A Cohesion Policy
and Local Development Studio
in a Multicultural Planning Course

Carolina Pacchi, Costanzo Ranci, Rossana Torri

The paper aims at discussing the underlying concepts and the results of a studio experience on Cohesion Policy and Local Development in the Master of Science in Urban Planning and Policy Design in the School of Architecture (Politecnico di Milano, Italy) held in 2010. Impinging on existing literature in teaching planning, the paper will briefly discuss the peculiar approach of the graduate course in Urban Planning and Policy Design within a school of architecture, which importantly influences the way studio work is conceived and implemented, at both a theoretical and a practical level.
In the core part, the paper discusses the complexity of the cohesion policy theme as a teaching focus: social cohesion is proposed as an interdisciplinary and complex issue, that requires to mix a sociological approach with a spatial planning one. Hence the idea of an interdisciplinary studio that implies the use of spatial and social analyses in order to take into account the peculiar features of a complex and changing urban context in Milan.

After some methodological notes, the paper will critically discuss the approach, the actual work and the results looking at the final outcome in terms of learning both for students and for the teaching staff, taking into account two different aspects: the ability to build consistent analyses and the possibility to design appropriate policy proposals.

Open publication

Carolina Pacchi, Costanzo Ranci, Rossana Torri
DAStU - Department of Architecture and Urban Studies
Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
• E-mail: carolina.pacchi@polimi.it
• E-mail: costanzo.ranci@polimi.it
• E-mail: rossana.torri@polimi.it