Urban Morphology and Urban Identity: landscape perception.

When we think about the concept of form, which the traditional city heralds, we commonly think about a finite design, a compact, organized space composed of elements and components that over time have generated interactions and defined social structures and lifestyles. New urban forms instead go beyond the concept of form intended as “finiteness” (Benevolo 2011). In fact, the modern city expands over the territory, and its borders are pushed beyond the “physical confines” and administrative limits of the consolidated settlement structure. The form of the city represents the final result of the transformations and changes that have occurred in Europe and the United States since the end of the twentieth century. The speed and extent of these changes have had a profound impact on each aspect of the city, starting with its formal organization, generating a loss of coherence and diversity with respect to traditional spatial structures. The main forces of change are related above all to socioeconomic (weakening of agriculture production and industrialization, market economy, globalization, etc.), technological (information technologies, transport development, etc.), political (weakness or absence of tools effective for territorial government, etc.), natural (climate change, soil characteristics, etc.), and cultural processes (desire for individual freedom, expectations for more evolved building and housing standards, etc.). The change in city morphology is therefore a long, complex process, for which itis difficult to establish how the driving forces have interacted with and influenced each other. The form is not only a physical dimension but also involves the social and identifying structure.