The Actvill research was promoted by the Commission of the European Union within the framework of one of its programmes, namely City action RDT programme (acronym: Actvill), which constituted the introduction to a large study of opinions, evaluations and planning which the Commission of the European Union (EU) had initiated. (DGXII- A/3-FAST).
The present research was born within the framework of the studies anticipated for this Actvill Programme, for which the Planning Studies Centre (Centro di studi e piani economici) had been selected in a public European contest in 1994. In fact, the centre elaborated and presented a research project keeping the course of the Actvill programme and, once it had won the contest, took into partnership another six research institutions of the countries to which the project's field of examination had been limited: France, Germany, Great Britain and Italy. Those institutions composed - with some of their researchers - the Research group.
The title of the research project as presented by the Centre was: Identification of the means necessary for an integration of the city into its regional environment.
The research came to an end in 1996 and gave rise to a Report , of which we here supply the Index.

Here you can have a look at:

1. A critical document on the aims and the framework of the Actvill researches and the meaning of the Actvill research

2. A synthesis of the Actvill research results

3. Two key chapters of the final research Report, more precisely: Chapter 10: Towards a list of indicators of central optimality, Chapter 14: A first scenario of spatial reorganisation on the basis of ‘urban systems' in four European countries

4. The Maps regarding the reorganisation for urban ecosystems of territories of the four researched countries: France, Germany, Great Britain and Italy (which are a final result of the research) with numerical indication of the programmatic urban systems which have been identified by the research itself.

In the following time, Prof. Archibugi - since the publication of the research Report was delayed by the Commission of the European Union - has provided for its re-edition, the publication of which is currently under way, keeping the Report structure but without any ‘national' contributions of the single institutions participating in the research, while reshaping and improving the text under the general title: The Future of Urban Quality in Europe: Towards a New European Urban System Concept and Strategy . Before being presented to a commercial publisher, the text has at first been published among the publications of the Planning Studies Centre.