Reading and designing the forests: notes for a sustainable reconfiguration of the metropolitan territories

Abstract

In this historical moment, the awareness of the ecological emergency involves simplistic debates around trees, forests, woodlands, and in general on greening projects as the best way to improve environmental qualities of cities, peri-urban fringes and fragile contexts. Despite their impact on the modification of territories, the forest's plantation practices remain mostly detached from territorial and landscape planning disciplines. Understanding the forests as a component of a complex ecosystem should be the fundamental base to develop sustainable designing actions, and studying the vegetal strata can give important indications about ongoing long- term spatial dynamics: how to read these traces and how to manage them for further sustainable reconfiguration of the territories?