“Sustainability is an efficient use of available resources”

We are living a transition era; the current energetic, economical and social model will in the next decades be replaced by a new model. As in every crysis, uncertainty about the future is the most challenging element, for it is the one that causes lack of confidence, in individuals and companies. Sola Morales used to talk about the importance of handling Uncertainty in Urbanism, managing time and key players in the extremely complex process that is the life of cities and territories.

This thesys analyses the problems of an edge condition Urban Area. An area without important equipments such as elderly daycare centers, bicing stations or recycling points. A negleted and somehow abandoned area.

The goal of the Thesys was to retrofit the area through surgical interventions, and improve it and boost its economy. The challenge was to do so building as least as possible and reusing available resources. To do so the strategy encompassed retrofitting 6 empty sites close to important public or private buildings. Each site gains a specific vocation, related to the building next to it, and together with the other sites defines a Masterplan for the area.

The use of renewable energies and recycling strategies in each site was key to set the bases for energy self sufficiency and more competitive businesses. The hope is that investors, states and citizens realize that retrofitting existing buildings, sites and infrastructures, together with energy efficience is the way out of this global crysis.

A strategy that will provide jobs to millions of people, improve their quality of life and help manage the shrinking available resources and biodiversity of our, still, beautiful green and blue planet.

This link opens a new window with the presentation of this Thesys: https://vimeo.com/69340452