Mixed - use fabric for urban regeneration : opportunities and threats for a renewed relationship between architecture and urban planning

The suburban development patterns of the last decades are the results of explosive growth governed by a virtually unquestioning application of rationalist codes and conventions. Each suburb has been created as a single unit, usually unrelated not just to others at its borders but particularly to the larger urban structure and its morphological rules. The result is a uniform architecture used in any context, searching for original expression only on the facades, if at all. The idea of public spaces as the basic element of the urban fabric, exactly the opposite of traditional town planning and civic values, has been lost. In this paper, after a brief assessment of the relation between urban planning and architecture, which appears to have been neglected not just in down-to-earth urban development but even in the works of the international stars of architecture, we have attempted to outline the principal themes of urban regeneration. We then elaborate some possible strategies for a renewed relationship between architecture and urban planning in the suburbs.