Integration of Circular and Green Technologies for the Adaptive Reuse of Public Space

The multiple and increasingly overlapping emergency conditions (environmental, urban, post-pandemic) are an enabling factor for the circular economy and culture processes relating environment, social cohesion, innovation, new technologies and connections with the territory. Being the key element in building inclusive, healthy, functional and productive cities, open public spaces could be observed as a strong tool in sustainable development by providing environmental, social, economic and health benefits to the city. More specifically, disused and underutilized spaces in European cities, can become opportunities through urban regeneration, in line with SDG 11 Sustainable cities and communities, SDG 15 Life on land, together with SDG 13 Climate action that can be influenced by open public spaces. This theoretical aspect is particularly significant and relevant if transferred to the realities of small urban Italian centres, which represent a capital of humanitarian relations to be regenerated in material and immaterial terms. In this context, the paper's objective is to describe the research experience carried out by the authors and transferred into the teaching experience that resulted in innovative and green design experiments for adaptive reuse of unused areas in the historic centre of Cosenza Italy. The work methodology relates the emergency conditions of the context with environmental/social characteristics and technological solutions represented by Circular Design principles and Nature Based Solutions analysed at three different levels: green building materials; green building systems and green building sites, emphasizing the value of vegetated open spaces and water-sensitive urban design. The result of this approach is a new framework of social, cultural, technological innovation.The intervention models combine cultural and material identities with simple building systems, interpreting reversibility and use of alternative/circular materials as a paradigm in the relationship with the context, the urban connections, the revitalization of unusued areas.