Useless towers. The triggers for urban growth

San Gimignano is the result of a single decision made by countless small and
manageable ones that have followed one another over time, a sort of, using the words of Ernst
Gombrich, “piecemeal planning”, a gradual planning: an intervention-model based on micro decisions forced by customs, rules and regulations, which together and in a short time are the
trigger for the construction of the city. The towers of San Gimignano functioned as a catalyst
for building development: every building subsequently built, was literally leaned against a
tower. Each family with their own house had the tower as a reference which was both a symbol
of social and ideal belonging, and a device for the spatial control of both the urban and
landscape scenarios. The towers dictated the subsequent order of the city, and therefore all
subsequent transformations were informed and organized by the position of the towers. San
Gimignano shows us another way of designing, another way of thinking about urbanity and
has, among other things, the advantage that has already been done, it is measurable,
controllable and checked in all its parts and therefore I believe that the study of the shape of
the city, of its urban pattern, of the comparison of scale, of the metric analysis of the urban
shape that it has per-formed so well in the past, I think it is an avenue of future studies to follow,
and the example of San Gimignano demonstrates this clearly