Architecture as a Social Business: regenerating the urban enviroment by creating job opportunities
4+4 months, full time in teams
Mission
The objective is to develop concrete projects aimed at the transformation of urban spaces, the retrofit of existing buildings and the recovery of unused.
Theme
To date, 3.5 billion people, approximately half of the global population, live in cities: this urban population, concentrated on the 2% of the Earth’s surface, releases into the atmosphere 70% of global CO2 emissions causing an enormous impact on the environment. According to demographic projections by the United Nations, by 2030 the world population will increase by 1.5 billion, or about 100 million more people per year. This implies tremendous expansion, mainly in urban centers. Based on these data, cities are facing a period of great social, economic and environmental transformation, which is the subject of the course. The economic and production crisis, environmental challenges, new migration and social integration, recuperating abandoned buildings to combat further land consumption, all require a new approach, to be contemplated and shared among with the citizens rather than imposed from above.
Approach
Designers, administrators and local entrepreneurs are invited to engage with the huge stock of existing buildings in the city, to improve quality of life and to respond to the call for citizens to transform their cities. Regenerating neighborhoods and public spaces, rethinking planning processes according to the environmental agenda, activating processes of urban social and environmental regeneration, redesigning the building envelope to increase comfort and reduce energy expenditure, as well as reopening urban relationships lost with the historic city are some of the potentialities that a sustainable approach to design can offer us.
