On proposal of the degree courses in urban and regional planning of the Department of Architecture atthe University of Florence, the three Tuscan universities together with numerous Italian departmentsgave birth to a specific cultural commitment in deepening the theme of Leonardo’s “territorialist gaze”,interpreted along the axes of cartography, hydraulic engineering and design of cities and territories, for itsenhancement and dissemination at the national and local level. Leonardo’s approach to design, deeplyrooted in its time, can be read today as “territorialist” since he was able to put in tension and in synergy,through an artistic and scientific approach, the fundamental elements of an integrated territorial project:the representation at the regional scale of territorial identity and patrimonial elements, the constructionof socio-productive relationships between environment elements – above all the natural and artificialwater systems – and human settlements, the design of cities based on their most intimate functions inconnection with the hydraulic infrastructure network for the agro-urban ecological functionality and themobility of goods and people. Leonardo’s design method generates a contextual beauty, elegant anduseful at the same time, distant from sublime abstractions and, vice versa, rooted in the physical, naturaland social characters of territories.
The conference and related activities intend to reflect on relevant butrarely attended aspects of Leonardo’s activity, in order to show the relevance of his work in dealing withthe intricate problems of the design of contemporary cities and territories. The conference, the exhibitionand the local conferences will be divided into three sections: Leonardo as a cartographer, Leonardo as ahydraulic engineer, Leonardo as a designer of cities and territories.