Ancient Rome and the Modern Italian State


Book Description

Using Rome as a case study, this book examines how architecture and urbanism can be used to construct national identity.




Putting Tradition into Practice: Heritage, Place and Design


Book Description

This book gathers more than 150 peer-reviewed papers presented at the 5th INTBAU International Annual Event, held in Milan, Italy, in July 2017. The book represents an invaluable and up-to-date international exchange of research, case studies and best practice to confront the challenges of designing places, building cultural landscapes and enabling the development of communities. The papers investigate methodologies of representation, communication and valorization of historic urban landscapes and cultural heritage, monitoring conservation management, cultural issues in heritage assessment, placemaking and local identity enhancement, as well as reconstruction of settlements affected by disasters. With contributions from leading experts, including university researchers, professionals and policy makers, the book addresses all who seek to understand and address the challenges faced in the protection and enhancement of the heritage that has been created.




Rethinking Fascism


Book Description

This book takes up the stimuli of new international historiography, albeit focusing mainly on the two regimes that undoubtedly provided the model for Fascist movements in Europe, namely the Italian and the German. Starting with a historiographical assessment of the international situation, vis-à-vis studies on Fascism and National Socialism, and then concentrate on certain aspects that are essential to any study of the two dictatorships, namely the complex relationships with their respective societies, the figures of the two dictators and the role of violence. This volume reaches beyond the time-frame encompassing Fascism and National Socialism experiences, directing the attention also toward the period subsequent to their demise. This is done in two ways. On the one hand, examining the uncomfortable architectural legacy left by dictatorships to the democratic societies that came after the war. On the other hand, the book addresses an issue that is very much alive both in the strictly historiographical and political science debate, that is to say, to what extent can the label of Fascism be used to identify political phenomena of these current times, such as movements and parties of the so-called populist and souverainist right.




The Hieroglyphics of Space


Book Description

'Spatial images', wrote the German cultural theorist, Siegfried Kracauer, 'are the dreams of society. Wherever the hieroglyphics of any spatial image are deciphered, there the basis of social reality presents itself.' But how exactly are these spatial images to be deciphered? Hieroglyphics of Space addresses this question with a series of insightful essays on some of the great metropolitan centres of the world. From political interpretations to gendered analyses, from methods of mapping to filmic representations, and from studies in consumption to economic surveys, the volume offers a range of strategies for reading and experiencing the modern metropolis.




The Third Rome, 1922-43


Book Description

What kind of city was the Fascist 'third Rome'? Imagined and real, rooted in the past and announcing a new, 'revolutionary' future, Fascist Rome was imagined both as the ideal city and as the sacred centre of a universal political religion. Kallis explores this through a journey across the sites, monuments, and buildings of the fascist capital.




Urban Planning in Sub-Saharan Africa


Book Description

Cities in Sub-Saharan Africa are unequally confronted with social, economic and environmental challenges, particularly those related with population growth, urban sprawl, and informality. This complex and uneven African urban condition requires an open discussion of past and current urban planning practices and future reforms. Urban Planning in Sub-Saharan Africa gives a broad perspective of the history of urban planning in Sub-Saharan Africa and a critical view of issues, problems, challenges and opportunities confronting urban policy makers. The book examines the rich variety of planning cultures in Africa, offers a unique view on the introduction and development of urban planning in Sub-Saharan Africa, and makes a significant contribution against the tendency to over-generalize Africa’s urban problems and Africa’s urban planning practices. Urban Planning in Sub-Saharan Africa is written for postgraduate students and advanced undergraduates, researchers, planners and other policy makers in the multidisciplinary field of Urban Planning, in particular for those working in Spatial Planning, Architecture, Geography, and History.




Città e guerra : difese, distruzioni, permanenze delle memorie e dell’immagine urbana. Tomo II : tracce e patrimoni


