Operating to modify the territory has always been one of the fundamental needs of man, in particular to assert possession of the areas necessary for his sustenance and to exercise his power. This leads to the creation of works that mark and modify the territory, such as roads, defence fortifications, and land reclamation, all interventions that lay powerful claim to paternity, and above all to property. The concept of property thus becomes a political element. This aspect, due to its radicalization in the town planning courses in Milan up to 1968, turned Camponovo against the discipline for a long period. The science of town planning that accompanies man’s needs is always developing, and will never be completely fixed. Through the territory it has also expressed and will continue to express the rules and the philosophy of coexistence and its level of civilization according to the political ideas of the moment. New buildings become part of the urban design conditioned by the fragmentation of the territory, its orography, building regulations, and the financial means and cultural level of the patrons. Despite the limitations described, buildings are the element that most affects the perception of the built landscape. The totality of built structures par excellence is the city. It is no coincidence that town planning was born for the study of urban aggregations in the second half of the nineteenth century, and followed the development of the constant occupation of the territory. “A sometimes violent and unpredictable occupation where town planning was forced to chase after development rather than anticipate it in order to organize it better. The result is the birth of soulless city outskirts, non-places where man and his welfare are no longer the focus of attention. Even a more apparently ‘gentler’ use of the land with a dotted pattern of single-family dwellings close to the centre no longer has any sense, because it subtracts and occupies land destined for future generations. What is necessary, especially where the territory has already been heavily urbanized with infrastructures paid for by the community, is a dense, vertical mode of building for a more parsimonious, respectful use of nature. As often happens, although largely shared the adoption of these concepts by town plans took so long that their application has been compromised.” These brief reflections on the organization of the territory lead us directly to the theme of the urban growth of Lugano as it has developed above all over the last three decades, and to that of an urban regeneration which, where necessary, should take account of existing structures, though without giving up the opportunity to redesign a more efficient, more dynamic city that has begun to rethink its own structure. It is no coincidence that the construction of the Vedeggio-Cassarate tunnel represents a remarkable opportunity to plan a new section of the city. The tunnel will be not only a new element in the transport system, but also the driving force behind a new environmental and urban design of the whole area. In short, it will become the backbone of a series of public spaces and built areas that will direct the new development of the city. They will thus not restrict themselves to creating a new transport junction, but will create a new district to be added to the existing city, forming the new gateway to Lugano from the north, in the delicate relationship between the built dimension and the natural dimension that has always been the greatest lesson of ancient cities.
