The Chinese “Streetscape” Investigations on the performative destiny of a social and linguistic space

In Europe the street is traditionally the place of self-representation: the “Strada Nuova” in Genova has been designed in 1550 to allow noble families to build their own palaces in a competition of beauty, richness and power. In the American tradition the street became overall a place dominated by its market role (Venturi on Las Vegas, 1972). In China streets are the real public space for people’s daily life and its essential activities (trading, eating, playing, discussing): their role in urban life is so strong that sometime a street can appear even where the planning didn’t establish that. The western main urban public/social space is the square, but for the eastern countries - especially China- the streets represent the most representative urban public space that can be used together without the class differences.However, from the ancient cities to today’s high-density cities, the Chinese streets, because of their social role, have experienced also a very important connection with shop signs, posters, notices of all kinds, flags and signs, luminous writings. All these objects are a kind of ornament of daily-life as well as a real interesting documentary material, useful to understand permanencies and variations in the use of the cities during their transition from the former order to the new one. The paper introduces the framework and the contents of a multidisciplinary research project at work, between urban morphology and Chinese language and culture. (max. 1500 characters, spaces included)In Europe the street is traditionally the place of self-representation: the “Strada Nuova” in Genova has been designed in 1550 to allow noble families to build their own palaces in a competition of beauty, richness and power. In the American tradition the street became overall a place dominated by its market role (Venturi on Las Vegas, 1972). In China streets are the real public space for people’s daily life and its essential activities (trading, eating, playing, discussing): their role in urban life is so strong that sometime a street can appear even where the planning didn’t establish that. The western main urban public/social space is the square, but for the eastern countries - especially China- the streets represent the most representative urban public space that can be used together without the class differences.However, from the ancient cities to today’s high-density cities, the Chinese streets, because of their social role, have experienced also a very important connection with shop signs, posters, notices of all kinds, flags and signs, luminous writings. All these objects are a kind of ornament of daily-life as well as a real interesting documentary material, useful to understand permanencies and variations in the use of the cities during their transition from the former order to the new one. The paper introduces the framework and the contents of a multidisciplinary research project at work, between urban morphology and Chinese language and culture. (max. 1500 characters, spaces included

Economia dell’imperduto

Quali sono i valori dei quali si occupa oggi chi lavora a progetti di rigenerazione urbana? Probabilmente l’aspetto economico, quello sociale e quello di gestione dei processi vanno completati sempre più con un’attenzione nuova a valori che sfuggono alla concezione corrente dello scambio tra esseri umani. Tale attenzione richiede un nuovo tipo di competenza o forse la riscoperta di competenze già acquisite che potrebbero essere utilizzate in maniera differente.Il caso nanchinese dell’isolato di XiaoXiHu, tema di corsi universitari, di ricerche di analisi urbana e di procedure di progetto innovative, può fornire indicazioni importanti. Il ritorno della Cina ai regimi di proprietà non è stato soltanto un salto di paradigma nelle condizioni della finanza e del mercato, ma (forse paradossalmente) anche la riscoperta di una sorta di economia dell’imperduto.Urban settlements are made by spaces and buildings and also by financial, social and management aspects. However, considering a city as a built environment to be inhabited (what the Greeks called oikouméne) means considering also values, which escape the current conception of the exchange between human beings and instead pertain to the non-monetary spheres of simple use, of symbol, desire and gift. Attention to these issues requires a new type of competence.The Nanjing case of the XiaoXiHu project can be considered as a laboratory for new urban morphology studies and innovative project procedures, shared by researchers with different cultural horizons. China’s return to ownership regimes is not only a paradigm shift in the conditions of finance and of market, but (perhaps paradoxically) also a rediscovery of precisely non-monetary economies and a possible consideration of the urban form as a common good

A graphical method of presenting property rights, building types, and residential behaviors: A case study of Xiaoxihu historic area, Nanjing

Il saggio descrive le possibili implementazioni di mappe tipologiche attraverso informazioni legate ai diritti di proprietà. Nel caso studio di Xiaoxihu a Nanjing, queste implementazioni hanno avuto una ricaduta diretta sulla gestione di processi di rigenerazione urbana

Several Nuclear Events during Apoptosis Depend on Caspase-3 Activation but Do Not Constitute a Common Pathway

A number of nuclear events occur during apoptosis, including DNA laddering, nuclear lamina breakdown, phosphorylation of histones H2B and histone H2AX, and the tight binding to chromatin of HMGB1 and CAD, the nuclease responsible for DNA laddering. We have performed an epistasis analysis to investigate whether these events cluster together in pathways. We find that all depend directly or indirectly on caspase-3 activation. CAD activation, H2AX phosphorylation and DNA laddering cluster together into a pathway, but all other events appear to be independent of each other downstream of caspase-3, and likely evolved subject to different functional pressures