Urban Renaissance: Enhancing the Past Inventing the Future Drivers and Obstacles to Innovation and Change

Cities are first and foremost places of social interplay, confrontation and dialectics. They are theatres of civilisation, schools of abilities and values, and temples of learning about life in society and about rights and negotiation. According to Aristotle, the city is "built politics". Vitruvius stated that cities should be solid, beautiful and useful. Alcaeus, already in the 7th century B.C., had suggested that "cities are not made from their roofs, stone walls, bridges and canals but from men able to grasp opportunities and make the most of them". This latter definition reminds us of the definition given by Geddes: "The city is a dramatic action". Last but not least, Sennet suggests that the differences make a city, the possibility of meeting the unknown, the variety, and the anonymity (Mega 2000).