The “Historical City” as Counter-Model and Urban History as Political Agent

The text questions the possibility of identifying a field of research-action for the History of Architecture and for Urban History that is more defined and more specifically referable to the disciplinary structure than the broad field of Cultural Heritage. The hypothesis is to identify, to define as a field of research-action, the Italian "historical city" from the Second World War to the present day. The object 'historical city” offers, in this chronology, in relation to the multiple disciplinary vision required by the action-research, a specific opportunity, that is, almost by tautology, the inevitable confrontation, on the part of each discipline, with the political dimension of the city that can construct a common field of reflection on the specific disciplinary outcomes.