Architectural adaptability: constructing resilient cities

“For things to remain the same, everything must change”. This famous sentence, taken from Tomasi Di Lampedusa’s “Leopard”, suggests us an important message: cities can last only if they are able to change, being resilient and updating the way they are planned and built. In a “liquid society” the challenge for the residential projects is to give answers to housing needs upcoming every day, being at the same time more concerned with social and environmental sustainability. To last and be still useful, a social housing unit should be adaptable to the requests of the changing society passing through it. This aspect of temporariness introduces the architectural theme of impermanence that could be read not only as a quick answer to a specific housing emergency, but especially as an alternative way of designing the social housing itself. As our societies, that are not definitive and immutable, residential design should be flexible, according to an ever-changing household. That leads directly to the concept of adaptability that represents the ability of a house to change, accommodating the maximum range of inhabitants. The unique way to obtain this goal is to adopt a new design approach by using architectural modules, optimizing the space and its use, minimizing private spaces and introducing shared facilities. Furthermore, to achieve resilience and the possibility to last in a low carbon footprint future, architecture should maximize low-tech and low-impact constructing solutions. As a result, three key words of innovation take shape: inclusion, adaptability and sharing.