Dagli studi per il PRGC del 1980 alle letture “stratigrafiche” della città

From the Studies for the 1980 General Master Plan to “Stratigraphic” Approaches to the City Starting from the late 1970s, historical analyses acquired a decisive role in Turin’s urban planning culture. The chapter discusses the studies for the 1980 revision of the general master plan for Turin, reconstructing the contribution of the Politecnico di Torino – and especially of Vera Comoli and Micaela Viglino – to the identification of cultural and environmental assets, the assessment of the historic urban appearance, and the formulation of the concept of the city’s “historical structure.” Such notions were still at work – although not without simplifications – in the historical studies carried out for the 1995 Gregotti-Cagnardi plan. Their legacy is also visible in the studies recently commissioned for the new master plan, where the analysis focuses less on administrative subdivisions than on territorial sectors – called macroambiti – shaped by manifold historical processes. Taken together, these experiences show continuity of a stratigraphic and interdisciplinary reading of the city, grounded in historical cartography and in a close understanding of the contextual characters of urban places.