objectives into large-scale developments, trying to apply the same on a revised structural framework of the territory itself. Different strategies and design forms are being developed to foster the confrontation among the planning officers, identifying among others the key territorial structures (organized around settlements, ecologies and infrastructures) as well as the appropriate planning levels and systems to implement large-scale regeneration. The paper will explain in detail this overall approach, showing the emerging opportunities and also the possible shortcomings, especially in terms of planning tools and multiscalar design, while focusing on the specific territorial typology of Friuli Venezia Giulia and the potential synergies with similar situations in Italy and Europe.
| Keywords | territorial design; non-metropolitan regions; regional planning; territorial transition; growth-passive contexts; |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | Yes |
