The Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Università degli Studi di Firenze, and the local Architects Association promoted two seminars on city design and regional policy in Italy last year. The aim of both seminars was to define new strategies for relaunching urban regeneration in Tuscany. Several Tuscan cities have undergone significant transformations over the past fifteen years but private and speculative interests have often prevailed; the resulting new urban spaces have worsened the situation, meeting opposition from the inhabitants. Only recently the regional government has started to address this issue in a comprehensive way: considering the effects that each development produces on the whole city and evaluating the relationship between public and private interests from a new point of view.
