In this Degree Course students will perform as much experimental experience as possible with a thematic laboratory for each year of the related to: a theoretical and methodological discipline in the field of urban and regional planning and basic class-specific and related disciplines enabling them to grasp the various points of view on the transformation of the city and the territory, in historical, economic, social, environmental, infrastructural and architectural and urban planning terms.
The Degree Course therefore proposes a set of theoretical-practical teachings aimed at understanding urban and territorial phenomena and building principles and methodologies useful to the cognitive approaches, triggered also by practical experiments aimed at the acquisition of cultural apparatus and operational techniques. The lines of action of these teachings include urban, general and social science issues, related to the typical procedures and techniques of regional and urban planning. Along with the theoretical teachings are developed laboratories pursuing experimental actions, which train students also through experimental practice and simulation of planning processes. These laboratories are usually related to topics concerning the city, the territory and the environment. In these courses students see the application of the experimental reasons of their future profession, which will be further explored through practical activities, during the internships in the third year of the course.
The three-year Degree in Urban Planning and City Sciences trains experts in the analysis, research and representations related to the city, the anthropized or natural territory, the environment and the landscape.
Their professional expertise is at the basis of the process of drawing up urban, territorial, environmental and sector plans prepared by the Public Administrations (Regions, Municipalities, Local Authorities) or by Agencies, Organizations and private companies.
The professional skills of graduates in Urban Planning and City Sciences enable them to understand and interpret the processes of historical transformation of the territory and of the cities, peculiar skills necessary for the preparation of analyses aiming at the knowledge of the territorial resources and their state of conservation, heritage building (both historical and contemporary) and of complex systems such as landscape and environmental ones.
Graduates in Urban Planning and City Sciences also possess the social, political and economic skills interacting with the structure of the city and the territory, as well as the ability to use the tools for strategic environmental assessment (VAS) and for the representation and management of geographic information (Geographic Information System),considered today among the professional skills most requested by the Public Administrations and in all cases of drafting of complex territorial projects.
The Degree Course in Urban Planning and City Sciences, in short, has the following objectives:
a) education of experts capable of:
a1) coping with the use of new technologies (CAD and GIS) for the analysis, description, interpretation and evaluation of territorial and environmental transformations;
a2) using in their professional practice the principles and techniques aiming at the knowledge of the elements for the recovery of historical centres and for urban and territorial redevelopment;
a3) using in their professional practice the principles and techniques aiming at the knowledge of the elements for the protection and enhancement of cultural and environmental heritage both concentrated and widespread in the territory;
b) cooperating with the public administration in the control, management and evaluation of the transformation processes of the city and the territory and in the forecast/implementation of complex programs, in particular with respect to the indications and tools offered by the Union European and with to the use of the economic resources of the community and to the policies of development of the European territory.
Training in the field of spatial planning and urban planning must take into account the major changes (from the escalation of global environmental issues, to the globalization of economic and cultural dynamics, to the new forms of conflict) that run through the planning and that are putting a strain on ethical foundations, disciplinary statutes, theoretical and methodological systems of planning itself. These changes do not only affect the labour market and the emergence of new professional profiles, but also the questions, citizenship rights and social needs to which the planning "culture" must know how to respond.