CITY PLANNING ARTICLES

The European Workshop on Medium-Sized Cities has been developed as part of the project on Medium-Sized Cities and Environmental and Socio-Economic Developments in the Regions of the EU, through three meetings hosted in Alicante (16-17 December 1993), Volos (16-17 June 1994) and Oviedo (19-20 September 1994).

First, the meeting in Alicante acted as a progress meeting for the presentation of the case-studies of Alicante, Oviedo, Perugia, and as an introductory meeting for the cities which had recently joined the European network: Toledo, Rhodes, Evora.

Then, the meeting in Volos offered the presentation of the case-studies of Alicante, Evora and Perugia, as well as the outline of the main problems and perspectives of the cities of Nimes and Volos.

Finally, the meeting in Oviedo has allowed the presentation of the case-studies of Oviedo and Alicante, as well as the presentation of the interim reports of Dessau, Toledo and Siena.

All these meeting have been organized so that the presentation of each case-study from local experts was followed by responses from the Municipal authorities - generally the Mayor or the vice-Mayor -, in order to get further information from the comparison of different viewpoints on the same city: one from the scientific world and the other from the administrative one.

The meeting in Alicante focused especially on the relations between the new concept of Urban Renaissance and innovative systems of public transportation which have been recently used in Medium-Sized Cities such as Perugia and can be further employed in similar conditions, while the meeting in Volos faced the crucial aspects of the definition of Medium-Sized Cities in relation to large cities, aiming to find out real fields open to innovative actions which are strongly related to the very nature of a Medium-Sized City.

The meeting in Oviedo offered a wide presentation of the different aspects of the new urban culture which is spreading throughout Europe on the theme of quality in town-life and social and economical aspects of a mixed multifunctional Medium-Sized City.

While each meeting has been focused on a main topic, a major subject has been always widely discussed involving all the participants in a very rich and stimulating debate: the definition of a Medium-Sized City and its peculiar features. It is interesting to notice how a certain consensus seems to be found amongst different position, on the basis that Medium-Sized Cities:

- are rich in built and natural environment patrimony;
- are strongly related to their surrounding territory;
- are strong when capable to offer high quality of life.

All the meetings have underlined a special attitude of Medium-Sized Cities towards their development: it seems that they are trying to take as many benefits as they can from the cultural and tourist development, regarded as key factors for the global economical development. Within the cultural field, the development of the University seems to be seen as a decisive step for its various impacts on high-technology innovative industries and tertiary sector in general, thus reinforcing the role of Medium-Sized Cities as regional key centers.

The development of the tourist field in particular, seems to be an action Medium-Sized Cities associate with a broader policy of exploitation of their environmental resources. The presence of a rich historical built patrimony or the appeal of an intact surrounding countryside, both represent truly distinctive marks of Medium-Sized Cities which can be further exploited in economical terms, with sure positive results and without environmental pollution if this actions are continuously accompanied by an assessment of linked parallel effects.

In addition, a crucial aspect of the Workshop on Medium-Sized Cities has been the possibility to directly experience the life of a specific case-study city, by visiting both a series of local innovative projects selected by the Municipal authorities and monuments and urban areas according to everybody's interest.

This peculiar characteristic of the meetings have been proved to be very successful in order to implement the information given by both the interviews with local Institutional members and the reports.

It is interesting to notice that this kind of direct experience has allowed to fully understand and reinforce the positive impression given by the presentation of the case-study, due to the various innovative actions undertaken by the Municipality of Alicante, which represent a remarkable example of attempt to carry on actions towards sustainable development in a Medium-Sized City. The meeting in Oviedo on the other hand, has been especially fruitful since it has provided participants with a brighter view of the city than the one given by the presentation of the case-study, thus allowing to catch some very important suggestions concerning future challenges and perspectives of Medium-Sized Cities.

In fact, while the direct visit of huge Municipal realizations such as the ones that the meeting in Alicante has provided participants with has given a precise idea about the possibilities of development that a Medium-Sized City has in terms of revitalization of inner city centers, reconstruction of degraded peripheral areas, water supply management, etc., the possibility of experiencing the city of Oviedo has offered a stimulating and refreshing example on how a series of consciously planned small actions within the city might be able to bring more life in town and provide citizens with a richer urban environment.

What is extremely interesting is the fact that one can therefore get a kind of additional positive input which might be difficult to find in both the presentation of case-study and response for Oviedo, while one could have found enough explanatory the presentation of Alicante in terms of quality of life.

