"NO MAN'S LAND BUT SUSTAINABLE. URBAN SPACES AS HIEROGLYPH OF POWER"

Abstract Book Public and social spaces must put human beings in touch with their senses and with nature, and arise as a fundamental condition of democracy since they let to establish and maintain relationships. Here I’ll focus on some aspects of sustainable urban development in its relationship with power and territorial ambitions, and with the symbolic and political uses of nature, without forgetting the relationship between cities and nature. In the present day, cities in developed countries are primarily faced with “green” problems (Nu, 2008). Following Čapek (2010) I’ll suggest that urban sociology would benefit from a socio-ecological approach that enriches our understanding of nature and city and that allows us to participate more fully in discussions of sustainability. The social construction of space, by means of an economic and social landscape, is seemingly distancing from nature, as it is building also territoriality. According to Zukin (2002) I’ll try to confront the construction of urban spaces with the patterns of urban plans that are, at the same time, “hieroglyph of environmental, economic, and social power”. So I’ll consider some case-studies, as the sustainable architectures of Sheppard Robson, with their aspiration to a more "responsible" architecture, conceived as a process of redefinition of the possible relationships among environmental, social and economic aspects of the sustainable project. It will be part of my aim to consider the example of the mega events (see Milan Expo 2015) through the principles of the sustainable development. So Bob Allies and Graham Morrison are the creators of the London big Olympic project 2012, which involves both the concepts of regeneration and of post mega event planning, to make a real and normal city (a city as a system, following post-industrial functionalistic principles) after the Olympic games. As part of the largest social problems of our time, I’ll seek to examine how and if it is still possible to rule through landscape, as in the case of historic gardens (Mukerji 1997, Verdi 2004). I shall finally approach to new land art expressions, bringing provisional and conceptual meanings.