Comparative City History is a broad-ranging thematic course that aims to explore some crucial aspects of urban history through time providing a wide set of case studies. The course explores cities’ history through cross-cutting topics by analyzing processes of urban development in a wide geographical and cultural framework and from a long-term perspective. Facing the general trend of globalization of cities, this course focuses on comparativeness between cities for identifying common parallel dynamics at the same periods by a historic approach. The aim is to analyze the process of changes at certain periods by enlightening peculiarities and specificities of single cities at the same time. The course will investigate specific themes as representative of the turn of urban history by key case studies. The chronology deals from the ancient to contemporary cities. Case studies will be analyzed in a comparative perspective for mapping general/specific urban phenomena. Traces of those stories will also be identified in the current cities by focusing on related memories and cultural heritage. Discussing changing urban heritage conceptions will be one of the main aims, preparatory also for the courses of the following semester. Although the focus will be on the European area, case studies will also include certain cities outside Europe. The purpose will be to introduce more factors of comparativeness in meaningful cultural areas for the transmission of models. On the one hand, the course will analyze both the built environment and open spaces by focusing on some specific urban settings. On the other hand, the social and cultural impact of urban changes will be explored. The methodology of teaching will encourage students’ interaction.

The student will gain an appropriate methodology and terminology, using the most important concepts and approaches of the historic disciplines in an updated and critical way, in a wide diachronic range. At the end of the course, students will be able to use in operational terms the critical knowledge which they have gained (i.e.: ability to read, interpret and set up historical analysis of the city, to identify the range of documentation available at different periods, and to recognise the historical context of main urban transformation processes, and to link them to the notion of cultural heritage). Students will acquire multiple knowledge and skills concerning in particular: − The formal and functional characters of a historic urban structure; − The ability to recognize the historical characters of city development; − The tools for the interpretation of the historical town planning; − The knowledge of cities in history and the relationship between urbanization and social and economic developments in and beyond Europe; − The knowledge of important historical, social and economic questions, debates and concepts on urban history; − How to identify and recognize distinctive and comparable elements of peculiarities on solid history-based knowledge and methodology; By the end of the course, the student should organize and use relatively large amounts of information and reflect critically on knowledge and understanding as presented in academic literature. Students should also have gained a clear sense of the making of historic environments and their cultural value.

The student must have acquired in previous training skills and knowledge mainly related to the basic technical elements of architecture and urban planning, the basic concepts of urban history and history of architecture, the system of local institutions, the urban planning governance and the basic elements of urban sociology. Particularly, a basic understanding of the history of the town in Western Europe and the Mediterranean basin is required, with some knowledge about the history of the main international cities. Also, the preliminary approach to urban history and to the history of urban planning is welcome, in addition to the knowledge offered by the school education and the BA degree.

The course deals with cities analyzed in a comparative perspective from the Ancient to the contemporary age, examining specific topics presented through case studies and approached by a synchronic or diachronic perspective. An introduction to urban history, its critical approach, terminology and definitions (“History of urbanism”, “History of the city” and “Urban history”) will be provided. A focus on the city of Torino, the former capital of the State of the House of Savoy and first Italian capital city will also be provided, again in a comparative approach considering other European and non-European cities. This year, the course will also be integrated by the seminar "Narration of the city: a multidisciplinary path of knowledge between historical sources and media narrative", partially developed in a field trip in Padova and Venice. Course program Global cities of the Antiquity and in the Medieval Age - Greek and Roman cities in the ancient Mediterranean area - Athens, Rome, Constantinople in the Late Antiquity Compared medieval cities - Serialization and peculiarities in the planned and organic growth towns - Urban life in European centers - The market places and the networks of commerce in European cities Ancient and Modern in the city of the Renaissance - Books and buildings. The Roman heritage and the quest for Antiquity in XV-XVI century - Defining public spaces in the Renaissance - Reimagining the city as a whole Landscapes of power: designing towns and territory in the absolutistic age - Capital cities: setting the scenography for the State - “Lieux du pouvoir” and places for living in XVII-XVIII Europe - Countryside and landscape. Projecting the absolutistic power outside the city Birth of planning. Metaphors and reality at the rise of the contemporary city (1750-1900) - Revolutions - The city of the physician: cure and surgery - The city of the engineer: organizing, specializing, zoning, networking - Cities at war: fortification and defense The urban past: myth, legitimation, identity or heritage? - The dreamt city. Far urban worlds as seen by foreign travellers - Capital cities and the nation-building process in XIX century - Urban renewals between radical and empirical approaches - The old town can teach us something: Civic Art from Sitte to Hegemann (and beyond) - Resilient cities at war and their reconstruction - Inventing the “historic center”: Italy since 1945 Global? - China in Europe. A cultural and architectural history - Europe outside Europe. Urban paradigms, influences, fascination - International style(s) - Colonialism and urban planning - Towards an urban history for the global cities of today: experiencing Tokyo - Global and local. Policies, approaches and current challenges of world urban heritage preservation

