This book stems from the seminal work of Robert Venturi and aims at re-projecting it in the current cultural debate by extending it to the scale of landscape and placing it in connection with representative issues. It brings out the transdisciplinary synthesis of a necessarily interdisciplinary approach to the theme, aimed at creating new models which are able to represent the complexity of a contradictory reality and to redefine the centrality of human dimension. As such, the volume gathers multiple experiences developed in different geographical areas, which come into connection with the role of representation. Composed of 43 chapters written by 81 authors from around the world, with an introduction by Jim Venturi and Cezar Nicolescu, the volume is divided into two parts, the first one more theoretical and the other one which showcases real-world applications, although there is never a total split between criticism and operational experimentation of research.

This book stems from the seminal work of Robert Venturi and aims at re-projecting it in the current cultural debate by extending it to the scale of landscape and placing it in connection with representative issues. It brings out the transdisciplinary synthesis of a necessarily interdisciplinary approach to the theme, aimed at creating new models which are able to represent the complexity of a contradictory reality and to redefine the centrality of human dimension. As such, the volume gathers multiple experiences developed in different geographical areas, which come into connection with the role of representation. Composed of 43 chapters written by 81 authors from around the world, with an introduction by Jim Venturi and Cezar Nicolescu, the volume is divided into two parts, the first one more theoretical and the other one which showcases real-world applications, although there is never a total split between criticism and operational experimentation of research.

This book explores the relationship between the sciences of representation and the strategy of landscape valorisation. The topic is connected to the theme of the image of the city, which is extended to the territory scale and applied to case studies in Italy's Umbria region, where the goal is to strike a dynamic balance between cultural heritage and nature. The studies demonstrate how landscape represents an interpretive process of finding meaning, a product of the relationships between mankind and the places in which it lives. The work proceeds from the assumption that it is possible to describe these connections between environment, territory and landscape by applying the Vitruvian triad, composed of Firmitas (solidity), Utilitas (utility) and Venustas(beauty). The environment, the sum of the conditions that influence all life, represents the place's solidity, because it guarantees its survival. In turn, territory is connected to utility, and through its etymological meaning is linked to possession, to a domain; while landscape, as an "area perceived by people", expresses the search for beauty in a given place, the process of critically interpreting a vision.