Monte Carasso. Densification as a design tool for urban regeneration through contemporary architecture

2019 Annual National Planning Conference in Chongqing

Published

OCTOBER 21, 2019

On Sunday, October 20, 2019 our fellow Alberto Bologna gave a keynote speech titled Monte Carasso. Densification as a design tool for urban regeneration through contemporary architecture at the session “Mutual learning dialogue on urban development between China and Europe” of the 2019 Annual National Planning Conference in Chongqing.

Alberto Bologna illustrated the salient features that have guided the urban transformation of a small town in Switzerland, Monte Carasso. Since 1979, the municipality has undergone a radical transformation, moving from being a rural village, without particular characteristics that would differentiate it from similar realities, to a place of social and cultural aggregation.

The peculiarities of its urban plan elaborated by architect Luigi Snozzi, which have gradually transformed Monte Carasso, are part of those “good practices” that are worth to take into account when reflecting on the issues of “community building” and “place-making in neighbourhoods”: for these reasons Monte Carasso is one of the case studies indicated in the knowledge base phase developed in the frame of the research project TRANS-URBAN-EU-CHINA Transition towards urban sustainability through socially integrative cities in the EU and in China, funded by the European Uninion’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, within the Work Package 1 Community building and place-making in neighbourhoods coordinated by Politecnico di Torino and Tsinghua University.