SUSTAINABILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSITION: PRINCIPLES AND DESIGN GUIDELINES

Abstract

In these times of constant precariousness and insecurity, debates on the need for environmental sustainability are on the increase. There is a need to regenerate urban areas both by transforming the existing heritage while respecting historical memory, and by proposing "renewed" neighbourhoods with smartness, according to the use of renewable energy sources, eco-building, intelligent mobility, with a view to ecological transition. Immediate responses are needed to resource depletion on the one hand and the need to protect the quality of natural and environmental capital on the other. To achieve these goals, cities are called upon to play the role of drivers of sustainable development. By enhancing ecological quality, sustainability and resilience, cities will make a decisive contribution to the well-being of their citizens and the growth of local development. The design reference is the "green city", which focuses on the quality of the urban environment, the circularity of resources, mitigation of the causes of climate change and green growth and redevelopment, with a multi-sector methodological approach integrated with planning and based on the BPCI method "Bioclimatic Park City Immersive" (this means immerge the city into a bioclimatic park). This green approach already appears in the international policy documents Global Green New Deal by UNEP in 2008 and Towards Green Growth by OECD in 2010. [1] The key factors and methodologies of intervention are based on the interaction between Green Economy, Green City and Adaptive and Resilient Design, whose proposals can support the overcoming of urban/environmental degradation in terms of physical recovery, environmental rehabilitation and energy improvement, integrated with the enhancement of the existing heritage.