Urban Regeneration Through Climate Adaptive Design for the Mediterranean Area

Seventy percent of cities globally are already dealing with Climate Change, and studies and research have proven various harmful effects on urban and human health due to extreme weather conditions (Heaviside et al., 2017). The global and European goals for 2030 and 2050 aim at becoming a climate-resilient society by strengthening and promoting the adoption of solutions that protect nature and biodiversity while ensuring a just, healthy, and environmentally friendly environment (United Nations, 2030 Agenda for sustainable development, 2015; European Commission, Paris agreement. EUR-Lex, 2017; European Commission, European green deal. EUR-Lex, 2019). Facing these challenges is complex and requires a holistic approach, raising the question: How can we create adaptive strategies and solutions that simultaneously tackle environmental, functional, and societal issues while assessing climate change’s effects on public space? The article explores this question through a case study of a square redevelopment in Florence, Italy, with the aim to demonstrate how systems thinking methodology can increase the resilience of the public spaces located in the Mediterranean area. The article examines the redevelopment of a currently degraded and underused urban area by implementing Nature-based Solutions (NbS) and equipping it with new functions (such as art, education, play, and recreation) that contribute to heat stress reduction at a micro-urban scale and improve social inclusion and biodiversity in the urban context. To tackle this challenge and ensure an integrated approach, we applied the Symbiosis in Development (SiD), a practical framework based on systems- and design-thinking.