Fifty years after the launch of European policies for territorial cohesion, this event takes inspiration from the book by Massimo Preite, published in Florence in 2025 by Polistampa, to revisit the evolution of regeneration strategies for European industrial cities, from the crisis of heavy industry in the 1970s to the more recent perspectives linked to green infrastructure and the ecological transition. Through a rich collection of illustrations and numerous international case studies, the volume traces the shift from the city of production to the city of sustainability, showing how the regeneration of former industrial areas has become one of the main testing grounds for contemporary European urban policies.
Massimo Preite’s book is not only a history of European urban regeneration: the book in fact offers a long-term interpretation of the transformations that have affected industrial cities over the past fifty years. Through the economic reconversion of declining areas, the recovery of industrial heritage, the creation of ecological networks and the development of green infrastructure, the book demonstrates how European policies have progressively broadened their scope, moving from responses to industrial decline toward the pursuit of new models of sustainable territorial development. The result is a reflection that intertwines urban policy, heritage, environment, and territorial planning.
Viewed from a broader perspective, Preite’s volume is also the story of the long transition of Western cities beyond industrial modernity. For more than four decades, regeneration has provided the framework through which institutions have addressed deindustrialisation, the reuse of vacant urban spaces, and the search for new urban economies. Today, however, the issues dominating the debate—climate change, biodiversity, energy, artificial intelligence, health, and territorial resilience—seem to extend beyond the very paradigm of regeneration. For this reason, the book encourages us to ask a more fundamental question: are we witnessing the evolution of the post-industrial city, or the emergence of a new urban configuration that requires new and unexplored interpretative frameworks?
PROGRAM
Introduction and moderation
Giuseppe De Luca, Professor of Urban Planning at the University of Florence, Member of the Urbanpromo Scientific Committee
Speakers
Maria Chiara Torricelli, Honorary Professor at the University of Florence
Gianni Biagi, President of Urbit
Massimo Preite, Former Associate Professor at the University of Florence
Conclusions
Giuseppe De Luca, Professor of Urban Planning at the University of Florence, Member of the Urbanpromo Scientific Committee
Italiano
Contributions