In other words, it happens that sometimes cities are better in reality than through their administrators' eyes !

A fact that ultimately ends in a special merit for the Municipality.

Another important aspect of the Workshop might be found in the possibility for researcher in the Medium-Sized Cities network to exchange experiences with participants to other projects carried on by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions such as the tetralogy on Perceive-Conceive-Achieve the Sustainable City presented at the meeting in Oviedo.

In fact the analysis of the challenges and the examination of possibilities for future developments in Medium-Sized Cities takes benefits from the cross-views coming from individual but interrelate fields of research on Sustainability such as, particularly, the key notes of Nuno Portas in Volos on the errors of large cities which Medium-Sized Cities should avoid and the reports on the links between efficiency in city management and quality of physical urban environment given by Maurice Culot in Oviedo.


MESSAGES TO MEDIUM-SIZED CITIES

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The Mayor of Volos and his staff have introduced a fundamental issue, relevant for every category of cities, but especially for Medium-Sized ones.

The dramatic events caused by two earthquakes in Volos around 1953-56, remind us how the city is fragile and weak.

We often consider built environment as a permanent and historical result of a continuous process of accumulation, while natural laws sometimes force us to consider how delicate a particular wealthy and beautiful situation is when we speak of cities.

Therefore, it is of a main importance to stress the strong statement of the Municipality of Volos to deserve a major attention to maintain and protect all the existing historical buildings, no matter what precise historical or artistic value they might have, while the Town Hall building itself proves to what excellent results an intelligent policy of understanding and valorization of local resources might lead.

Conserving and restoring each building within the historic urban quarters of a Medium-Sized City, no matter what artistic value they might have, but as part of the fundamental urban environment where economical and social activities which characterize a specific town take place, is still an innovative action which might be able to contribute to the development of the entire city. Preserving traditional public urban spaces and enriching them is the only daily action which guarantee the maintenance of the beauty of a Medium-Sized City.

The intervention of Nuno Portas at the meeting in Volos, concerning "the errors of large cities that medium-sized cities should avoid" introduced a fundamental concept in the debate around the very nature and main features of Medium-Sized Cities. It is practically impossible for a Medium-Sized City to try to imitate the large-scale actions which are fundamentally related to the size of a large city.

On the contrary, the main resources of a Medium-Sized City are directly connected to its diversity with the large city: the lack of congestion and social conflict in association with a better integration between natural and built environment.

Consequences of this peculiar status lead to understand the necessity to undertake a special set of policies which might be able to strengthen the positive aspects of each Medium-sized city, such as the conservation and care of the historical centers as cultural and economical resources for the entire urban area, the development of an environmental-oriented system of public transport, the use of innovative actions as means to revitalize the existing urban framework.

While large cities have been constantly growing up according to unlimited models of development, thus periodically facing huge social and economical crisis, Medium-Sized Cities have the chance to take benefit by their delicate intermediate status between large and small. But this happens only if:

- Medium-Sized Cities are conscious of their status and;

- they are able to develop urban actions which might increase their strong points.

In addition, a further contribution has been given in order to better understand peculiarities of Medium-Sized Cities through a classification based upon geographical criteria which allows the distinction of action which are suitable to an isolated city, while problematic for a Medium-Sized City located within a larger metropolitan area (see Vila Nova de Gaia and Oporto).

In fact, whilst the concept of complementarity amongst cities is regarded as an innovative and positive concept which might be able to help the creation of a more balanced European urban network, it has been pointed out the evidence to consider with a particular attention the position of a Medium-Sized City in close proximity to large National metropolitan areas.

M3. MEDIUM-SIZED CITIES ARE DESPERATELY SEEKING A NEW MODEL OF DEVELOPMENT.

The failure of some old model of developments, generally based upon strict functionalist rules established around 1920, forces Medium-Sized Cities to search for new criteria and principles in view of the beginning of the 21st century.

The meeting in Oviedo has opened the debate around new possibilities of development patterns which are related to the concepts of Sustainability.

The presentation of the case-study of Toledo has, for example, offered the chance to assess the hypothesis of considering built resources and demographical size as strongly related issues, if a city wants to manage its infrastructural network efficiently. The gap often existing between a scarce populated territory with low rate of density - again due to the adoption in the past of anti-urban models of development - and a rich system of public services because of the increasing demand of high standard of life, put Medium-Sized Cities in difficult positions in terms of budget control.

