Earth Sheltered Buildings (ESB): opzioni per la resilienza delle città di domani : L’adozione di modelli di sviluppo ipogei per il recupero o la rigenerazione sostenibile di aree urbane in trasformazione

The increasing rate of urbanization will require, in the future, the need to develop alternative sustainable forms of expansion of the city that can balance new settlement needs, human activities and the preservation of natural ecosystems, as already outlined by the UN Agenda 2030. To achieve this, the construction of Earth Sheltered Buildings (ESB), even thanks to their low energy consumption and the reuse of existing sites, is considered as a possible sustainable intervention, but only if aimed at regenerating some specific areas of the city. In fact, in abandoned underground urban voids it’s possible to find the ESB potential of densifying the city on multiple levels, potentially without land consumption. In this way, the surface urban areas can be regenerated and transformed into green spaces connected, as an urban green network, with existing parks, preserving biodiversity, reducing the phenomenon of heat islands and decreasing concentrations of gasses and harmful substances.

La necessità di integrare approcci diversificati per controllare lo sviluppo estensivo delle città permette di rivalutare modelli progettuali connotati dalla protezione con terreno del costruito (ESB), i quali sono al servizio della rigenerazione urbana di aree da riqualificare e della tutela degli ecosistemi.