Re-think, Re-load, Re-cycle: Mediterranean Urban Metamorphosis

Abstract

Metamorphosis is the new and powerful keyword in time of crisis. We are not undergoing a mere -even though dramaticpassing situation, but we are living in a crisis which requires a metamorphosis of the ecological, cultural, economic, social and political systems to get out of it other than we were when entering it. The metamorphosis will have to be mainly urban, because we are now in the Urban Age in which more than half the population live and work in cities, at levels exceeding 80% in Europe. The city, as the predominant form of inhabiting, is invested with the “responsibility” of producing innovative, more sustainable, intelligent and creative life styles, able of generating the innovative propelling force which can make us emerge from the quagmire of decline.