Introduction Giuseppe Strappa
Conference Chair
“Sapienza” University of Rome
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First of all let me say how happy and glad I am to host an Isuf Conference in Rome, in our Faculty of Architecture of “Sapienza” University. Since our early Isuf meetings in the Nineties, I always thought that, sooner or later, we had to organize a conference in Rome on Urban Morphology. We were a few people at that time but since then many years have passed and the number of Isuf members is much increased. Even the fields of interest and scientific methods have proliferated and the meaning of the term “urban morphology” now applies to many schools of thought, sometimes quite dissimilar from those of the founders, but certainly useful to the progress of “discipline.” To our field of interest it was actually recognized the status of discipline, whose roots do not belong only to the schools of cultural geography and building typology, but also acknowledged the different influences of scholars of the city form such as Christofer Alexander, Colin Rowe, Kevin Lynch. For our conference we had about 700 submissions by Urban Morphology scholars belonging to different schools from all over the world. It is noteworthy that most of submissions came from countries rapidly changing, a sign that Isuf has become an association of actual reference in studies on urban transformation. Each Isuf Conference had its peculiar character linked to the specificities of the place that hosts it. I think that an Isuf Conference in Rome has two special reasons. The first is that Rome is a true text of Urban Morphology, not only for its monumental and archaeological part, but mainly for its urban fabric that have been transformed over centuries. This also explains the presence here of numerous colleagues interested to heritage and interventions inside the historical fabrics. Not by chance, is involved in this conference Daniela Esposito, the Director of the School of Restoration in Rome, one of the most prestigious institutions in the field in Europe. Moreover, as Jeremy Whithand has written in the last edition of our Journal, the matter merit high priority on the Isuf agenda, as the contribution of UM studies in the various Heritage Organizations has been meager in recent years. The second reason is that this school of Valle Giulia hosted the birth of one of the schools of thought on which (along with the conzenian one) was founded Isuf. A school with a long tradition, born in the ‘30s with scholars such as Giovannoni and Milani, and continued by Calandra, Muratori, Caniggia and many others. A tradition which we try to continue with an open mind and by experimenting in new ways. A last point. In organizing the structure of this conference we faced the problem of collecting many different contributions within, as far as possible, homogeneous sessions. As for any conference proposing an “oriented” theme, we had to deal with the answers of ap13 city as organism|new visions for urban lifeplicants and often with some very specific papers that it was not always possible to place in entirely consistent sessions. We preferred to anyway accept these contributions, giving up, in some cases, an ideal coherence of the sessions and preferring, instead, to include the most valuable materials proposed for the Urban Morphology disciplinary debate. In opening this Conference I feel obliged to thank the Vicar Rector of Sapienza, Renato Masiani, The Dean of the Faculty Annamaria Giovenale, the Director of the Department of Architectural Design Piero Ostilio Rossi. All of them have strongly encouraged this project. A special thanks is due to professors and students of our Draco PhD School. They have actually coordinated, helped, and concretely supported the initiative.
