URBAN REGENERATION AND BUILT HERITAGE

Abstract

The rehabilitation project is mainly addressed to the adaptation of new housing and urban needs, but it is obviously conditioned and/or “constrained” by the limitation of the building itself, in particular when its intrinsic characteristics must be preserved. In this paper we focus on some aspects of the general framework of urban regeneration: the balance on the “urban question” and on the methodology of integrated planning; the connection between quality and urban liveability; the sharing of the objectives of regeneration and its meanings. Without claiming to be exhaustive, some of the “enabling” conditions and the “indispensable” reasons and conditions for guiding the process of urban regeneration are explored, analysing the critical points relating to public responsibilities, the relationship between the public and private sectors, and the coherence between the objectives of urban regeneration and the protection of preexisting structures. In the process of urban regeneration, the involvement of public real estate is unavoidable, and its strategic value must be considered above all. The recovery and/or rehabilitation of the building heritage is in fact a strategy for urban and territorial balance. The rehabilitation project is mainly aimed at adapting to new housing and urban needs, and is conditioned and/or “bound” by the limitation of the building itself, which extends to its relationship with the site, the quality of its image and living conditions.