The research addresses the transformation of the spaces of production in contemporary European cities and territories, in relationship to the ecological, social and economic transition. The question of the transition is today of overriding importance for the field of urbanism since it profoundly informs the spatiality of cities and territories at different scales. The transition of European cities and territories is currently led by an oriented set of guidelines, as laid down in the European Green Deal (2019), regarded as a key political framework to set in motion strong public policies to rapidly accomplish the transition. Nevertheless, the research questions the effectiveness of the mainstream approach, and acknowledges a plurality of transition paradigms and consequently degrees of radicality through which the transition might be addressed. In this context, the spaces of production are interpreted as the core object through which to investigate the processes of the (types of) cities and territories transformed in the context of the ecological transition.

The empirical analysis is set on three case studies across Europe: the Est Ensemble, one of the territories of Grand Paris; Adlershof and Siemensstadt, two neighbourhoods at the fringes of Berlin; the Chienti valley, a manufacturing district located in the Marche region (Italy). The three cases share a pervasive presence of the spaces of production, which have marked the territories in their (industrial) past and still have a central role in structuring their spatial and social morphologies, although in revised forms. These three case-studies allow to address the spatial manifestation of different types of production, different scales and different trajectories of transformation.

The methodology the research relies on for the explorations of the case-studies is the Atlas, conceived as a working space, rather than a mere form of representation. It constructs a number of graphic operations that guide a critical observation of the transformation of the spaces of production, addressing the dialectic between pre-existent urban conditions â analysed in their temporal thickness and spatial stratification â and the urban transformations envisaged or in progress. Through the Atlas, the spaces of production are re-presented in relationship to the spaces of living, leading therefore the gaze to the spaces of encounter between living and working and various scales, forms and types of mixed-use urban fabrics. The Atlas gathers heterogeneous materials that can be read as independent or connected through narrative paths revealing paradoxes, ambiguities and even the unexpected.

The Atlas, being an editorial form, is methodologically oriented: the critical gaze is rooted in political ecology, investigating the (in)compatibility between the mainstream European transition strategies rooted in green growth, which are by now taking concrete, spatial form, and the possibility of operating a deep, radical ecological and socio-economic transition. In this context, the dissertation explores how the transformation of urban space â and more specifically of productive space â can be conceived as evidence of the ongoing social and spatial changes. Indeed, the observation of space and its material conditions allows to uncover the forces guiding spatial transformation, to unravel the spatial intention of policy-making, and even to reveal the degree of radicality of the project of transition.