Energie sociali e proposte di rigenerazione urbana di centri storici in Sardegna

The paper illustrates some results of the research project ‘RUES - Urban Regeneration and Social Energies’, which general objective is the relationship between (1) regeneration processes of urban contexts and minor centers in ,Sardinia affected by phenomena of depopulation and socio-spatial marginalization, and (2) innovative social housing policies and experimental projects collaborative housing. Innovative social housing policies are considered those actions, coordinated and systematized, which combine to tackle the problem of the house in its many and different aspects: to ensure decent housing for everyone, to build sustainable neighborhoods and cities, to reduce socio-spatial inequalities, to improve the quality of services (with particular reference to those of proximity), to be able to cope with emergencies and effects of climate change, to promote healthy lifestyles, to reduce energy consumption, taking into account the needs, potentials and abilities of different people and territorial contexts. Practices aimed at experimenting collaborative housing solutions do instead reference to a very diversified set of ‘models’, from time to time remodeled, integrated, and adapted according to the specific contexts, the reference ‘targets’, the characteristics and the purposes of the promoters, financing opportunities, etc.: social housing, innovative public housing, co-housing, proximity (the so-called ‘15 minutes town’), residential care for elder people, housing to ensure autonomy to different handicapped people, incentives for energy renovation and redevelopment, energy communities, community cooperatives, practices of participatory management. The specific objectives are mainly two: (1) Build a methodological structure and related tools that can be used to understand and describe the phenomenon of the presence of a substantial (and constantly growing) heritage of dilapidated and unoccupied buildings in the historic centers of main cities and smaller towns in Sardinia, starting from the awareness that the condition of degradation of this heritage is both a cause and a consequence of the depopulation and marginalization process. Much of this heritage could fulfill a renewed housing function (in a broad sense), in a period and in a context characterized by the contradiction between the presence of ‘houses without inhabitants’ and ‘inhabitants without house’. (2) Explore, in close collaboration with Local Administrations and relevant socio-institutional actors, project scenarios for some selected contexts as case studies (specifically: the historic center of the city of Sassari and the towns of Atzara and Monteleone Rocca Doria), the potential of innovative public housing policies and practices oriented to experimenting collaborative housing solutions, as tools to promote the quality of overall urban life in contexts characterized by socio-spatial marginality and, in perspective, to help counteract the depopulation phenomenon.