The discovery of the nature-city and re-generative strategies

Our study of the re-generation ability of the Nature-City began in the second half of the Nineties with the “urbstourism” studies. These studies related to sustainable tourism and were carried out throughout Italy with many varied results. They are now generating a great deal of interest. Reference can be made to our reports presented at the 7th (1997) and 12th (2003) Italian Tourism Report, at the Biennal of Barcelona (2003) as well as at the 1st International Meeting Matera Nature-City (2005), in the preliminary acts of the 1st International Meeting on the Nature-City. The concept of the Nature-City implies matching sustainable tourism to the problems of cultural goods, on the one hand, as well as to the environment and housing matters, on the other. Our first nature-city strategy focussed on the Sassi in Matera. At the beginning of the Fifties, Matera was an old, deserted Italian town. It was then declared part of the Unesco World Heritage, many of its buildings have now been reconstructed. This first strategy is therefore closely linked to the entrepreneurial idea of the “city-inn”, set within both a natural-archaeological park as well as an urban centre. Along with this strategy, a further two re-generative ideas are presented. The first focuses on the network of “city-inn park” projects in large countryside-city areas, orientated towards increasing the complexity value as well as the variety of the ecosystems. The second based on metropolitan areas, aims at creating “large parks” of high re-generative density, with an example being the shore-park (seafront-park or sea-garden-park). Conclusions: critical evaluation of direct experiences and the study of about 250 examples of “Nature-Cities” worldwide.