Contemporary urban design: cutting across the times, building the past into the present

Our times have inherited the legacy of the historical past. The stately lifestyle, the language, the culture, the mindset of the people in any country, no matter how indigenous it may seem, bear the indelible imprint of other cultures, languages and world outlooks. The same goes for cities: their history is not only present in the ancient manuscripts, in books, articles, but is perfectly obvious on the cities’ texture – in their architecture that goes down in history. In an interview dedicated to urban architecture professor F. Bucci of one of the major Italian Universities tells our Herald of a pertinent practical approach to deal with sites of the world historical and landscape heritage. Not only do historical architectural pieces need preservation, but they should also be adapted to the citizens’ exigencies in modern cities. The UNESCO Chair existing on the Mantova university campus interacts with scholars and practitioners. During this interaction on both local and international scale innovative system of urban improvement approaches and methodologies is being formed. This system will allow, while carrying out projects, to care of sustainable development of cities’ environment, maintain historical structures, as soon as the cities’ past is the guarantee of their prosperous future.