The International Laboratory of planning and urban design focused on two main themes:  the re-organisation and re-qualifying of the small villages around Urbino, where lives half of the municipality’s population; the impact on the landscape and on the territorial organisation of the systems for the production of alternative energy through a series of projects and planning rules.

The Laboratory‘s aim was to explore the complex relationships  developed over time between  Urbino, a small town, very important from a political, economic and cultural point of view, and the surrounding rural area.

The history of Urbino, one of the most important centres  of the Italian Renaissance, linked for several centuries to all European events, is closely connected to Montefeltro. A region of hills and mountains based on agriculture, pastoralism and forestry, spatially structured by villages, castles, monasteries and connected by roads (often built in Roman times) with neighboring regions of Tuscany an d Umbria. The cultural landscape of the region under the influence of Urbino is an extraordinary archive of different farming, pre-industrial activities, but also of contemporary industrial production. For this reason it is a very important case study, a basic resource for international comparative research. In addition to Urbino, the study of smaller historic centres such as Urbania, Sant’Angelo in Vado, Mercatello sul Metauro, Fermignano provides important new acquisitions about the relationships between the  built and natural environment.

Lines of further investigation and tentative projects for  solving  problems of the Urbino area, which are also relevant at  national and international levels were also developed. The workshop approached  some theoretical and methodological aspects of the theme being treated, of comparing different experiences, of developing the knowledge of good practices, of formulating proposals that can be applied at the local level but also in other regions and countries.