Safeguarding old barracks and influencing positively nearby waterfront environment

The presence of old barracks in the city centre of Florence is an important issue related to the preservation and reuse of old buildings while safeguarding the quality of urban context. Over the last decades, the points of locality and the links between the former military areas and the historic environment have become increasingly important for urban regeneration. Today, these areas have been under increasing pressure for redevelopment and in many cases it looks into some trends that have been emerged to respond to current challenges. The aim of this paper is to illustrate how old barracks in historic environment and nearby to historic riverfront can create opportunities in both redevelopment and new build schemes. At the same time, it aims to underline how regeneration of open spaces can recreate the urban quality to respond in both urban demands and social needs. It can also be concluded that, setting out design schemes and masterplans, some very real and pertinent of ecological and sustainable design questions should be considered in changing cities.To explore more on the topic the case studies of the former barracks Bardissera and De Laugier will be stressed in order to demonstrate how urban change in the city can create innovative places and spaces to live and work.