It seems that a re-assessment of the demographical target is sometimes required, but with a strict linkage with an evaluation of the existing resources, especially in terms of residential accommodation, in order to avoid further consumption of natural or agricultural areas.

M4. URBAN RENAISSANCE AS TRUE OPTION

Urban Renaissance could be a program for the revitalization of Medium-Size Cities, completely alternative to the mass-construction of new public and private transportation systems.

The case-study of Alicante - Reconstruction and Completion of the historic center (PLAN RACHA), demolition of a recent suburban residential district and development of a new urban quarter (MIL VIVIENDAS) in terms of traditional pattern of streets and squares - suggests us that a comprehensive series of actions oriented towards the physical and environmental rehabilitation of the city could play a relevant role in the social and economical development of the city itself.

Besides all the aspects related to tourism, this kind of actions has a positive influence on the allocation of more inhabitants close to the main institutional centers, thus eliminating several reasons for the traffic congestion and generating new small and local business which take benefit from the creation of a highly dense pedestrian urban environment: shops, offices, restaurants, handicraft, etc.

The urgency of a similar policy has been stressed by both the experts from Oviedo and Rhodes, while Toledo and Perugia share the same concern about the importance of the historical center as a richness of the city.

The project for the urban regeneration in the periphery, actually under construction, allows both the elimination of some social problems connected with the proliferation of criminal activities within a degraded suburban area and the development of a new urban environment which could have a positive influence on the local small business and generate a broader range of new jobs connected with the operation.

In addition, such a redevelopment creates a wider sense of re-generation which help people to undertake new tasks and diffuse a general positive feeling, solving one of the most frequent problems of the suburbia: the sense of alienation and exclusion of the inhabitants.

Finally, the renewal of the waterfront of the city as a way to establish a stronger relationship between the city and its main environmental feature: the Mediterranean sea.

Another series of extremely interesting actions are currently undertaken by the Municipality of Oviedo in terms of Urban Renaissance.

The Municipal policy is particularly active in two main fields:

- the restoration of the historical centers both through public interventions on monumental ensembles like the El Fontan market area and incentive to small private operations of architectural restoration and refurbishment of residential and commercial buildings;

- the creation of a comprehensive system of small pedestrian areas throughout the city which has proved to be successful in providing the city with new public open spaces for citizens without too radical solutions of complete car banning.

The study of an organic network of pedestrian streets which allow to cross the city while respecting the commercial needs of shopkeepers has led to an intelligent re-use of existing public buildings and spaces, which give together the city a better urban environment with wide possibilities of commercial developments.

In fact, instead of working on the enlargement of one existing big pedestrian area, the Municipal policy focuses on spreading small pedestrian areas as places suitable for commercial developments all around the city, with a strong presence in some peripheral areas, in order to encourage locally the development of a traditional urban life. Another important aspect of this policy might be found in the creation of mixed areas of commercial developments, where the enlargement of the pedestrian sidewalk together with its enrichment with new lines of trees and elegant urban furniture provides the street with a better balance between motorized traffic and pedestrian areas.

It is interesting to notice how the combination of both programs - restoration of historic center and creation of a pedestrian network - has been producing immediate effects on the revitalization of urban life, even if in presence of a regional and national situation of economic crisis.

M5. DEFENDING AND DEVELOPING SMALL COMMERCIAL UNITS IN TOWN MEANS MAINTAINING A SIGNIFICANT RESIDENTIAL PRESENCE IN MEDIUM-SIZED CITIES.

The presentation of the case-study of Toledo, together with the ones of Nimes, Oviedo and Siena, has brought to our attention the relevance of a Municipal policy towards the conservation and promotion of small commercial units in historical centers - and generally speaking in town - as a means to keep medium-sized cities alive and to protect the existence of a significant economical sector of activities.

The current aggressive strategy of large commercial surfaces combined with too rigid policies of prevention of historical centers from the use of private cars, has recently proved to be one of the worst enemies of Medium-Sized Cities' centers by provoking bankrupt in small economic activities with the consequent exodus of both shopkeepers and residents from city-centers.

The conscience of such a dangerous and perverse effect on city-centres' economy - and, consequently on the entire city - has led the Municipality of Nimes to undertake a new program of inner-city revitalization, including the development of new commercial areas in the historical centers.

The same attitude has been shown by the Municipality of Toledo extremely concerned also with the increasing problems of traffic and congestion related to the breakdown of small shops in the city-centre and the opening of large commercial surfaces out off the walled town.

