University and dwellers’ associations together for creating sustainable and healthy urban environments

It is widely proved the need to limit atmospheric pollution in urban areas and control the urban heat island effect, both strongly connected to building characteristics and use. The current challenge is to raise inhabitants’ awareness of the actual intervention possibilities that are suitable for increasing the positive interaction of private living space with public urban space, and the coexistence of the exigencies of both those who live in and use them. This paper presents a work carried out by scientists and students of the Master course in “Eco-sustainable Design”, at Roma Tre University, in two consecutive years, in collaboration with an association representing the inhabitants of a historic working-class district in Rome: Testaccio. In some workshops of the master, students applied a specific methodology apt to answer, on the one hand, to the exigencies stated from the inhabitants of social housing blocks built in the twenties of the last century and, on the other hand, to improve the buildings energy efficiency, reducing at the same time the negative effects on the public and common spaces, in order to improve their healthiness. This methodology brings together technicians and inhabitants’ delegates, both during the feasibility study and during seminars where various solutions are presented and selected and local politicians, dwellers and students are invited. The identified design proposals, concerning roofing, facades and courtyards, are environmentally conscious and of passive solar type; they focus on the use of natural materials (green roofs and walls, permeable paving) and renewable energies (photovoltaic and geothermal). The central idea of these proposals is the economical and technical feasibility of the interventions. The whole process, aimed at defining shared targets, spawning initiatives that contribute both to increase the civic sense and to improve life and health conditions, create the preconditions for a real sustainability of the district.