veronica strippoli
J. editor

The city is a complex system on which to focus attention, a different focus from the one identified in past decades.The lasts 50 years have conducted to an urban view composed of clusters of urban buildings, that often have been transformed in occasions of degradation or worst, in occasions of abandon, they are the generator of ghost buildings network that punctuate the town. In this way, the components of the "urban problem" began, a problem that affects the town on different layers, touching the different disciplinary fields. The hodiern panorama is the result of the linear economy system adopts until last years, based on a unilateral system: raw materials - use - waste. For the purpose to resolve this problem, It is now clear how this action scheme must be converted to a circular system, based on reduction of raw materials - reuse - recycle.

This politics is promoted by principles of the circular economy, that interact with the ones promoted by urban regeneration. The economic matter, based principally on conversion to the circular system, is included in the interdisciplinary program of the city. In this way, that principles will be adopted in reuse and requalification urban programs, in social and economics local programs and to reduce the environmental impact in the perspective of making the city a resilient city.

In the lasts ten years, the term Urban Regeneration has suffered a gradual inclusion process in the architectonic semantic, actuating the reuse building programs and requalification territorials’ programs. However, the term is used here to indicate an integrated process of multidisciplinary competences, which facilitates an overall intervention in the "urban problem", gradually moving away from the outdated design practices, exclusively linked to the architectural question.

In the recent past, the phenomena to act on the city focused on specifical objects and limited areas: the recovery of the old town, the reuse of industrial abandoned areas, the requalification of the suburban neighbourhood. Today using the concept of "urban regeneration" we enter in a different perspective, larger and more inclusive than the old approach, that allows acknowledging the urban question extended to all the city.

A city that is potentially all to regenerate.

We refer to a regenerations act that is not just focused on a building, on reuse and on requalification of urban space in terms of architectural space, but its interface with issues about the circular economy for cities, intended as the economy of the 3R; the realization of social programs, ever more inclusive for the citizen; the environmental themes, that are according to change the cities in a green urban organism through urban reforestation programs. The declinations of urban regeneration programs are a lot, a scheme in which the architect plays a decisive role in its implementation, capable of providing the formal response to emerged disciplinary interactions. So, the architect point of view must be evolving from a vision limited to architectural aims, solved by himself, to an interdisciplinary vision. A new point of view in which the architect gives solutions to the urban problem, not as an individual form but as a whole, interfacing professionals from other disciplines. Therefore, is fundamental for each professional to collaborate, so that each professional inserts an indispensable dowel to complete the puzzle of the urban regeneration. The disciplines included cover every aspect of living in the city, from the humanistic, social and artistic spheres to the political, economic and scientific spheres. Thinking of the urban system as a complex organ in which factors of different natures operate, helps to identify the problems in all their nuances. The resulting analysis therefore represents a complete starting point, in which sector-based responses are differentiated and complementary to the realisation of an all-in-one solution approach.

The unilateral planning decisions of the past have led to today: a starting point that is inefficient in its interactions and unprepared for the city of the future. To reach this aim we are called to act on the town, through a connections network that allows converting the urban system into a sustainable system.

The city is a complex organism and, as such, requires the implementation of an equally complex sustainable system, which takes into account the issues introduced above. Through punctual analysis of interdisciplinary dynamics and their cause and effects on the urban system, it's possible a change of direction to the city of the future. Sustainability is the first of the goals to be achieved for a change of direction, to reduce the impact on the environment and make cities less energy-intensive. However, the reference is made not only to material sustainability, certain and indispensable if one thinks of the built envelope but rather to procedural sustainability. The conversion process to the green city must be brought to completion through actions designed not just to the temporary conversion success but must be finalised to the realization of an urban system, resilient and adaptive, that can change according to the changes in the city and the needs of citizens. The program to realize the city of the future is to be overall self-sufficient and sustainable in its constituent parts. A set of interventions and programs aimed at conscious use of public space, independent in its planning and actuation but connecting to realize a complex program that can cover the entire urban system. An urban regeneration planning capable to answer localized problems and individuate in a different competence sphere, giving targeted solutions to economic, social, environmental, design needs. Finally, the urban regeneration as a "container of targeted resolving actions" constitutes the main road to conquest the city of the future: sustainable, inclusive and of quality.

Consequently, think about urban regeneration as a precise action restricted to the architecture of the town is limiting. As already anticipate, the city is not just something "built", on the contrary represents the stage of social and economic choices. In this sense, we must work in synergy, creating an action line inspired to a circular economy model, choosing solutions for the reactivation of the local economy or the strengthening of existing resources, avoiding new resources. Only through close cooperation between the various actors it's possible to answer these principles, leaving the linear economy system used until today. It is precisely on this point of social and economic articulation that we want to focus attention. It is important to observe the social dynamics of a place in the city and how they change from neighbourhood to neighbourhood. It is interesting to understand the reasons for this change, because this happens and which are the causes.

Deepen the use of urban land by the citizen is a starting point to the analysis of the city, this allows the identification of a broken system or a best practice to reproduce in the useless part of the city. The architect observation shall be accompanied by direct interlocution with stakeholders, which can give a complete picture of the urban area, highlighting strengths and weaknesses. Both represent two starting points for the drafting of the local regeneration plan, which necessarily remains in connection with the global plan for the city.

Only based on these premises it's possible to draft a social project as an answer, configured as an adaptive system capable of readapting with the changing dynamics of the urban area. This concludes in a set of localized interventions united by the common objective of making the city a place of persistent quality. A network of connecting interventions in which the social aspect is only a piece of a puzzle much more complex, composed of pieces belonging to the various disciplines and professional sectors. Between these pieces, particular importance assumes the economy one, invested by a twofold value. This aspect assumes major importance if refer to the local economy of urban circumscribed areas, part of the economic red of town. Relatively to this aspect emphasizes is placed on local reactivation initiatives which very often focus on craftwork and the tourism sector. However, this approach is part of a broader vision, that follow the aim of change of route, from the linear economy to the circular one. The first as a typical post-industrial economic system and the second as the economy of reuse and reduction. In this scenario, the role of the urban economist is fundamental to conduce to finalized choices for strengthening and enhancing local qualities rather than actuating an action line to answer to fashionable and global needs of the city. The enhancement of the present resources allows reducing the use of new resources, adopting in totality the principles of sustainability that led to the formulation of circular economy models to follow.

In the panorama described above, the urban designer has a coordinating role in the dialogue between the professionals interested in acting for change. It introduces the presence of two articulated figures which play a fundamental connecting role in the regeneration program for cities: the archi-sociologist and the archi-economist.

In conclusion, the architect is being asked to play a new role in providing interdisciplinary design to meet urban needs. The architect, while sharing the economic and social principles, must establish a fruitful collaboration with the specialists who come into the programming of regeneration plans for the city. Only through an open point of view in the observation of urban issues and a multidisciplinary analysis of the territory, the architect will be able to offer a structured and quality product aimed to improve the urban space, which is able to make the city resilient.

References

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The regeneration like a solution above urban problem

veronica strippoliJ. editor

veronica strippoli
J. editor