Social, urban and sustainable regeneration
Giuliano Colombini, Architect, Lari (PI) 1948, active in architectural and urban planning. For over twelve years he held seminars on Environmental Hygiene, Urban Systems, Environmental Design, at the Faculty of Architecture of Florence and the Faculty of Architecture La Sapienza of Rome. From 1997 to 2017 he was President of the Order of Architects, Landscape Architects, Planners and Conservators of the province of Pisa. From 2000 to 2005 he was President of the Tuscan Federation of Provincial Orders of Architects. He was a member of the National Secretariat of the National Council of Architects and Coordinator of the Urban Planning Commission at the National Council of Architects. He has participated in numerous conferences on the topics of architecture, urban planning, territorial governance and territorial transformation, on bureaucratic, social and legislative problems in the field of urban planning and architecture. He has been a member of various commissions of national and international architecture and urban planning competitions. He has published essays on urban planning and the architectural profession in the following volumes: • Architecture in the environment, Giardini, Ghezzano 1988 • The squares; recovery of the urban place, Giardini, Ghezzano 1988 • Environment and Project, Alinea, Florence 1990 • Quarrata – Conference Proceedings, for a knowledge of the municipal territory. “Man and the environment”, Bandecchi and Vivaldi, Pontedera 1996 • Reconquering Italy – defeating the pathological crisis, Rome Perspectives 2009 Editions Today, more than ever, we must ask ourselves about the issues who play a new role towards humanity; never before has humanity entered a complex and dehumanizing spiral where linked systems can no longer be addressed and managed separately. The Author feels the need to address the issue of “sustainable social and urban regeneration”, which could appear to be an exclusively technical-urbanistic issue, referring instead to the complexity of the systems, analyzing other factors (social, economic, cultural and anthropological) that are strongly in crisis in our country and which, if not resolved or at least addressed and managed carefully, will not allow us to achieve any sustainable social and urban regeneration. Furthermore, the author does not limit himself to observing the concept of urban regeneration as occurred in the past through special laws that identified regeneration as a simple vision of recovery, reuse, or redevelopment of buildings, the question is broader. The reference must be broadened to include economic, cultural and social regeneration. The first important regeneration will have to concern human behaviour, as man’s power over himself and the environment must be regenerated, to regain social cohesion, and identify the limits of economic and consumer growth. After which it will be possible to address sustainable social and urban regeneration in its complexity and evaluate the current legislative mechanisms that prevent its realization.
