Abstract:

The objectives of the 2030 Agenda and, in particular, the Meta 2030: "11-Sustainable Cities and Communities" call for reflection on the actions to be introduced for the development and transformation of our cities, which are increasingly becoming agglomerations of great complexity. Indeed, sharing the idea that "cities are a key nexus of the relationship between people and nature and are huge centres of demand for ecosystem services and also generate extremely large environmental impacts" (Elmqvist et al., 2015), the need to reflect on the future of urban agglomerations and, above all, on their use of natural resources is becoming increasingly urgent. The challenge is this: can cities become capable of ecologically and environmentally self-regulating to ensure control over change?

The COVID-19 health emergency reminded us of the value of investing in Sustainable Development Goals in concert with urban resilience, imposing above all a reflection on urban open spaces and the need to rethink the rules for access and use to ensure collective sociality. In the eco-oriented urban transformation processes, in fact, we are confronted on the one hand with issues related to regeneration, and on the other with the need to re-introduce the user at the centre of the project according to a human-oriented approach that foresees not only participation but, above all, a conscious use of places by citizens. It is not by casual that the goal "11.7 - By 2030, provide universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible, green and public spaces, particularly for women and children, older persons and persons with disabilities" offers the cue to experiment with new models of public spaces that can be interpreted above all as key elements for the sustainable development of cities.

Transferring this challenge to the educational level in the field of Technological disciplines and, in particular, referring to the experiences gained by the authors in the single-cycle Architecture course and in the three-year Design and Communication course, a series of considerations are proposed in order to highlight the role that Environmental Design plays in the construction of resilient scenarios, illustrating not only the contents and the strategic thematic focuses to enhance the technological dimension of the project but also the most functional approaches in the educational field.

The students, in line with the specific educational aims of the teachings for which the authors were responsible, were urged to think according to a systemic approach in which the city, understood as a complex system, must guarantee a series of functions related to the social dimension, the recovery of the ecological-environmental value, the maintenance of services for adaptation to climate change, and the conservation of the natural territory from progressive urbanisation.

Keywords:

Environmental issues, resilient urban spaces, systemic approach.