Applying Descriptive Urbanism. Evidence of three years linking forms and processes

Abstract

In this paper we critically review the notion of “urban structure” and its representations based on three key variables: time, scales and measures. The results of the UTDT Urbanism Workshop experience, based on the methodology of the Urban Description (Urbanística Descrittiva) of Bernardo Secchi, allowed us to reflect on the ways of describing and representing the urban, between the professional view based on deciphering the morphology, and another one linked to the experience and interpretation of urbanization processes. It is not about showing an approach as the overcoming of the other, but about questioning the tacit frames of teaching and practice, problematizing the sense of urban planning, beyond the purely technical issues, in order to demonstrate its political essence ignored between the compulsive modernization and the technocratic progressism.