Pratiche di retrofitting per il rinnovo della scena urbana: il panorama internazionale, esperienze didattiche e percorsi di ricerca | Retrofitting practices to renovate the urban scene. International overview. Didactical experiences and research agenda

(ENG) --- Retrofitting practices to renovate the urban scene. If of the last years, the technical term “retrofit/retrofitting” has become largely used in the context of energy and technological upgrading of buildings, that has not been the case in the architectural and urban context. The lack of synergy between public and private entities as well as missing investments in the sector of social building has ampere a critical analysis on current changes and in the perspective given by the EU “Energy efficiency for the 2020” goal. Nevertheless, despite structural delays, it is today possible to apply retrofitting principles to building heritage following up the various experimentations carried out all over Italy. The sectors mainly bound to professional and academic traditions - architectonic design, urban planning and restoration - are laying back due to missing upgrading of teaching and training plans. Ongoing scepticism visà- vis sustainability issues retorted against key sectors so increasing the gap between the demand for energyefficient and sustainable buildings and a kind of offer, which still is poor in quantity and quality. In North-Eastern district, it often happens that buyers/clients are more informed, open and innovative than technical or academic sectors. On the basis of such premises, it is evident that the potential of urban retrofitting practices has not yet been understood or exploited in terms of its theoretical, design and operational value. The use of GBSC assessment, with LEED or ITACA protocols, can support but not replace the theoretical and disciplinary set of architecture; on the other hand, a traditional approach of architectonic design is now insufficient vis-à-vis new and upcoming issues. Only a pragmatic “problem solving” approach can relate methodological devices with “efficacy and efficiency” of the architectonic design and plan. The case studies analysed, at European and National level, highlight the spreading of urban re-generation strategies that are now involving also Continental urban peripheries and Italian city centres. In peripheralprovincial areas, the effort is mainly focused on the management and re-qualification of the existing building heritage, in line with trends and traditions of our country. A multi-year didactical experimentation of master thesis projects shows the occurring transition from traditional a technological-planning approach towards a multi-scalar vision tackling, at the same time, urban and managerial-economic issues. The first cases, in the school building sector, concentrated the focus on the so-called class A building with limited involvement of environmental and urban features. The second step envisaged instead the consideration of wider issues related to urban re-generation. The relationship with U.T. and local Administrations has allowed the creation of a true “think tank” structured with an “on demand” formula. The transfer of university applied research to the industrial manufacturing world, as a sort of spin-off, creates a sort of entrepreneurial and innovation incubator in those sectors which are closer to planning, designing and building (environment / clean technologies / building / advanced materials / software / ICT). The study of urban facts raises the question in a even more drastic way: how to assess the transformation that can be sustained by the urban system to improve its own efficiency, without causing a collapse in functional, economic and cultural terms? The other face of the coin, gentrification and empty city centres, poses the issue of re-qualification of the building heritage and application of best practices. Such negative trend can be observed, although at lighter level, in Emilia-Romagna, despite a long tradition of territorial good governance. After the 70’s and 80’s - and the large International debate which followed the “Bologna case” - the regional urban corpus has suffered from a considerable contraction in public initiatives; local bodies have controlled the transformation of urban areas almost exclusively by embellishing and decorative interventions in the city centres - without tackling the actual property status - and, at the same time, by leaving peripheral areas to a destiny of physical and social decay. Only with the burst of the financial crisis and the consequent spending cuts, the issue of social housing and building has come to the forefront in terms of its sustainability and necessity. The urgency is here that of tackling the complex chapter of upgrading the real estate owned by territorial bodies, establishing, case by case, actions and priorities. The theme of “retrofitting” as opportunity for change in the urban scene has taken over, in the last years, central importance in scientific and architectonic research also involving other discipline sectors such as sociology and psychology. Such aspects and issues - in the field of sustainability and energy saving - have been verified in different realities of the Italian building sector (i.e. in the regions Piedmont, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna). The European panorama is instead different: the approach has been that of developing research and methodologies aimed at harmonizing urban innovation, new constructions and re-use of building heritage. Starting from the French research, generating remarkable building and social results in urban peripheries, in the so-called