Planning for the green transition through blue-collar workspaces? ‘Transecting’ industrial urbanism in the Milan-Bologna conurbation

In a long-term collaboration with prof. Yonn Dierwechter (University of Washington) on the topics of re-industrialization in contemporary urban regions, this paper is the outcome of a collaborative research during the visiting period of prof. Dierwechter at the Politecnico di Milano, Department of Architecture and Urban Studies (March-June 2024). Within this context, the paper explores the transformation of productive spaces across urban regions challenged by the imperative of building carbonneutral economies and places. Responding to a revived scholarly literature on re-urbanization and re-industrialization, in general, and the hypothesized new industrial urbanism, in particular, the discussion deploys a transect framework to chart distinctive typologies of change, focusing ultimately on the Milan-Bologna conurbation in the North of Italy. The study argues that new forms of industrial urbanism are emerging, not only to embrace new forms of re-industrialization, but also to respond to elite forms of green urbanism that have heretofore overlooked the role of local production systems in forging sustainable urban development. As part of the wider metamorphosis of metropolitan workspaces, recent efforts to (re)integrate bluecollar production and to accelerate the green transition are novel, but contradictory. Dealing with this oxymoron, the paper investigates the potential role of spatial planning in supporting new industrial agendas for metropolitan areas.