New Paradigms for the Urban Regeneration Project …
61
The research unit of the ABC Department has been involved in the PRIN 2015
study entitled “Adaptive design and technological innovations for the resilient regeneration of urban districts under climate change”
4 which intended to investigate, also
through experimental demonstrating projects, the applicability of strategic guidelines and technological and environmental design solutions able to obtain positive
repercussions from the reduction in exposure to climate risks and from the socioeconomic sustainability of cities. Specifically, the local unit of the Politecnico di
Milano focused on the topic of identifying tools and defining and implementing
actions for revamping and redeveloping the public space. In fact, the environmental
quality and usability of public spaces are still a too much underrated aspect of the
urban project, which tends to focus mainly on the morphological configuration of the
settlements and the functional and energy performances of the buildings with poor
outcomes with regard to the open space structure. These spaces—squares, roads,
urban gardens, etc.,—often become a “result”, frequently achieved in significantly
dilated timeframes compared with the construction of buildings, to be functionalised
ex-post, through furnishings and object layouts that support its use.
Public spaces—if approached through a multidisciplinary lens that considers its
formal, environmental and user values—pave the road towards a way in which to
cope positively with climate change issues and the needs of social cohesion. Within
this mindset, this study has systematically integrated multidisciplinary inputs and
structures relating to methods and tools for the design and implementation of NBS
in the ecological requalification of public spaces, with criteria and indicators for
monitoring and evaluating their multifunctionality and environmental effectiveness;
models and tools to manage and enhance public spaces as a common cultural heritage,
endowed with identity values, supporting full and conscious accessibility in physical
(multisensorial) and cultural terms; strategies, planning criteria, name and technical
solutions for the promotion of liveability and psycho-physical well-being and for the
containment of risk and the management of public space safety (UN Habitat 2004).
The area of cross-fertilisation amongst the various disciplinary contributions
derives from the use of research action and co-design methodologies that combine
analysis/programming strategies and spontaneous forms of bottom-up participation
(SWOT analysis, strategic planning and good demonstrative practices and projects)
and from the common goal of achieving the development of integrated tools for the
qualitative-quantitative evaluation of the expected benefits and the effectiveness of
the proposed solutions, measurable by their cultural, social and economic value.
4 PRIN 2015 principal investigator: M. Losasso, Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II”. Local
unit Politecnico di Milano, ABC Department: E. Mussinelli (coordinator), R. Bolici, G. Castaldo,
D. Cerati, D. Fanzini, M. Gambaro, M. Mocchi, R. Riva, A. Tartaglia.
61
The research unit of the ABC Department has been involved in the PRIN 2015
study entitled “Adaptive design and technological innovations for the resilient regeneration of urban districts under climate change”
4 which intended to investigate, also
through experimental demonstrating projects, the applicability of strategic guidelines and technological and environmental design solutions able to obtain positive
repercussions from the reduction in exposure to climate risks and from the socioeconomic sustainability of cities. Specifically, the local unit of the Politecnico di
Milano focused on the topic of identifying tools and defining and implementing
actions for revamping and redeveloping the public space. In fact, the environmental
quality and usability of public spaces are still a too much underrated aspect of the
urban project, which tends to focus mainly on the morphological configuration of the
settlements and the functional and energy performances of the buildings with poor
outcomes with regard to the open space structure. These spaces—squares, roads,
urban gardens, etc.,—often become a “result”, frequently achieved in significantly
dilated timeframes compared with the construction of buildings, to be functionalised
ex-post, through furnishings and object layouts that support its use.
Public spaces—if approached through a multidisciplinary lens that considers its
formal, environmental and user values—pave the road towards a way in which to
cope positively with climate change issues and the needs of social cohesion. Within
this mindset, this study has systematically integrated multidisciplinary inputs and
structures relating to methods and tools for the design and implementation of NBS
in the ecological requalification of public spaces, with criteria and indicators for
monitoring and evaluating their multifunctionality and environmental effectiveness;
models and tools to manage and enhance public spaces as a common cultural heritage,
endowed with identity values, supporting full and conscious accessibility in physical
(multisensorial) and cultural terms; strategies, planning criteria, name and technical
solutions for the promotion of liveability and psycho-physical well-being and for the
containment of risk and the management of public space safety (UN Habitat 2004).
The area of cross-fertilisation amongst the various disciplinary contributions
derives from the use of research action and co-design methodologies that combine
analysis/programming strategies and spontaneous forms of bottom-up participation
(SWOT analysis, strategic planning and good demonstrative practices and projects)
and from the common goal of achieving the development of integrated tools for the
qualitative-quantitative evaluation of the expected benefits and the effectiveness of
the proposed solutions, measurable by their cultural, social and economic value.
4 PRIN 2015 principal investigator: M. Losasso, Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II”. Local
unit Politecnico di Milano, ABC Department: E. Mussinelli (coordinator), R. Bolici, G. Castaldo,
D. Cerati, D. Fanzini, M. Gambaro, M. Mocchi, R. Riva, A. Tartaglia.