Ricerc@Sapienza

As part of the research and experimentation activities by the Department of Planning, Design and Technology, Sapienza University of Rome, the contribution is set in the context of the Research project “Mediterranean Europe. Strategies of urban and metropolitan rebalancing”, taking as its central theme the essential role of green infrastructures (GI) within planning processes aimed at urban and metropolitan rebalancing, and the implementation of urban and territorial regeneration strategies.

The construction of public city, intended as the set of public components related to public spaces, green areas, equipment, mobility, social residences, invents the structural objective to be placed at the base of any planning strategy, as well as regeneration of the city. Hence the need for new cognitive and design strategies, as well as a rethinking of the reference models, typical of the traditional urban society, starting from an integrated, intercalary approach that recovers significant relationships between theory, practice, physical dimensions, economic and social change.

Cities consume 75 per cent of global primary energy and emit above 50 per cent of the world’s total greenhouse gases. For all their differences, Mediterranean cities share some of today’s most urgent urban challenges, such as climate change, environmental degradation and loss of biodiversity, sprawl and gentrification, migration and marginalisation, as well as shrinking economies and political turmoil. Policies at all levels call for more sustainable urbanisation models levering on Green Infrastructure (GI) and nature-based solutions essential in supporting energy transition.

Collective memory and individual identity in society are increasingly losing their importance in contemporary cities. Both material and immaterial heritage has to become a strategic element by which a citizen can recognize himself in the spaces of his everyday life. In 2018, the municipality and universities of Barcelona provided a moment of international consideration - using the instrument of a hackaton. This reflection was focused on the infrastructural heritage represented by the “Rondas” – originally developed as a connective element while today being seen as separating structure.

Collective memory and individual identity in society are increasingly losing their importance in contemporary cities. Both material and immaterial heritage has to become a strategic element by which a citizen can recognize himself in the spaces of his everyday life. In 2018, the municipality and universities of Barcelona provided a moment of international consideration - using the instrument of a hackaton. This reflection was focused on the infrastructural heritage represented by the “Rondas” – originally developed as a connective element while today being seen as separating structure.

In urban areas, the elements of the natural environment providing multi-functional ecosystem services are referred to as green infrastructure, into the perspective of leisure, education, health and well-being, reconnection to biodiversity, cultural and heritage landscapes, resilience-building. Numerous tools have been developed to explore multiple benefits of green infrastructure, adapting methodologies and designing new frameworks, especially in the emerging research area of the landscape economy.

Dynamic studies represent a disruptive approach in research and education, progressing evidence-based parametric design, and laying the bases for climate adaptive transformations. The integrated activities experimented, levering on the use of computational optimisation techniques, converge toward design solutions where outdoor comfort, indoor well-being and circular economy principles are negotiated, and whose expected multiple performances are documented.

La multifunzionalità, le interrelazioni tra differenti elementi ecologici e la
nozione di risorse strategicamente rilevanti come il capitale naturale –
valori chiave nella promozione del libero accesso, della connettività e
dell’integrazione tra tessuto urbano e biodiversità – costituiscono, anche
in Italia, idee centrali per lo sviluppo dell’urbanizzazione sostenibile. Nelle
aree urbane, gli elementi dell'ambiente naturale che forniscono servizi
ecosistemici 1 sono stati definiti green infrastructure, intendendo: «…gli

Contributo sul ruolo del rapporto acqua/suolo in progetti di architettura del paesaggio, attraverso tre casi studio significativi

L’Accordo di Parigi (Cop 21, 2015) e il G7 Ambiente di Bologna (2017) confermano ciò che il Protocollo di Kyoto (1997) aveva già sancito: la necessità di un cambio di rotta e di impegni più stringenti a favore del Clima e dell’Ambiente.
E’ sulle città, dove si concentrano attività, popolazioni e la produzione del 70% delle emissioni mondiali di gas serra, con un consumo di oltre i due terzi dell’energia mondiale (C40 Cities, 2017), che si sviluppano le strategie e le sperimentazione per individuare le soluzioni di contrasto ai fenomeni in atto.