The idea that a too rigid process of zoning through the construction of new large pedestrian areas, even if masked by the eco-oriented call for a "city without cars" - which Fabio Ciuffini has clearly expressed in different terms - has been proved to be seriously dangerous for Medium-Sized Cities economical and social life, like it has been pointed out by René Schoonbrodt during the meeting in Volos and by Maurice Culot during the one in Oviedo.

It seems that a comparative advantage of Medium-Sized Cities with respect to large cities might be exactly the opposite to the commercial zoning: the possibility to offer a truly mixed and integrated commercial-residential-tertiary urban environment.

The development of extended commercial surfaces out off the city associated with the limitations of the access to city centres are ultimately responsible for both the desertification of the city and the crisis of the small commerce economy.

M6. A GOOD USE OF THE SITE IS A SMART INVESTMENT

Both Alicante's and Perugia's cases showed us how a sensitive use of the site provide the city with a long term benefit.

Symmetrically, Oviedo's case study demonstrates how site conditions are fundamental elements for the development of the city.

The construction of a network of pedestrian connections between the periphery and the historical center of Perugia has given the city the possibility to improve the use the most valuable part of its fabric. Banning cars downtown and using elevators to approach the center has generated a richer local environment where shops and retails take profit from the new pedestrian streets.

The change has been done through the smart use of the site on which the historical center of Perugia lies: the medieval underground tunnel which linked the lower part of the city with the castle on the highest level of the historical center from where people can gently experience the city.

The Alicante's renewal of the waterfront and the comprehensive system of water supply of the city: AGUAS DE ALICANTE, demonstrate on site what all the other cities share: a new attitude towards water.

The project in Toledo concerning the rehabilitation of the RIO TAJO will provide the city with a better relationship with one of its natural environmental features enriching the value of the historical center.

A similar attitudes has been developed in Spain in different contexts with different solutions: Seville and Valencia.

The presentation of the cases of both Toledo and Evora have highlighted a completely new approach of the transportation problem, without denying the numbered reasons for researching and trying to develop a more efficient and environment-friendly type of mass-transportation system in historic towns especially.

The main reason for a complete changing of attitude towards the traffic problem in Medium-Sized Cities has been explained in Volos by René Schoonbrodt and Nuno Portas when they have associated most traffic problems in large cities to the development of a rigid functionalist urbanistic scheme, based upon a rigid subdivision of the territory into different mono-functional zones: commercial, residential, industrial, cultural, administrative, etc.

The result of that policy is the contemporary necessity for the majority of large cities' inhabitants to daily commute from residential to industrial, from commercial to cultural, etc.

The chance Medium-Sized Cities have nowadays is to avoid this model of development, by opting for a more integrated and dense one, where the co-existence of several different functions within the same area, associated to the development of different central areas in the communal territory might help diminishing the amount of non-voluntary urban journeys.

Besides all the logical positive factors of a better linkage between Medium-Sized Cities and their regions, a major concern has been displayed about the risk that the introduction of a heavy mass-transportation system might cause to the city.

Two different influences affect cities when a new highway/intercity line is constructed to connect a medium-size city with main national centers (Madrid and Lisbon):

- a series of new opportunities of allocation of private enterprises;

- the risk that the city might become a residential dormitory.

On the local level, traffic problems could be partially solved by a better use of the built environment (Alicante's and Rhodes' center) which allow more people to live and work within a human being oriented area: the urban quarter (Toledo).

Other smart interventions (Perugia) can play a relevant role in order to solve local traffic problems.

The introduction to Nimes' urban policy and the presentation of the case-studies of Alicante, Evora and Toledo suggests a new concept which might give medium sized cities a new perspective of development.

The problem actually faced by the Municipality of Toledo shows a peculiar situation of urban crisis directly related with the balance between urban fabric and urban population: in other terms a matter of density. While for several decades cities have been carrying on programs intended to push urban development out off the inner city, according to generalized standards of density, contemporary medium-sized cities have now to fight against the sprawl of the urban population over a territory which no longer can be managed by local authorities in terms of efficiency and safety. The regression of the residential population in Toledo within the historic center from 17.461 inhabitants in 1981 to 12.717 in 1991 - showing a negative performance of -27% - is only the final step of a perverse trend which has led the Municipality to have to deal with an absolute exaggerate urban land with respect to its population, since the inhabitants of the historical center were up to 31.000 in 1940 - representing 90% of the total - but even 22.169 in 1971 - more than 50% of the total.

