Ricerc@Sapienza

History and nature for urban regeneration. New scenarios for an intercontinental sharing
The concrete interest in a comparison between Italian and Chinese professors, emerged from the Seminar "Historic Landmarks and Contemporary City. Strategies for Enhancement and Regeneration", and from the recent Executive Protocols signed with the three Chinese Universities, represents the occasion to substantiate a joint reflection on the urban regeneration with specific reference to the context characterized by the presence of historic and natural heritage.
A reflection that in Italy is collocated at an advanced stage of a long process of innovation of the strategies and tools for the intervention in the existing city. This long process has gradually opened Urban Planning to the environmental issues (INU, 1995) and to the conservation and enhancement of the "historic territory" (ANCSA, 1990).
A reflection, that, in the Chinese context, reveals a significant change in the approaches to urban planning. This change is reflected
in a renewed interest in confrontation and exchanges shown by the privileged interlocutors, Professors from the Chinese Universities that have already attended, with over 50 students, the activities promoted by the PDTA Department, and who have enthusiastically accepted the invitation to this Proposal.
Such interest to the exchanges, that also foresees dissemination activities through workshops with students and Chinese teachers, constitutes a potential for the consolidation and opening of new scenarios of international cooperation, in line with the guidelines of the Sapienza Strategic Plan 2016-2021. The proposed activities confirm the excellence of Sapienza in the Research and Education Fields, for urban planning, within the general process of internationalization.

The disciplinary references and the innovation perspectives
The Research Proposal, in line with the most advanced national and international best practices, will adopt as methodological tools the "Strategic Planning Zones". This tool guarantees the recomposition of different territorial (historic-cultural, naturalistic-environmental, functional, etc.) components and the strengthening of relationships, actions that constitute the priority goals of the urban regeneration strategies.
These "Zones" are defined by natural elements, historic axes and traces, interrelated among each other, which have the role of morphological and functional structure of the settlements, at three scales: metropolitan, urban and local scales.
They therefore constitute a strategic and programmatic reference for urban regeneration as well as a coordination tool for an integrated system of interventions aimed at:
- the strenghtening of public paths networks, according to the sustainable mobility principles, with particular reference to the cycle-pedestrian and river mobility, which connects the identity-making public spaces and the characterizing functions (market streets, f.i.);
- the enhancement of the great traces of historic and historicized urban morphology (the City Walls, the Canals, for instance), and the settlements rules which structure the city and their territory and their stratifications;
- the ecological and landscape reconnection of open spaces and of the green and water components (Green and Blue Networks, River Parks or Green Belts) to guarantee the ecologic functioning of the City, including of interventions of renaturalization.
On the basis of the experimentation of these methodological tools, the Research aims to identify some insights into deepening related to innovative paradigms, in consistence with the ongoing disciplinary debate:
- the concept of "green centrality" (ANCSA 2006, ANCSA 2011), which overcomes the built centrality and emphasizes the construction of public space through the reuse of void and abandoned spaces, promoting eco-friendly temporary uses that also guarantee the conservation of historic and cultural heritage;
- the concept of "historic urban landscape" (UNESCO 2011), referring to the urban area understood as the result of a historic layering of cultural and natural values and attributes, extending beyond the notion of "historic centre" (ANCSA, 1990); it provides the basis for a comprehensive and integrated approach for the identification, conservation and management of the historical, cultural and heritage within an overall sustainable development framework;
- the concept of "environmental infrastructure" (EPA, 2015; EC, 2015), which refers to the construction of ecological-environmental networks related to the production of eco-system services and to the enhancement of landscapes.
In relation to the "Strategic Planning Zones", the Research will experiment innovative procedures and tools, such as the Urban Project, the integrated programs, however, tools characterized by elements of flexibility, by public-private partnership, by preliminary tests of the design solutions within an incremental approach.