New Paradigms for the Urban
Regeneration Project Between Green
Economy and Resilience
Elena Mussinelli, Andrea Tartaglia, Daniele Fanzini, Raffaella Riva,
Davide Cerati and Giovanni Castaldo
Abstract Starting from a PRIN 2015 study, the paper addresses the themes of adding
value to public spaces, quality to the urban landscape, redeveloping degraded areas
and proposing a sustainable and resilient design approach to cope with the effects of
climate change. Specifically, this study focuses on the key role public space can play
in urban resilience processes, with the aim of not only providing results in qualitative
terms, but also measuring the feedback in environmental and economic terms.
Keywords Nature-based solution · Green infrastructure · Public space ·
Environmental design
1 Climate Change and Urban Crises
The intense urbanisation processes that have characterised the development of human
settlements in recent decades have played a decisive role in the modification of the
mankind–environment relationship: cities are in fact one of the most significant
sources of impact, with relevant effects in the consumption of natural resources, in
polluting emissions and in the overall alteration of natural and climatic balances. It
is therefore necessary to start from the cities, from their management and operating
models in order to define policies, strategies and concrete action that can guarantee more sustainable forms of development, including from a social and economic
point of view. As clearly stressed in a recent publication by the European Political
Strategy Centre (2018), the climate change issue, which was perceived as a longterm danger, is instead already showing its impact all over the world, in Europe as
well (European Commission 2006). In most of the European Countries, the increase
in temperature from the last century is almost of one degree, with a trend that, as a
minimum, will soon double the limit of the Paris Agreement signed in 2016. Climaterelated catastrophes—such as floods, storms and droughts—have become more and
E. Mussinelli (B) · A. Tartaglia · D. Fanzini · R. Riva · D. Cerati · G. Castaldo
Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering—ABC Department, Politecnico di
Milano, Milan, Italy
e-mail: elena.mussinelli@polimi.it
© The Author(s) 2020
S. Della Torre et al. (eds.), Regeneration of the Built Environment
from a Circular Economy Perspective, Research for Development,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33256-3_7
59
Regeneration Project Between Green
Economy and Resilience
Elena Mussinelli, Andrea Tartaglia, Daniele Fanzini, Raffaella Riva,
Davide Cerati and Giovanni Castaldo
Abstract Starting from a PRIN 2015 study, the paper addresses the themes of adding
value to public spaces, quality to the urban landscape, redeveloping degraded areas
and proposing a sustainable and resilient design approach to cope with the effects of
climate change. Specifically, this study focuses on the key role public space can play
in urban resilience processes, with the aim of not only providing results in qualitative
terms, but also measuring the feedback in environmental and economic terms.
Keywords Nature-based solution · Green infrastructure · Public space ·
Environmental design
1 Climate Change and Urban Crises
The intense urbanisation processes that have characterised the development of human
settlements in recent decades have played a decisive role in the modification of the
mankind–environment relationship: cities are in fact one of the most significant
sources of impact, with relevant effects in the consumption of natural resources, in
polluting emissions and in the overall alteration of natural and climatic balances. It
is therefore necessary to start from the cities, from their management and operating
models in order to define policies, strategies and concrete action that can guarantee more sustainable forms of development, including from a social and economic
point of view. As clearly stressed in a recent publication by the European Political
Strategy Centre (2018), the climate change issue, which was perceived as a longterm danger, is instead already showing its impact all over the world, in Europe as
well (European Commission 2006). In most of the European Countries, the increase
in temperature from the last century is almost of one degree, with a trend that, as a
minimum, will soon double the limit of the Paris Agreement signed in 2016. Climaterelated catastrophes—such as floods, storms and droughts—have become more and
E. Mussinelli (B) · A. Tartaglia · D. Fanzini · R. Riva · D. Cerati · G. Castaldo
Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering—ABC Department, Politecnico di
Milano, Milan, Italy
e-mail: elena.mussinelli@polimi.it
© The Author(s) 2020
S. Della Torre et al. (eds.), Regeneration of the Built Environment
from a Circular Economy Perspective, Research for Development,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33256-3_7
59