This book shows through historical data, diagrams and drawings, the design system of an Italian historic center, that of Vicenza, Italy. Vicenza is the result of an urban construction process that has as its model the invention of the Palladian design system. The main argument is how the architectural vision of Andrea Palladio shaped Vincenza to the city it is today. Vicenza is an example of a collective dream, an expression of the best Renaissance artistic culture, a classic example that a city can reform itself through intellectual activity.

Marco Marino is an Associate Researcher at the Iuav University of Venice. He has been permanently collaborating with Professor Benno Albrecht since 2016 in his research activity on sustainable architecture. He is part of the "Urbicide Task Force" of the Iuav University of Venice which deals with studies and projects on the destruction and reconstruction of cities accomplished by natural and anthropic disruptions.