Teaching methods for sustainable urban and territorial design: the case study of the Prato Ready Laboratories

Designing is a complex, personal, creative, and open-ended process of exploring and deciding, often seen as implicit (Schön, 1985). In teaching urbanism, we frequently need to make this process explicit and transferable. To do so, this paper uses a conceptual framework based on Elise van Dooren’s model (2013, 2020), which identifies five key elements: (1) experimenting/exploring and deciding, (2) guiding theme or qualities, (3) domains, (4) frame of reference, and (5) laboratory or (visual) language. This paper evaluates the application of this framework in the Prato Ready Laboratories, a multidisciplinary program at the University of Florence (2024/25), involving nearly 150 students from four design labs in Architecture and Planning master courses. The program focuses on sustainable urban and territorial design, addressing climate change, disaster response, and energy resource challenges. Through comparative analysis, it aims to make explicit the teaching methodologies for resilient urban design in multi-hazard environments.