The course objective will be to reflect in design terms on the new urban dimensions via an analysis of the case study on the Gallura region. By interweaving the history and culture of the territory with observation of the practices of the present, we intend to test the idea that for us to understand contemporary times it is not enough to stop at the present surface, but we need to set our times in motion and cause “what was before and what is now” to collide. Only in this way will it become possible to trigger those sparks capable of “bringing forth the unforeseen” that is able to nurture the imagination and the project of the future. To respond to these assumptions the course will be divided into two modules.

First module: History of the city and the territory
Starting with the assumption that a single idea of city does not exist but that the ways in which societies have, over time, built up “topographic and social devices able to make the meeting of and exchanges between men as effective as possible”, the course aims to follow through some of the forms in which the actual idea of urban has been manifested, replacing the concept of city with a more general reflection on spatial forms and their relationship with society.

Second module: Design in the social context
On the grounds of this general framework, in the second module work will focus on the specific details of the Gallura region. An interpretation of the environmental structures and past processes that gave them their shape will lead students to dwell on contemporary land use practices. By immerging themselves in the Gallura social context and through interviews with some opinion leaders, they will try to understand if the collision between what has already been forgotten and the present might trigger future tests from which to depart to rethink, in design terms, the new territory-city of Gallura.