THEORETICAL APPROACH

The intensive program SMANFUL - "Suburban Mobility, Architecture and New Forms of Urban Life" is a three-year Erasmus Intensive Program intended to handle with the problematic and challenges produced by the extension of our cities in suburban surroundings, and with the special importance that railways roads had played in their shaping along the nineteenth and the twentieth century. An importance remains still today. Because this, the research will focus on discussing the potentiality of suburban train stations to organize new urban areas for shopping, services, and in general terms social life. Its renewed to incorporate commercial and social activities makes theme become commercial and social nodes for the new peripheries beyond its function as mobility nodes; underlining their importance within the actual territorial network of infrastructures as well as collaborating to the definition of a new urban identity. This is a key aspect in the development of our cities and the improvement of their efficiency: as SMANFUL tries to research, coordination of human and goods movement and transport makes possible a sustainable vision of the city.

In the program, which is addressed to grade and master students, take part as partners a meaningful sample of European countries. Activities are definite in an intensive project workshop in which are carried out Cooperative Learning (CL) and Project Based Learning (PBL) techniques through international working teams and shared pedagogical resources on the web.

Expected academic results are focused on the improvement of design and synthesis skills of students, who will face the problem of organize different uses and activities within an existence space -that one of the train stations. And more generally are expected results in the area of European collaboration in the rethinking of the continent thick railroad network.