The words of ecology to give territorial design a good future

Abstract

A crux that urban planning has been dragging on for decades is the generalization with which it uses the words of ecology. A generalization that cannot be allowed in the face of a territorial project that is thirsty for truth about the ecosystem. The territorialist proposal, that already embraces the idea of ecological conversion by Langer, may be a possible path for the next changes. But some ghosts need to be defeated: technological blunder, ecological ignorance, administrative fragmentation, etc. Soil is the ecosystem resource denied by the urban project. But it is also the parameter through which we can monitor the effort or failure of urban planning towards the care of the territory. In Italy, land consumption is out of control and continues not to be at the center of any reform. At the same time, urban planning does not care about land consumption and, perhaps, one reason for this distraction is the profound and intimate lack of knowledge of what soil ecologically is. Making room for these words in study paths, in political training, in the updating of public and private technicians is a question that we pose as crucial for moving in the future and addressing what has now become, by dint of neglect, an urgency: the ecological and climatic crisis. More than a new anthropic civilization, an ecologization of civilization is urgent. Working on precise ecological words is a symbolic key issue.