Tools for Reading and Designing the ‘Islamic City’. Italian Urban Studies at the Crossroads

Starting from the typological and morphological studies conducted in Italy since the Sixties of the last century, the essay aims to investigate limits and possibilities in the application of these studies to urban contexts that are different from those for which they were originally conceived and developed. The rediscovery of the historic city, mostly forgotten or cancelled since then, both in the intentions and physically, receives from here an international acknowledgement. The researches on the Islamic urban phenomenon carried out by Italian scholars were strictly linked to design issues. Since the end of the 1960s, in fact, several Italian architects were involved in town planning activities of several cities of the Islamic world.