The course will be integrated by the seminar "Narration of the city: a multidisciplinary path of knowledge between historical sources and media narrative", partially developed in a field trip in Padova and Venice. The theme of the seminar taking place between Turin, Padua and Venice is the narration-representation of the historic city, a topic that has crossed history with very different means, interpretations and outcomes: the travel stories of Arab and Western cities in the Middle Ages, the drawn tables and the iconography of the great illustrated atlases of the Modern Age, up to photography and cinema that witness the twentieth-century transformations of the immense urban suburbs and of the depopulated historical centers. Historical cities are the protagonists of diversified forms of narration and representation, and they are also described in the most up-to-date digital forms, from cinema to apps. The seminar includes a part of preparatory teaching activity in the classroom, through lectures on the subject and a seminar trip between Padua and Venice that will allow getting to know the two cities through research projects and different narratives, from the storytelling to the digital restitution up to the augmented reality. Participation in the seminar is an integral part of the course attendance and will be assessed with a final exercise activity.

The course will include ex-cathedra lessons and seminars. A debate will follow each lesson. Experts may be invited to give lectures on specific matters. The course may also provide some guided visits in the Piedmont area.

Bibliographical references will be specified step-by-step during the teaching course. The basic material (in the form of handouts and collections of documents) both for the lessons and exercises will be available, through the course web-portal. Students are also expected to take advantage of the bibliographic resources available at the Politecnico Libraries. An introductory bibliography is established as follows; the knowledge of only some parts specifically indicated for the students will be required. Francesco Bandarin and Ron Van Oers, The historic urban landscape. Managing heritage in an urban century, Wiley-Backwell, Chichester 2012, pp. 1-73 Peter Clark, The Oxford Handbook of Cities in World History, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2013 Lewis Mumford, The City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects, Mariner Books, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (1961) 1968. Thomas Hall, Planning Europe's Capital Cities, Routledge 2010.

Modalità di esame: Prova orale obbligatoria; Elaborato scritto individuale; Prova scritta tramite PC con l'utilizzo della piattaforma di ateneo;

The exam will consist of a written and an oral test, with an evaluation on a 30 point scale. 1. The general part of the course will be the subject of a written test. The test will consist of a multiple choice questionnaire related to the topics discussed in the lessons. Written exam will count for 60% of the final grade, it will last 30-40 minutes and no specific didactic tools or materials are required, except a laptop and a internet connection. A pass mark of 18 out of 30 is required to be admitted to the oral part of the exam, which will take place as soon as possible after the written test. The answers to the written text will be furtherly discussed as a starting point of the oral examination. 2. The oral exam will consist of the discussion concerning the personal deepening of a case-study (agreed with the teacher) in the context of the annual seminar (40% of the final grade). The student will be asked to use correct terminology and a critical approach, within the frame of up to date historiography. The subject of the research will be a historic city or a site within a historic city, to be discussed taking into consideration: primary and secondary sources useful for a general understanding of the place; assessment of historic-cultural values and conservation and management dynamics and issues; the contribution of historical knowledge to the enhancement perspectives of the site. The oral exam will last 20-30 minutes and a digital presentation is required (with Microsoft Powerpoint or similar open source software). The exam will be carried out through the online platform provided by the Politecnico di Torino

Modalità di esame: Prova orale obbligatoria; Elaborato scritto individuale; Prova scritta tramite PC con l'utilizzo della piattaforma di ateneo;

The exam will consist of a written and an oral test, with an evaluation on a 30 point scale. 1. The general part of the course will be the subject of a written test. The test will consist of a multiple choice questionnaire related to the topics discussed in the lessons. Written exam will count for 60% of the final grade, it will last 30-40 minutes and no specific didactic tools or materials are required except a laptop and an internet connection. A pass mark of 18 out of 30 is required to be admitted to the oral part of the exam, which will take place as soon as possible after the written test. The answers to the written text will be furtherly discussed as a starting point of the oral examination. 2. The oral exam will consist of the discussion concerning the personal deepening of a case-study (agreed with the teacher) in the context of the annual seminar (40% of the final grade). The student will be asked to use correct terminology and a critical approach, within the frame of up to date historiography. The subject of the research will be a historic city or a site within a historic city, to be discussed taking into consideration: primary and secondary sources useful for a general understanding of the place; assessment of historic-cultural values and conservation and management dynamics and issues; the contribution of historical knowledge to the enhancement perspectives of the site. The oral exam will last 20-30 minutes and a digital presentation is required (with Microsoft Powerpoint or similar open source software). In the blended exam approach, the oral exam will be carried out through the online platform provided by the Politecnico di Torino or in the classroom, following avaibility.