The student is going to be asked to rethink the city and its elements in the light of contemporary situations of stress or real shock.

The recent Covid-19 emergency has clearly highlighted the fact that a threat, apparently isolated like a virus, can instead trigger a chain effects (or crisis) in many other fields, even very far from those closely related to health care. The virus, in fact, is only a cue, because there are many other emergencies that today put human habitats under stress: sea-level rising, riverine floods, pollution, urbanization, mass migrations or rising temperatures are just some of them.

Settlements can be an excellent laboratory for analyzing the interrelation of various threats, but also offer real opportunities to try and understand the triggers. The city, through urban planning and management, can propose responses to shocks or stresses, improve resilience, anticipate response and recovery. The fundamental thing is not to stop at the contingent aspects of each emergency, but to put them always in a broader perspective and in the future, in order to make them a catalyst for permanent functional changes.

The candidate is going to choose a location in Milan and explore a specific case study area through interviews and field work, analysing how our cities are not suitable for future challenges and make an hypothesis on possible changes and adaptation of our urban areas.

ILAUD supports innovative and avant-garde approaches to reread the contemporary city in the light of change. The crises and their effects become an opportunity to imagine new parameters of sustainability and equity.