Elena Granata on Designing the Contemporary City

Urbanist Elena Granata, professor at Politecnico di Milano, argues that contemporary cities have become pay-per-use devices where even resting in the shade has a price. Her upcoming book "La città è di tutti" (Einaudi) critiques overtourism's cascading effects: rising rents, inflated essential goods, homogenized souvenir shops, and conversion of public services into packaged tourist experiences. Granata warns that administrations pursuing decorum often sterilize spontaneity and vital chaos. She calls for public spaces to regain a human dimension, prioritizing relationships, permeability, and encounter without consumption. Urbanists and administrators must design with a long-term view integrating climate, social change, economic fragility, and environmental resources as structural conditions. New architecture should become ecosystems that dialogue with landscape, regulate microclimate, foster biodiversity, and create daily quality. A well-designed city allows bodies to move freely, communities to recognize themselves, and individuals to feel part of a living system—not a tourist stage or regulated set.