Type, Rule and Exception

The evolution of the urban form and structure reflects the generative processes of the city morphology which is strongly influenced by political, social, cultural and economic factors (Caniggia, Maffei, 1983). Following this approach, the present research is grounded on the concept of transitional morphologies (Trisciuoglio et al., 2021) stressing the continuous character of the morphological process. The research aims at improving the awareness of the transitional mechanisms and attempts to drive them to improve urban governance and urban quality. The specific case studied presented here consists in an operative investigation committed by the municipality of Rimini asking for the definition of a new set of urban codes. The new regulations are intended to manage the urban transition of the historical city centre in coherence with its urban morphological characters but to encourage a limited development of the consolidated and morphologically homogeneous urban fabric of the district so-called Borgo Mazzini. The objective is not to replicate existing forms but to apply the morphological types selected by the transitional process as parameters for future developments. In this sense, both ordinary types and urban exceptions become generators of the rule and measure of urban design. The research aims at setting flexible and interactive urban codes based on the dynamic interaction between form, rule and time. In this perspective, integrating the principles of administrative and private law is essential to define a new paradigm able to manage and respond to unforeseen and unpredictable urban dynamics (Bergevoet, van Tuijl, 2016).