Description
The administrative fragmentation of contemporary territory is a key condition for human development: it is more than necessary in order to manage the increasing numbers of infrastructure that mankind currently uses. Within this framework, architecture plays a crucial role: indeed, only spatial articulation can avoid that such fragmentation should turn into a catalyzer of urban and social splintering. Bluntly speaking, this is a reality that cities already witness worldwide: if the appearance of gated communities and premium urban clusters is a well-known but exotic evidence, the difficulty to match local and trans-local interests in infrastructural development is a manifestation of the occurrence that is more common to experience and no-less important. From 2010 to 2014, the i2a – international institute of architecture, Lugano, devoted the Infrarealities research programme to this issue of contemporary urbanization, addressing the case study of Lugano urban agglomerate in Canton Ticino, Switzerland. This tripartite book collects the outcomes of this research dedicated to pedestrian infrastructure and related architecture.