Innovative Water Concepts for the resilience to climate change of East Naples: a knowledge transfer-based design approach to social housing architecture

Climate change increasing impacts appear to be sharpen by current territorial processes, making it urgent to act in urban areas on both effects and causes of urban ecosystem alterations. Urban resilience to climate change depends on the capacity of an urban system to keep the ecological balance between ecosystem and built environment, aiming to reduce risks and vulnerabilities. This assumption, as conceptual framework for the resilience of urban systems, is the basis of climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies which, with their innovative water management integrated in the design of buildings and open spaces, are proven to be effective as urban sustainable regeneration practice. This paper aims to provide a brief outline of an experimental design methodology consisting in transferring innovative concepts and design strategies for an integrated water management, already strengthened at European level, in a suburb area of East Naples. The Innovative Water Concepts, practiced in the city of Berlin and included in sustainable urban policies, guidelines and pilot projects, are declined in a different territorial contest, where the specific environmental, cultural and social issues are essential to define appropriate strategies for the resilience of the urban system.