Building the global democracy from urban planning policy to populism in architecture

Abstract

It is possible to claim that there is an analogy, in terms of management and programming, between the modality of execution in political contents and the formalities of the application of architectural models, or more precisely in the methods of carrying out such proposals. The choice and the management of planning strategies go along with the choice of political strategies. The changes occurring in the politics and democracy can be also found in urban planning politics and involve mainly the public space and the design for the related public buildings. The emptying of social content in most constitutional democracies, together with the spreading of populist “politics” are phenomena that emerge in the architecture of public buildings and in the way in which the architecture relates to the urban form of their surroundings. Deprived of their contents, (which are related to their functions), public spaces and public building become non-ruled yet “objectified” spaces targeted for a collective use. The first analysis, which comes out of my background, led me to look at urban planning in Europe, starting from Italy and keeping the focus on the politics of public spaces and on the ways in which their conception, design and relationship to the city, shape the collective social values, attitudes and demands. These cases provide some opportunities for a reflection about governance and planning, focussing on the relationship between Democracy and Architecture.