Design for Climate-Adaptive, Equitable, Nature-based regeneration of urban streetscapes

Abstract

[EN] Communities and urban spaces will increasingly experience risks associated with climate extremes and stressors. Climate change impacts are asymmetrical, thus affecting especially those that are already vulnerable and have less resources to adapt. But cities are also at the forefront of climate adaptation, showing how we can design to be more prepared and proactively adjust to present or expected future climate impacts, simultaneously addressing equity in urban design. Pioneering cities are transforming urban infrastructural spaces through the implementation of Nature-based solutions, to equitably adapt to climate change entire part of cities and neighbourhoods and to cope with local asymmetries, i.e., ecological, social and economic. Abandoned, underused or in use infrastructural spaces -often prioritizing vulnerable communities and theirs spaces that had been aside from previous regenerative efforts and investments- are transformed into new urban commons and experimental prototypes where cities are testing innovative design strategies and actions to be replicated and upscaled, enhancing spatial quality, liveability and wellbeing for all. Inside a theoretical framework that explores the entanglements between urban Nature-based regeneration, climate adaptation and equity, streetscape design could play a crucial role in shaping new greener, climate-sensitive, inclusive and by the end resilient urban commons. In order to overcome conceptual and operational gaps emerged by the literature search, the EU funded research aims to identify design principles and procedures for mainstreaming Nature-based, Equitable and Climate Adaptive streetscapes’ regeneration. With these objectives in mind, the investigation adopts a research by design methodology made up of research for design, research of design and research driven design. Concerning research by design phase, a set of case studies inside the hermeneutical circle between EU and US has been selected, analysed and compared. Deducted design principles and procedures have been treated as hypothesis and later tested and refined trough design-driven experiments inside vulnerable neighbourhood’s streetscapes.