High density suburbs redevelopment and social housing retrofitting for cities regeneration

The suburbs of modern cities have become key elements in the scenarios of ever changing cities: once considered problem areas, they are now defined as important components for a general urban redevelopment in planning projects. The issue of suburbs is today ever present in the processes of strategic urban planning: they are considered as areas of integrated transformation, ranging from the landscape and cultural heritage enhancement to buildings retrofitting interventions, up to an economical uplift and to an improvement of the infrastructural systems. The most important Italian case studies and the conditions of the suburban areas in modern cities (in disrepair, or interested by upgrading processes) have identified some of the prevailing critical aspects of the urban planning carried out till today. This paper proposes the analysis of one case study, the Pilastro neighborhood, a significant example of social housing high density settlement, located in the outskirts of Bologna (IT). This district is an imposing housing estate, chosen for its representation of the social housing heritage in Italy. This paper highlights the technical, functional and social factors the level of quality of the settlement depends on, as well as the phenomena of social uneasiness it resulted in. It also highlights some elements that may be considered as an obstacle against improvement measures. Architectural and social quality are the two elements to be aimed at, for a correct strategy of redevelopment and regeneration of the Pilastro neighborhood.