Adaptability, Sustainability, Energy retrofitting: socio-oriented design strategies for zero-energy re-design of existing urban districts

Developing new sustainable approaches to the dwelling in the contemporary world of architecture is becoming more and more fundamental. If the Candilis revolution was based on humanism and regionalism, the current reaction should focus its attention on the roles of energy and environmental re-qualification of existing buildings according to socio-oriented and multicultural perspectives, by a more appropriate use of technological options in architecture and urban/spatial planning. In this context, if technology has already occupied a main role in the design process, however it is not in the case of a multicultural approach. What the modernists started to call ‘Habitat’ was intrinsic to the society they were working for. The project was designed with regards to only one singular habitat, with one use for society. We developed that functionally oriented approach and have continued to use this mono perspective. It is now necessary to shift the analysis and the research from one singular point of view to multi-fold approaches, in order to expand research in architecture to incorporate the voices of many in a user-driven, bottom-up design approach. The presented strategies for urban and technological retrofitting within two different European contexts, Utrecht and Bologna, try to find possible solutions and suggest a multi-fold approach that could stimulate the process of renewal according to a socio-oriented use of technology in urban environments. Although the approach is based on these two case studies, the underlying principles will be applicable to other districts and other cities as well.