Terapie del costruito. La metafora della cura e l’architettura. Built environment therapies. The metaphor of care and architecture

The metaphor of care of the spaces in which we live and, more generally, of the cities, is very widespread in architectonic and urban literature, and also in philosophical literature. Many cities have entire neighborhoods abandoned, degraded suburbs, and unused urban interstices. All this spaces (the existing built environment, the urban public space, the infrastructures), need a spatial therapy; they also need to be re-thought and, in many cases, even re-designed. This condition of our cities involves a new vision of the role of the architect and his profession. We believe that the remarks on this peculiar mode of terminological transfer, from the medical to architectural language, are useful for understanding what are the current boundaries in the transformation of space; we also believe that they can help to open a reflection on the way of doing and thinking about contemporary architecture.