The increasing of urban land without a related proportional positive demographical rate is today a form of luxury which a medium-sized city cannot stand. This situation risks to put the Medium-Sized City in a very delicate position by absorbing a great deal of its resources just for the maintenance of the urban infrastructures and for the provision of public communal services such as public transportation.

In addition, the progressive transformation of the historic center into a tertiary area increases problems of traffic and congestion due to the increasing amount of population daily forced to commute from residence to workplace.

The new policy of the Municipality of Toledo aims to invert this dangerous trend and to increase the density of both the entire urban area up to a figure of about 135.000 inhabitants and the historical center up to 20.000 inhabitants, so that the existing communal services might be efficiently managed and paid.

Evora Municipality's strong commitment to both the safeguard of its architectural patrimony and the development of a tradition-inspired urban environment is part of a clear policy to attract new investments in the city through the offer of a unique place to live in, combining density with urban space's qualities.

While the Plan RACHA case in Alicante shows a comprehensive policy to reconstruct the city core, in order to avoid further consumption of agricultural and natural land, beyond all the economical and social issues related to the re- conquest of a strong city identity, Nimes' attempt to create a new limit for the urban area is directly linked to a wider policy of revitalization of the historical areas.

A policy regarded as capable to avoid the degradation of the urban fabric into suburbia is currently undertaken by the Municipality of Nimes, with respect to both the degradation of ancient quarters in the city core and the development of new chaotic social housing areas.

The commercial and cultural renaissance of the historical quarters is seen as means to better integrate citizen's daily life with a high-quality pedestrian-oriented urban environment, which might be able to react to the suburban sprawl through car-oriented supermarkets and malls (see Nimes "boulevard des crimes").

In addition, the case-study of Oviedo has offered an interesting contribute about the possibility of good combinations between urban density and presence of accessible green areas in Medium-Sized Cities. The particular density of the city of Oviedo - 200,000 inhabitants on a built surface of 1,000 ha only - not only allows the presence of a rich natural environment all around the city, but it also has been proved to successfully have positive effects on safety in town.

This particular result, which is obviously due to a lot of different reasons working together, is certainly favored by the peculiar urban layout of the city, where the beautiful central park constitutes the geographical heart of the urban area, while allowing the development of several different "cities within the city", rich in street life and commercial and cultural activities. It is right this commercial presence which might ensure the development of a proper safe urban life, by exercising a particular kind of street control where people are the key factor.

M10. UNIVERSITY AS INCUBATOR OF DEVELOPMENT.

Even if all cities with University's sites complain about the weak linkage between local Universities and the city (Oviedo, Alicante, Toledo, Perugia), the presence of this particular system of upper degree education play an important role in the development of a Medium-Sized City as a regional focus.

This position increases the centrality of the city in its region and ensure a strong relationship with the surrounding areas.

When Medium-sized cities are close to a major National urban pole, University might offer a better chance to resist the attraction of the nearby metropolis, especially by offering young population an alternative to the otherwise inevitable need to escape from their residential area in order to get an upper degree of education.

In addition, the presence of research departments of the University can promote a further economic development if properly associated to the use of local vital sectors, like biotechnology and agriculture in Siena.

As Medium-Sized Cities do not have the huge industrial or administrative resources of a large city, they might use the development of their University as an incubator for the economical and cultural development of the entire region.

Finding a special and peculiar way of development related to the Universitarian presence means for a Medium-Sized City to follow criteria of Sustainability in terms of re-use of former industrial or cultural building complexes such as convents, churches, military barracks, factories, etc., which have been proved to can be successfully employed for those activities, thanks to their particular architectural typology. Thus, the development of University might help the process of concentration instead of spreading buildings in the countryside, with all the pollution-related consequences.

Another particular policy a Medium-Sized City might enhance concerns the development of its university within the city, as fundamental means to bring more life in historical quarters and to facilitate the cultural and economical interchanges between the city and the university's population.

Both Evora and Nimes show how such a policy is actually undertaken as part of a broader series of actions related to the improvement of the quality of life in the city, where the term quality is directly linked to the idea to have the maximum of social and cultural activities within a mixed residential and commercial urban environment, as it has been clearly pointed out by René Schoonbrodt.

The same attitude has been developed by the Municipality of Toledo concerning the humanist Faculties of the local University.

Resisting the temptation to start a new development in the countryside and leaving the "campus" pattern for the reuse of existing urban fabrics like in Siena with the rehabilitation of the monumental complex of Santa Maria della Scala - a church-convent resembling a city without the city more than an isolated object - means increasing the activities mixture within the city, thus offering new opportunities of small jobs and commercial ventures.

