Exploring Urban Resilience

The term resilience, associated with the urban planning disciplines and territorial governance, has gained increasing importance in the last decade, with reference to the issues of sustainable development, the prevention of environmental risks, as well as the adaptive capacity of the territories. Specifically related to urban-rural interplays how can spatial planning face the risks of the progressive homologation of these contexts? How it can prevent the erosion of the ecosystem services? In the contemporary urban areas the role of the voids has become significant, for the extension of the city, for the discontinuity of its "parts", for the life cycles of its structures and landscapes. Inside and outside the city we can recognize the "architecture of the void", even their incomplete variations. The paper describes the interest on urban left overs produced by sprawl and their reclamation in Europe as emerged from several studies on the integration of agricultural areas within the urban fabric and the specific initiatives at Community level.