Abstract
The gradual modernization of commercial activities during the past 20 years has had a deep impact on the urban landscape of Ancona and has strongly affected the stable relationship that for decades had marked the city center and its suburbs. The traditional hierarchy of commercial areas has undergone a new configuration due to suburban territorialization processes brought by a large-scale polarization of the city’s suburbs. Understanding these new commercial hierarchies represents a valid tool for planning proper territorial policies and boosting more resilient-based processes which aim at restoring the primary role of a city center that has slowly lost its social appeal and its functional status-quo within the city’s metropolitan area and in the urban network of the Marche.
Highlights
The traditional hierarchy of commercial areas has undergone a new configuration due to suburban territorialization processes brought by a large-scale polarization of the city’s suburbs. Understanding these new commercial hierarchies represents a valid tool for planning proper territorial policies and boosting more resilient-based processes which aim at restoring the primary role of a city center that has slowly lost its social appeal and its functional status-quo within the city’s metropolitan area and in the urban network of the Marche
As a consequence of these transformations, contemporary cities are special and sometimes even surreal or fantasy places “[...] where shows are associated to art, museums and to shopping venues: new places are born in substitution of past squares and streets where people can meet and socialize like shopping malls, airport lounges, theme parks and all those – more or less – artificial places designed by an everchanging society” (Miani 2001, 48). Consumer habits in their most advanced form can deeply alter the territory and its community creating new socialization venues that meet the fast-paced metamorphosis of modern consumer behaviors which are, by these same places, further influenced and affected in the unfolding of these activities. The result of this paradigm is that places originally meant for commercial or socialization activities that have contributed in forging Italian cities’ layout for the past centuries have been abandoned in favor of new surroundings like suburban areas and their main transit routes (Porto 2016)
This study offers an analysis based on the municipal scale administrative borders have not always been strictly respected in order to reach a wider comprehension of the suburban shopping agglomerations (Southern Suburb) that contribute in creating an urban concentration that stretches out for several kilometers and incorporates neighboring towns
Summary
The gradual modernization of commercial activities during the past 20 years has had a deep impact on the urban landscape of Ancona and has strongly affected the stable relationship that for decades had marked the city center and its suburbs. Understanding these new commercial hierarchies represents a valid tool for planning proper territorial policies and boosting more resilient-based processes which aim at restoring the primary role of a city center that has slowly lost its social appeal and its functional status-quo within the city’s metropolitan area and in the urban network of the Marche.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
