Topographical map of the city of Naples

The idea that urban design constitutes just an element of the more general and all-embracing history of the city of Naples generates a reductive identification of urban history.

Rather, we want to refer to a concept for which the forma urbis and its evolution are directly interconnected with the different,

successive historical experiences which, changing, in turn induce mutation and transformations.

In fact, are these experiences and processes, from which and in which the city takes shape and life in equally different ways, evolving and modifying itself,

and of which the historian reconstructs and interprets the sequence, to be recorded, reflected, represented precisely

in and from urban design that "transcribes" it and bears the material and visible sign imprinted on it.

As has been appropriately noted, "what changes are historical experiences and morphology is understood as the cause and effect

at the same time of the demographic, functional and social aspects, economic, political and institutional breakdowns,

the intertwining of different ages of taste , of the affirmation or denial of symbolic values, of cultural hegemonies.

It becomes precisely the representation of these historical experiences.

Studying the transformations of urban morphology is not then a simple ordering operation of geometries, typologies and styles,

but becomes analysis of the historical text in the double synchronic and diachronic dimension”.

On the other hand, in reality and in the appreciation of scholars, the city has established itself as a "form-function",

as a global institution, accessible, that is, knowable, through sophisticated multi-and interdisciplinary analyzes.

It is defined, again as a critical space with respect to a larger system in which it is inserted,

the place in which social and political tensions and struggles are emphasized and transcribed,

as well as their results, demographic rhythms fall, the coexistence of community, organizes, thinks and experiences urban space and environment.

So one could also say that urban design is to the city as this is to the larger system of which it represents the critical space.

But it is precisely the conception to which we have referred further that we seem to render merit and reason with respect to such complexity;

at the same time, by bringing the theoretical and practical object 'urban plan' very close to what

the French historian Le Goff defines as a monument / document, it allows a fruition in the historical center even more fructuous, versatile and vital.