The regional scale has become increasingly relevant as a means of sustaining competitiveness in a globalizing world, based on knowledge creation and Innovation. In today’s global economy, the real competition exists not among countries, but among cities and regions as these have a greater capacity to provide competitive advantages to the businesses and quality of life for the inhabitants. The progressive dissolution of international trade barriers, quicker access to information, improvements in transportation and communication systems are all key developments that will have a tremendous impact on the future shape of our cities.
Metropoli has been an early pioneer of large scale strategies for spatial development in cooperation with cities and regional governments.
Metropoli conceives regions containing polycentric systems of cities as “Urban Ecosystems of Innovation” and more importantly as “Territorial Diamonds”. In design terms, Territorial Diamonds can be conceived and constituted by “Points” – Cities as nodes; “Lines”- Links as communication and mobility networks; “Surfaces” – as built up areas and rural spaces. The Territorial Diamonds are in the powerful position to harness such common assets by setting up close cooperation between all its constituent parts which will also benefit individually from synergic actions.