Cities Contested by Martin Baumeister

Author:Martin Baumeister
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Italien, Ruhrgebiet, Berlin, Frankfurt am Main, München, Bologna, Rom, Catania, Syrakus, Sizilien, Bewegungen, Kommunalpolitik, Stadtsanierung, Wohnungspolitik, Denkmalschutz, Geschichte der 1970er Jahre, stadthistorische Forschung, Stadtgeschichte, Industriemoderne, postfordistische Gesellschaft
Publisher: Campus Verlag
Published: 2017-03-28T16:00:00+00:00

Conclusions

As I have shown above, the planning process which led from Bologna’s 1955 General Plan to the preservation plans of the sixties and early seventies was twofold, comprising both elements of continuity and discontinuity alike. On the one hand, it is very clear that in the sixties a decisive change of direction happened, with the concept of risanamento conservativo of the entire centro storico taking the place of the 1955 planning scheme. On the other hand, it seems that the 1955 plan, with all its shortcomings, cannot be seen as an exclusively negative point of reference for later planning. In contrast, while the plan undoubtedly represented an objective threat to the historic city, it also marked a stage within the evolvement of the municipality’s awareness towards the city’s built heritage that has left traces also in later plans, however with a different marching direction.

Shaped by a planning policy closely tied to the strategic and theoretic debate of the Communist Party, the sixties and seventies were obviously characterized by a strong continuity, as opposed to the more »technical« approach of the fifties. But it should not be forgotten, that also during this period, the planning schemes for the historic city underwent several transformations, which not only regarded the assessment of the social and political dimensions of old city renewal, but were also affected by them. In the sixties, it was clearly assumed that preservation would require compromises on a social level. To save both, the old city and its actual inhabitants, in a literal sense, was therefore a concept of the seventies. The same goes for the typological reconstructions, which, however limited in quantity, remained methodologically highly controversial and may have prefigured waves of postmodernism and historical reconstructions yet to come.

Its pronounced social momentum places the PEEP / Centro Storico concept within the particular climate of Italy’s early seventies, characterized by high social and political tension and the incipient economic structural change. But it should not be overlooked that it was also an attempt by experts to resolve, what had been a contradiction within the centri storici debate already in 1960: how could the preservation of the historic urban fabric be put into practice without expelling working-class and lower-middle-class residents? In terms of timing and ideas, it corresponded with the large social mobilization of the Italian left after 1968–69. However, it was not itself a direct outcome of social struggles or mass mobilization, but emerged from a specific, institutional alliance between politically engaged architects and the municipality. The plans for the old city and their implementation had to take into account changing juridical, political, and social circumstances. They did so by formulating new ideas and solutions, but it seems worth remembering that they also resorted to what earlier stages of local planning had produced.

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