Models and Strategies for the Regeneration of Residential Buildings and Outdoor Public Spaces in Distressed Urban Areas: A Case Study Review

Abstract

Given three-quarters of the European population living in urban areas, cities are expected to deliver sustainable growth if they will be able to further thrive and grow, while improving resource use and reducing pollution and poverty, as highlighted also by Sustainable Development Goal 11. In the context of vulnerable and marginal areas within cities, which suffer from multiple deprivations, regeneration processes at the building and district-scale play the most significant role in making cities more inclusive, sustainable and resilient. Reuse and refurbishment strategies, measured building replacement and stratification, redevelopment and enhancement, nature-based solutions and bioclimatic technological devices, are all tools for an integrated regeneration process capable of stimulating the urban metabolism and act as a driving force for the self-regeneration of the city. A comparison of two different building typologies, brought about by a review of existing public housing case studies in the outskirts of Rome, Italy, allowed us to define efficient, sustainable strategies and guidelines, that can be adapted to similar contexts in terms of building typology, social and economic conditions and of relationship to the rest of the city.