LaPEI (Laboratory for the Ecological Design of Settlements) is a permanent research structure in the Department of Architecture – Section of Town and Country Planning, University of Florence. Directed by Alberto Magnaghi, from 1990 it connects professors, researchers, consultants, architects, PhD graduates and students in changing forms of discussion and common work. The Laboratory leads and participates to institutional researches (funded by national and international research institutions), cooperates with local Authorities in experimental programs, organises seminaries and workshops, provides for post-graduate learning activities, supports external organisations for territorial analysis and action and is part of a research network which links together many universities, providing support and scientific advise for base committees in local areas.
The research laboratories linked in the network activate research-action programmes, promoting new forms of extended participation for self-sustainable local development. This approach to a new development model concerns both environmental and territorial aspects, and is focused on the enforcement of self-governance in local communities, using Laboratories as meeting points for researchers, authorities and base committees involved in participatory programmes.
LaPEI is a permanent seat of theoretic elaboration, supports in technical and scientific terms the publishing of individual and collective studies, collects and releases every kind of material concerning themes related to territorialism. LaPEI’s researches concern vast areas as well as urban zones and boroughs; sometimes they are managed in cooperation with Government and Non Government Organisations in foreign countries (Argentina, Colombia, Cuba, France, Japan, Niger, Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom, Yemen, etc.).