Relationship between mobility and urban form in contemporary New Town planning. Notes for a comparative perspective

This paper presents an in-depth analysis to identify good planning practices for mobility and public spaces which are connected together and are considered quality factors in the urban design. Specifically the analysis of displacements at the urban and regional scale must necessarily investigate not only the plurality of attractors, but also a great number of mobility structures that determines a higher level of accessibility and polarization around which the main flows of goods and people gravitates. Through three interpretative key-words – the relationship between mobility and urban form, intermodality and the urban micro-landscape – a comparative analysis on some case studies has been carried out, with particular attention to the New Towns built in the last twenty years. This overview is useful to prefigure which are the possible scenarios of innovation for the New Towns, both in future ones, keeping in mind that they will mostly be centred in developing countries and in future developments of existing urban areas.