Urban analysis techniques and role of morphology in post crisis urban design

Urban spaces and towns are facing different and contradictory dynamics, between “endless” expansion and “shrinking” trends. Post financial crisis urban renovation also deals with different practices, between real estate development and temporary use entailing reappropriation of urban areas. It is nowadays almost impossible, at least in Europe, to realize major town plans similar to those carried out in the past decades, but new forms of urban renovation, much more complex and fragmented, or temporary and low cost, are now spreading. They allow the participation of different actors (public / private partnerships), flexible timing and spatial organization, with the not secondary goal of reusing urban territories and buildings.
The aim of renovation projects is more and more focused on social issues and challenges, for example in terms of quality of life and health, also by means of innovative housing programs, and sustainable layouts over the years: which will be the effects of this “programmatic” architecture on urban morphology?
The completion of elaborate programmes requires deep and integrated urban analysis, based on a “reading of the town” through multiple and complementary methodologies (i.e. considering the town as combination of layers, the town seen as an archipelago or a “town within the town”). Urban morphology plays an important role in defining urban strategies, especially within fragmented or superimposed layouts.
Rubattino and Ortica districts in Milan represent a meaningful case study for research and design: it could be described as a multi-layered and multi-composed scenario, considering its various parts and their “complementary”, “separated” and even “contradictory” status, as opposed to a homogeneous and uniform one.