Mega-Events and Legacies in Post-Metropolitan Spaces

Stefano Di Vita, Architect and PhD in Urban, Regional and Environmental Planning, is research fellow and adjunct professor in Urban Planning and Design at the Politecnico di Milano, in the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies.
Corinna Morandi is Full Professor in Urban Planning and Design at the Politecnico di Milano, Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, where she is also member of the Professor Board of the International PhD in Spatial Planning and Urban Development.

This book offers new perspectives through which to observe and interpret mega-events. Using the specific case studies of World's Fairs, Di Vita and Morandi present a report of the Milan Expo 2015 and its trans-scalar legacies. While the event and post-event have been affected by the world crisis, the locations of exhibition areas have greatly expanded, encompassing regional as well as post-metropolitan spaces. The two main aims of comparing Milan to previous expos such as Lisbon 1998, Zaragoza 2008 and Shanghai 2010, were to demonstrate the contribution of the 2015 World's Fair to the urban innovation process and to the debate surrounding a new urban agenda; as well as to examine empirically and theoretically the international discussion regarding the growth of regional and macro-regional scales of contemporary cities in order to offer suggestions for future urban agendas through mega-events. This book will be of great value to students, researchers and policy makers in the area of urban planning and the urban studies more broadly, geography and spatial politics.

Offers an innovative and interdisciplinary study of contemporary World FairsSheds new light on the under studied area of mega-events in metropolitan contextsProvides a timely examination of the increasingly conflicted urban events of which World's fairs are one.

Chapter 1. Mega-events and legacies: A tradition of studies.- Chapter 2. The spatial projects of the Expo 2015 and the post-event.- Chapter 3. The planning and governance of the Expo 2015 and the post-event.- Chapter 4. From the post-Expo 2015 to a future Milan urban agenda.- Chapter 5. 5. World's Fairs and processes of urban change.- Chapter 6. Towards a post-crisis urban agenda. Learning from Mega-Events.- Chapter 7. Mega-events and urban studies. Which mutual effects?.