Book Description

[Italiano]: In un momento così significativo per la storia europea e mondiale, questo volume vuole essere la raccolta di riflessioni scientifiche condotte sui rapporti tra le scelte politiche, le azioni militari e la fisionomia delle città e del paesaggio urbano, sull’evoluzione delle strutture e delle tecniche di difesa, sulla rappresentazione della guerra e dei suoi effetti sull’immagine urbana, sul recupero delle tracce della memoria cittadina. Da una parte il campo delle Digital Humanities apre nuove prospettive per studiare l'immagine della città prima, durante e dopo la guerra, dall’altro le tecnologie digitali impegnano studiosi e ricercatori di varie discipline: in particolare nell’ambito del disegno viene esplorato il ruolo della rappresentazione nella formulazione dei progetti urbani di difesa e nella documentazione degli eventi bellici e delle tracce lasciate dai conflitti, mentre nell’ambito del restauro vengono approfondite le sfide teoriche e pratiche imposte dai danni arrecati dai conflitti ai centri storici, passando in rassegna casi studio, soluzioni e dibattiti relativi alla conservazione del patrimonio urbano coinvolto in azioni di guerra, con un'attenzione particolare all'identità e alla memoria collettiva./[English]: At such a significant moment in European and world history, this volume aims to be a collection of scientific reflections about the relationships between political choices, military actions and the physiognomy of cities and the urban landscape, about the evolution of defence structures and techniques, about the representation of war and its effects on the urban image, and about the recovery of the traces of city memory. On the one hand the field of Digital Humanities opens up new perspectives to study the image of the city before, during and after the war, on the other hand digital technologies engage academics and researchers from various disciplines: In particular, in the area of drawing, the role of representation in the formulation of urban defence projects and in the documentation of wartime events and the traces left behind by conflicts is explored, while in the area of conservation, the theoretical and practical challenges imposed by the damage caused by conflicts to historic centres are explored, reviewing case studies, solutions and debates relating to the conservation of urban heritage involved in wartime actions, with a focus on identity and collective memory.




Reconstructing Italy


Book Description

Reconstructing Italy traces the postwar transformation of the Italian nation through an analysis of the Ina-Casa plan for working class housing, established in 1949 to address the employment and housing crises. Government sponsored housing programs undertaken after WWII have often been criticized as experiments that created more social problems than they solved. The neighborhoods of Ina-Casa stand out in contrast to their contemporaries both in terms of design and outcome. Unlike modernist high-rise housing projects of the period, Ina-Casa neighborhoods are picturesque and human-scaled and incorporate local construction materials and methods resulting in a rich aesthetic diversity. And unlike many other government forays into housing undertaken during this period, the Ina-Casa plan was, on the whole, successful: the neighborhoods are still lively and cohesive communities today. This book examines what made Ina-Casa a success among so many failed housing experiments, focusing on the tenuous balance struck between the legislation governing Ina-Casa, the architects who led the Ina-Casa administration, the theory of design that guided architects working on the plan, and an analysis of the results-the neighborhoods and homes constructed. Drawing on the writings of the architects, government documents, and including brief passages from works of neorealist literature and descriptions of neorealist films by Pier Paolo Pasolini, Italo Calvino and others, this book presents a portrait of the postwar struggle to define a post-Fascist Italy.




Routledge Handbook of Sport and Legacy


Book Description

What remains of a great sporting spectacle after the last race is run or the final match is played? How can the vast expense of mounting such events be justified? What if there is nothing left behind or what if the legacy is negative, a costly infrastructure which is unused or a debt-ridden host city? The Routledge Handbook of Sport and Legacy addresses perhaps the most important issue in the hosting of major contemporary sporting events: the problem of ‘legacy’. It offers a rigorous, innovative and comparative insight into this contested concept from interdisciplinary and practical perspectives. Major events must now have a conscious, credible and defined policy for legacy to meet public expectations. The book provides a comprehensive survey of the various kinds of legacy that can be delivered, as well as a close examination of the potential benefits and practical challenges involved in each. From ‘hard’ legacies, such as stadia and infrastructure, to ‘soft’ legacies including skill development, attitude change and capacity building, the book offers both a historical case study and an innovative strategic management approach, and establishes the limits of what can realistically be achieved in terms of economic, social, cultural, physical and sporting development. The Routledge Handbook of Sport and Legacy includes contributions from world leading scholars and practitioners and features detailed case studies of major sports events from around the world, including the FIFA World Cup and ten Olympics Games from London in 1908 to London 2012. It is invaluable reading for students and researchers working in sport studies, events management, human geography, economics or planning, and an essential reference for any professional engaged in delivering legacy through sport.




Computational Modeling of Objects Presented in Images


Book Description

This book contains extended versions of selected papers from the 3rd edition of the International Symposium CompIMAGE. These contributions include cover methods of signal and image processing and analysis to tackle problems found in medicine, material science, surveillance, biometric, robotics, defence, satellite data, traffic analysis and architecture, image segmentation, 2D and 3D reconstruction, data acquisition, interpolation and registration, data visualization, motion and deformation analysis and 3D vision.