The central hypothesis behind the book concerns the capacity of urban as well as territorial design, of the "project" in the sense of design activity on multiple scales, to produce knowledge. The volume discusses research conducted with design tools and operations, crossing physical and conceptual territories, related to a set of direct design explorations, and to the concept of "research by design."

This idea of the project contains, manipulates and produces concepts and forms of concrete action in space, involving interpretation, abstraction and - at times - generalization. It...