The discussion of problems of medium-sized cities held by local municipalities' members and the presentation of Perugia's case study have led to the definition of another particular status of a medium-sized city, a place where a pedestrian-oriented urban environment allows cars to play a social role as alternative means to an efficient public transportation system.

It seems that the concept of monofunctional segregation - a center for pedestrian "within the walls" and a suburbia for cars "outside the walls" - might find a possible alternative in a city where the urban environment is everywhere conceived according to the same criteria of Sustainability (see Evora).

The criticism of the experienced undertaken in Perugia (see Ciuffini) have pointed out that, besides several important achievements in the field of innovative transportation systems in a low-density area, some main problems appeared as over-specialization of urban areas: the historical center, administration, the peripheral quarters, residential and industrial.

Both phenomena leading to an undesirable situation of increasing of traffic flows and lack of social interchanges.

The efforts actually given by the municipalities of Evora and Nimes seem to move towards the creation of a more balanced urban area -thus weakening the gap between center and periphery-, which might actively influence the development of the surrounding region.

M13. ACCESSIBILITY AS A NEW CHALLENGE

While risks of competition with a nearby metropolitan area have been clearly underlined in the Evora's (Lisbon) and Gaia's (Oporto) cases, the presentation of both Alicante - port, highways, international airport - and Nimes - highways, TGV intercity railway system, airport - have stressed the major role played by the existence of a favorable communication network for the economical development of the Medium-Sized City.

It is in this delicate issue, between the competitive advantages offered by a fast and efficient communication network with the "external" world and the risks of reinforcing the attractiveness of major "nearby" metropolitan areas, that one could summarize some amongst the main challenges of Medium-Sized Cities.

In fact, one can notice how all the representatives of Municipal authorities present at the meeting in Oviedo answered the question raised by Voula Mega on strongest/weakest points in their cities by speaking of accessibility, isolation, distance from main National transportation networks, even when, like in the case of Toledo, central geographical location and proximity to the National capital led the Mayor to express his doubts about city's convenience towards a stronger railway linkage with Madrid.

M14. ACCESSIBILITY MEANS ALSO SOCIAL ACCESSIBILITY.

The presentation of the case-studies of Alicante, Siena and Oviedo has provided the Workshop with a more focused sight on problems of social accessibility in Medium-Sized Cities. As this issue has been developed through the Workshop as part of the broader class of advantages which Medium-Sized Cities have in comparison with large cities, thanks to their limited size, two main aspects have been underlined:

- the possibility to have a closer relationship amongst different social partners, thus better contributing to the process of taking decisions;

- the possibility to guarantee social access to urban public spaces as decisive step towards the creation of a truly lived city.

One of the most intriguing contributions to the discussion on Medium-Sized Cities model of development came from the presentation of Maurice Culot's intervention on Functionality, Aesthetics and the Desirability of the Sustainable City during the meeting in Oviedo.

Despite being a lateral theme to the Medium-Sized Cities workshop, this intervention gave a significant aid to focus on the very nature of a Medium-Sized City by focusing on the complex relation between functionality and desirability in urban terms. In other words, if unemployment issues cannot be solved at the Municipal level in case of Medium-Sized Cities, as clearly pointed out by the Mayor of Volos in his introductory speech in Volos and following discussion, a positive feature of Medium-Sized Cities might be their urbanistic offer in terms of quality of urban spaces and residential buildings. That is the traditional city because it is the only one which has proved to be successful in adapting itself to changing times always providing its inhabitants with a high standard of functionality.

If this is true, Medium-Sized Cities are to face an exciting perspective by meeting the challenge of consolidating the quality of their historical centers - eventually with operations of reconstruction like in the case of Dessau, since the experience of Toledo has clarified how the beauty that we admire today in historical urban ensembles happen to be often the result of a patient and careful work of restoration of a former beautiful status, which was destroyed for some natural or artificial reasons - and trying to export this kind of urban quality into the recent peripheral areas, so that they can be turned into truly cities.

Even if complementarity and not competition might be a key word for expressing the role of Medium-Sized Cities with respect to large and small cities, the greatest achievement of a Medium-Sized City is when inhabitants of a metropolis express a sort of desire to move living there. A desire which is always related to aesthetics concerns, which, by nature, exist when basic needs are satisfied.

If Medium-Sized Cities will result desirable, they certainly succeed in developing themselves in a sustainable way.

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