URB&COM LoG - Urban Planning, Commerce, Logistics and Territorial Geographies

URB&COM LoG is a national academic research laboratory that, for over 25 years, has investigated the disciplinary, regulatory, and policy relationships between urban planning and retail development. Its technical and scientific profile is rooted in the fields of urban planning and economic geography, with a particular emphasis on integrating advanced education with both fundamental and applied research. Active since March 1998, URB&COM complements its study and research activities by providing methodological guidance and technical support to public institutions, business representative associations, and local authorities in the preparation of spatially explicit analytical studies, regulatory documents, strategic guidelines, and planning and design scenarios.

URB&COM LoG carries out research, advanced training, and scientific, planning, and design consultancy on issues related to the major processes of transformation and governance affecting urban centres and extra-urban areas. Particular attention is devoted to the proximity economy and its spatial representation, with a focus on the opportunities it generates and the externalities it produces within local contexts. Over time, the Laboratory has broadened its research scope to encompass urban temporalities, marginal territories, and emerging phenomena, including the integrated assessment of “public services of general interest” within spatial governance policies, the platform economy, and the territorial impacts of logistics platforms and infrastructure.

The Laboratory’s main areas of expertise include:

• the geographical interpretation of spatial and territorial phenomena related to retail, logistics, and marginal territories through the advanced use of GIS software and analytical techniques, including catchment-area analysis, kernel density estimation (KDE), cluster analysis, multi-criteria decision analysis, and key performance indicators (KPIs);
• the development and testing of innovative survey methodologies and data-collection procedures concerning the proximity economy, aimed at creating tools for data processing, analysis, and cartographic representation. These tools support the preparation of integrated regeneration projects and coordinated strategies for enhancing local retail and service provision, including retail districts and urban and proximity hubs;
• the preparation of strategic guidance instruments, public regulatory frameworks, and spatial-planning criteria for integrating the location and development policies of proximity services and activities into broader territorial-governance processes.

Long-standing agreements and institutional partnerships with the Milan Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Crafts and Agriculture (Organisational Unit: Research, Statistics and Planning); the Graduate School of Management – GSoM (ProgrammaUS); the Department of Design (Prof. Stefano Maffei: Social Food Club project, Polisocial Award; L’Isola e le sue piazze project, Municipality of Milan–Lombardy Region); the Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering -DIG (Prof. Lucio Lamberti: executive education programmes The Changing City: Market Services and Urban Proximity and NRRP, Urban Regeneration and Retail Policies; European Commission project CTC – Close to Customer); the Department of Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering – ABC (Prof. Andrea Ciaramella: co-directorship of the executive education programme Planning, Designing and Managing Retail Spaces; teaching activities within the Master’s Programme in Real Estate Management – REM); the Poliedra Consortium (SSD – Smart Sustainable Districts project; Province of Piacenza); the CISE – Construction Innovation and Sustainable Engineering Consortium; and the Fondazione Politecnico di Milano.

TEAM: Department of Architecture and Urban Studies – DAStU

• Scientific Coordinators: Luca Tamini, Simonetta Armondi, Stefano Di Vita, Marco Mareggi, Alessandra Oppio
• Collaborators: Elena Franco, Angelica Garbelli, Giorgio Limonta, Paolo Maneo, Silvia Mete, Filomena Pomilio

KEYWORD: urban planning regulation; proximity economy; retail districts; urban hubs; platform economy; logistics services; urban temporalities.