The Utopia of the Contemporary Urban Project at "Human Scale". The Case Study of a Thermal City

In the contemporary urban age, planners and architects are looking for new utopias for the city and urban life at the human scale, after the end of the functional city age. The paper proposes a perspective in which contemporary urban project finds its strength starting from open and public space. Proximity and territory are focused as new utopias and dystopias for the contemporary city. The materials and references of this approach are presented through the case study of "a small place with high identity": Salsomaggiore Terme, a ville d'eau in which urban development is historically generated around a central open space that still dominates completely the urban and territorial scene. Also are summarized contributions from the outcomes of the Workshop of Urban design for the environmental quality - Bachelor of Science in Environmental Architecture at Politecnico of Milan.