Villes Nouvelles and Grandes Ensembles, even more interesting, in our view, is the German experience of the last twenty years. From the German re-unification (1990), interventions of urban recovery and building re-generation have more and more tackled and solved the issue of energy efficiency, a political and administrative commitment at National level. In such framework, it is possible to analyse also those interventions related to the differed reconstruction of the so-called “Baulücke” (urban lacunas) of war times and the recovery of obsolete or dismantled industrial areas. The large intervention of the residential district called Märkisches Viertel (Berlin-Reinickendorf) started in 2008, is about to accomplish one of the most ambitious recovery operations at European urban level. Smaller in size but perhaps more innovative from the operational-procedural perspective, are the interventions started by the Dresden company for social and territorial housing: in the Kräuter Siedlung - planned district of Görlitz, built in the DDR period - the most complete energy retrofitting experience has been achieved at European level in terms of urban, social and formal aspects. The use of the expression “urban scene” evokes the relationship between the city and the “theatre space” as place of social and civil representation, in close link with the territory. Already the current status of Italian North-Eastern land stretches as well as the beautiful Romagna country landscape show a seamless line of building interventions of medium-low quality visually overloaded by photovoltaic panels, windmills and solar panels, very little integrated or able to be integrated. Given as a fact the failure of any practice aimed at hampering such phenomenon, it is clear that the only possible way is the “virtuous use” of practices and technological devices required and imposed by sustainable planning and design onto design practice. An unresolved issue is still represented by energy upgrading of existing building heritage while there is increasing risk related to the visual pollution caused by the so-called “third landscape”. One more question regards the harmonization, within the project, of two apparently incompatible needs: the quick obsolescence of technological devices and the long duration and existence of a specific building and related urban fabric. Surely, the theme of “re-use” of materials, on top of space re-utilization, has not yet spread enough in university classes and professional studios : the theme is instead a focal point for change in terms of restoration, recovery, urban installations and structural elements. Many European young designers are attracted today by the re-use of waste materials to which new life and expression can be given. That is a framework of vast interest that - beyond the aura of being politically correct - could give impetus to unexpected research streams. The project becomes in this way physical and cultural stratification that, in the best cases, can be reversible or “light” vis-à-vis the rigidity of an ex-novo design. (ITA) --- Se negli ultimi anni il termine tecnico “retrofit” e la pratica del “retrofitting” sono divenute d’uso comune negli interventi di adeguamento energetico e tecnologico degli edifici, non può dirsi altrettanto dal punto di vista architettonico e urbano. Priva di una coerente ricerca tra enti pubblici e capitale privato, in assenza di investimenti nel settore dell’edilizia sociale, è mancata (e manca) un’adeguata riflessione critica capace di valutare e cogliere la portata dei mutamenti in atto e che si stanno delineando nella prospettiva del 20-20-20 prospettata dal comunitario “Energy efficiency for the 2020 goal”1. Malgrado i ritardi strutturali con i quali il nostro Paese ha avviato politiche di uso, risparmio e produzione energetica da fonti rinnovabili,molta parte del segmento alto della tecnologia dei materiali e degli impianti ha determinato - soprattutto nel settore del fotovoltaico - notevoli livelli di sviluppo e innovazione. È già possibile, quindi, applicare i principi del retrofitting e massimizzare gli effetti sul patrimonio edilizio, sulla scorta delle sperimentazioni che sono andate moltiplicandosi in tutta la Penisola. Diversamente, riteniamo che i settori più legati alla tradizione professionale e accademica - in primis la progettazione architettonica, l’urbanistica, il restauro - scontino pesantemente i ritardi nell’adeguamento dei programmi formativi. Il mantenersi di diffidenze e scetticismo verso le questioni della sostenibilità si è ripercosso nei settori chiave della disciplina e della professione, aumentando la divaricazione tra domanda di edifici eco-efficienti e sostenibili e un’offerta largamente inadeguata, tanto nel numero che nella qualità. Soprattutto nei distretti del Nord-Est si assiste alla situazione, per molti versi paradossale, di una committenza più informata, aperta ed innovativa dei settori tecnici e accademici preposti. Con tali premesse, va da sé che le valenze teorico-progettuali insite e le potenzialità operative del retrofitting urbano non siano state ancora sufficientemente (o affatto) indagate. In tal senso, l’uso di valutazioni GBSC, con protocolli LEED o ITACA, possono validamente supportare, ma non sostituire l’apparato teorico-disciplinare dell’architettura; per contro, un’impostazione tradizionale della progettazione architettonica è già dal momento presente non più praticabile e sufficiente a dare risposta alle questioni poste. Soltanto un atteggiamento pragmaticamente “problem solving” è in grado di coniugare raffinatezza di dispositivi metodologici con “efficacia ed efficienza” del progetto di architettura.