S-Low Bergamo: green agricultural spaces in urban evolution

In the city of Bergamo the close interaction between the morphology of the site and historical urban dynamics has generated a specific green fabric that embraces and permeates the historic city. From the Twentieth century on, the green system has been the object of significant political and administrative decisions aimed at preserving and implementing landscape and urban environmental quality. The chapter aims to illustrate the main stages of the construction of the city’s green network, describing the geo-historical structure and highlighting the most important urban interventions. The latter have preserved and partly consolidated the territorial and characterizing role of the green network. Moreover, the paper points out some functions and opportunities that the green matrix (la matrice verde) offers to the complex reality of the Big Bergamo. The conurbation has 500.000 inhabitants and it constitutes an area where very intense territorial dynamics put at risk the local endowment of open green spaces.