The history of architecture and city studio aims to provide the tools to investigate the diachronic dimension of architecture and the transformation of the territory and to build a critical reflection on the relationship between past and present. The studio differs from the monographic courses of History of architecture present in the first and second year by the use of didactic forms based on the conduct of direct experiences of analysis and historical research by students. This year’s studio will focus on the theme “Centri storici. Debates and experiences concerning the old city (1880–2026): Sources, historiographies, projects, interventions”. From the second half of the 19th century onwards in particular, the expansion and diversification of the contemporary city in comparison with its ancient counterpart led, in many European nations, to a reflection on the specific characteristics of the historic city and on its transformation and conservation. Within a few decades, the issue took on a specific conceptual and operational character, and, little by little, the reflections, texts and debates became increasingly specific, culminating in the emergence, in the 1950s, of the very term “historic centre” (centro storico), which constituted a genuine cultural innovation in Italy during the years of the economic boom. Over the following decades, the subject has continued to expand, both in terms of thematic scope—such as the social and economic dimensions of interventions—and in terms of its spatial and, above all, conceptual extension from the centre to the historic city. The topic is also highly topical and urges us to reflect today in light of the concepts of sustainable development, resilience and climate change, as well as within the context of the current crisis in housing and commerce, demographic decline, and the changing sociological profiles of citizens and ‘city users’ who are radically altering the way in which the historic city is experienced. What stance might a historian adopt in the face of these issues? How is it possible to construct a historiographical interpretation of these phenomena, and with what sources and research methodologies? The workshop aims to retrace these histories and attempt at least a partial answer to some of these questions. With this aim in mind, we will investigate case studies of significant building and urban transformations, without neglecting the debate that accompanied them in newspapers, universities and public decision-making bodies. The workshop work, to be carried out, barring justified exceptions, in groups of two or three people, will consist of reconstructing a specific event in Turin, situating it within a precise local and national chronology, systematically gathering documentary sources and verifying, including through targeted site visits and graphic representations, the nature of interventions and projects, some of which are significant even if never realised. The course will also provide an opportunity to develop skills in managing primary printed sources (books, journals) and archival materials, with the chance to explore, under the guidance of the teaching staff, public and private archives. The workshop activities will be accompanied by a number of specific introductory lectures on the subject, designed to place the topic within a broader context, not limited to Italy: the tension between demolition and conservation in 19th-century Europe: gutting, liberation, and the enhancement of monuments; the Italian debate from the 1885 “Naples Law” to the plans of the interwar period; the role of Giovanni Astengo and ANCSA: the Charter of Gubbio and beyond; historic centres as cultural heritage and the era of “patrimonio edilizio esistente”; emblematic cases of contemporary architecture in the historic city; from the historic centre to the historic city, to the landscape.