Built territories innovative regeneration processes for a participatory and sustainable design

Today we must definitively face the challenge of modified urban scenario, with a great presence of abandoned buildings that losing their stable function, often become reason of social tensions. The implementation of design processes to reverse this trend, called “architectural project for existing buildings”, requires innovative methodological approaches with simultaneous input of multiple knowledge and new interaction between design and sustainability. This proposal means to trace the profiles of some recent experiences characterized by the experimentation of alternative design procedures where the active participation of civil society becomes crucial. These planning practices must re-find their roots in the teaching practice, reclaiming the critical role of the education for setting up a design for the new generations. In this way, the experience of LABZONE2 (Politecnico di Milano) is oriented to develop urban regeneration design by activating a social condensers network in the Town Hall 2 (the most multi-ethnic of the city of Milan).