Adaptive retrofitting strategies for social and ecological balance in urban Mediterranean area

Several studies show that Mediterranean urban contexts are characterized by ecological and social vulnerability phenomena with environmental, economic and human consequences. The research focuses on the development of Adaptive Retrofit Surfaces (ARS) flexible and reversible technological systems that interact with the ecological, social, technical and economic components of the urban habitat. The ARS integrate the different declinations of "green infrastructures" with the holistic systems of Water Sensitive Urban Design and Empowerment by Design in a mutual and transdisciplinary system. These adaptive interfaces take the form of punctual interventions on urban micro- sections in cities with ecological-social fragility, which, inserted in a synergistic network integrated within the urban fabric, constitute a network of adaptive surfaces that rebalance the conditions of external vulnerability leading to effects on the livability, inclusiveness, well-being and on the quality of the built environment.