Cultural heritage and artistic activities have always reflected the role and function of any city: since the Middle Ages the physical structure and the functional design of the urban texture has represented on one hand a response to widely cultural needs (e.g. the relationship and competition between the civil and the religious powers), and on the other hand the specific environment which cultural works and activities could be rooted upon. The outcome of such a process is that nowadays every city can be read as a wide open-air palimpsest where cultural signs and works allow both residents and visitors to understand the identity and role of the city itself. In such a respect, we must observe that in the last years, also the forms and procedures of artistic production and diffusion are changing within the urban framework. They are shifting from a typically bourgeois view based upon individual or collective property, educational functions and elitist consumption to a wider view in which the needs and tastes of local communities appear to prevail, together with community involvement, social inclusion and quality of life issues. At the same time, all the trends that are causing changes in contemporary cities have brought the necessity of restructuring and regenerating the urban systems in order to create an harmonious city which is able to satisfy the needs and wants of all different users. Within this emerging framework of urban policy, an increasingly significant role has been played by the artistic and cultural sector. Central to this approach is the perception that cultural policies, if integrated and co-ordinated with other urban policies, can have a leading position within urban development strategies with respect to locational attractiveness and competitive advantage and can help to create more human, balanced and civilised cities; they can restore and improve the quality of urban life through the enhancement and development of the unique characteristics of a place and its people. The importance of the "cultural planning" approach and the development of an organised cultural cluster, operating and renewing itself in a virtuous synergy with the other functions of the city, are analysed as key actions in putting culture at the centre of a sustainable urban development. A critical review of the existing literature on cultural clusters, and, on the basis of the existing evidence, a classification of the main policy actions that have to be undertaken to foster culture-based urban development processes of the cultural cluster type will be presented.

The importance of the cultural planning approach and the development of an organised cultural cluster operating and renewing itself in a virtuous synergy with the other functions of the city, are analysed as key actions in putting culture at the centre of a sustainable urban development.