Advanced Cultural Districts. Innovative Approaches to Organizational Design

Most of the literature concentrated on urban clusters, cities of art and cities of culture, intended for local socio-economic development. How can the process of advanced districtualisation be supported also in a supra-urban territory and from an organizational perspective? What are the peculiarities of the Italian understanding of this process? Through the exploitation of eight Italian case studies, our argumentations are enriched and supported by a recent and innovative literature on the issue of design. The aim is to extend the knowledge and the understanding of cultural heritage under a managerial and, in particular, organizational perspective. More specifically, the work aims to open debate through the juxtaposition of too deterministic design approaches (we name “straight lines”), that extol the virtues of anticipation and completeness, and the actual process of design ‘in action’ within complex projects (depicted through the metaphor of “circles and spirals”) of Advanced Cultural Districts. Our argumentations converge in a model conceived as a support for both analysis and design intended towards a more conscious and sustainable way of cultural districtualisation as a form to support the local socio-economic development.