Agro-Urban Landscape: the case study of Monteruscello-Naples

Studies on morphology and on the urban form should not be detached from social aspects and from the responsibility of architects and policy makers. The issue becomes even more complicated in the case of cities with a high number of buildings under public ownership or urban areas of great dimensions. In Italy there is a very rare case of recent urban foundation that is the neighbourhood of Monteruscello in the city of Pozzuoli, in South Italy. Built in the 1980s to face the problem of bradyseism events that had made uninhabitable the historic city areas, Monteruscello today, for its dimension, can be considered a “city in the city” with the 90% of the buildings under public ownership. The neighbourhood’s project was designed by Agostino Renna who developed it through analogical composition with fragments referred to other places and cities. The architect applied an urban model based on morphological studies, adapting it to the specific geography of the site. Till now the neighbourhood has never acquired its own identity becoming one of the most degraded areas of the city. This paper deals with the issue of urban form and morphology starting from the study of Monteruscello from the initial design project and the related critical issues through a new experimental design project of an agro-urban landscape that involves fifty hectares of public green spaces – now abandoned - turning them into agricultural land for urban use and growth resource.