ISUFITALY
ISUFitaly is a scientific society founded in 2007 as the Italian section of the International Seminar on Urban Form (Isuf international)
The problem of forming ISUF local networks was posed in the Newcastle conference in 2004. In 2006 the topic was discussed in Stockholm from a practical point of view.
There was an approval in principle and two months later the Newcastle conference, in a meeting in Artimino, some architectural and urban design professors began to propose the first of the ISUF local associations. The month later they met in Florence to create the Italian scientific association (Isuf Italia).
Isuf Italia was a small group of researchers and professors mostly interested in the city forming process and building types. They proposed that the main goal of the association would be to promote and develop the study of Urban Morphology in Italy, to encourage research, collaborate with local authorities and provide contacts between members through organizing conferences, meetings, also developing links with other networks.
The year after, on 2007, a conference devoted to the foundation of Isufitaly (the association new name) was organized in the “Casa dell’Architettura” (House of Architecture) in Rome.
The conference was held in two days. The first one was devoted to one of the most discussed problem about housing in Rome, the Corviale intervention.
The day after the foundation meeting of ISUFtalywas held, discussing with a small group of researchers, professors and professionals the goals and structure of the new association.
On 2014 it was decided to have a legal frame for the ISUFitaly activities.
Since 20 October 2014, the association has been registered with the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance as a non-profit scientific association under No. 01132196022521.
Within university and external facilities ISUFitaly organized series of lectures, workshops, conferences devoted to the relations between Urban Morphology and design in their different aspects.
An international Isuf conference was also organized by ISUFitaly in Rome in 2015 with the title of City as Organism.
In February 2017, the third Italian Isuf conference was organized (Learning from Rome). The title indicates the organizing group own ideas: the designer goal is to read “urban rules” inside the city and to continue them to produce contemporary architecture, never imitating the past but at the same knowing that we are “continuing” the existing city.
In September 2018 the fourth ISUFitaly conference was held in Bari with the title Reading Built Space.
In February 2020 the fifth ISUFitaly conference was held in Rome with the title Urban Substata and City Regeneration
In July 2022 sixth ISUFitaly conference was hel in Bologna with the title New strategies for a changing society
Goals
ISUFitaly has the main goal of carrying out activities related to theoretical and design research that have as their object the form and transformation of the city and the territory.
In this general context, the association promotes, in particular, activities related to the study of Urban Morphology related to the architectural and urban project.
The association performs the following activities:
a) organization of conferences and lectures with the aim of promoting exchange between the disciplines concerned;
b) collaboration with public bodies and institutions to provide studies, regulations, operational projects aimed at the scientific study of the architectural heritage at different scales (reading) and its transformation consistent with the forming process (design);
c) development of relationships with other organizations and associations that deal with the built environment;
d) organization of conferences, seminars and design workshops;
e) publications on the topic of Urban Morphology and web dissemination.