This book analyzes themes and concepts of environmental design from a composition stand point. A selection of case studies from a larger regional scale to the small and local scale demonstrates how architectural and urban design works with different combinations of environmental elements, by particular emphasis or relationship, to enrich the experience of inhabitation and obtain the maximum comfort. Retracing the historical basis of the relation between ecology and urban design, it investigates in depth the dichotomic complexity of nature/technology, built/ unbuilt, natural/artificial. The use of ecological terminology is also discussed, in consideration of discipline variants like Landscape Urbanism which recently enriched architecture theory. The dialogue between environment and architecture is therefore a matter of inspiration, influence, interaction, perceived quality and sensible peculiarity. Architecture opens itself to the discovery of the surrounding environment, making the multidimensional experience complete, selecting data and structuring a hierarchical reading of the environment itself

Antonia Chiesa (PhD in Architectural and Urban Design, Politecnico of Milan, M.A. Architecture, Politecnico of Milan) is Junior Professor in Architectural, Urban and Environmental Planning Elements at Politecnico of Milan. Her field of study concentrates on sustainable urban design at the scale of the landscape, according to a comparison between Italian and Anglo-Saxon approach. She already published Bari, Biografia Di Una Città (with Roberto Podda in G. Denti, C. Cozza, Città e Geografie, Maggioli, Milano 2010); Reconnecting Polarities: Stripes and Connections, (in G. Santamaria, New York-Milano Disegno per la Città nella Regione Urbana, Alinea, Firenze 2007).