Reviews of the three essential elements of intensive cities: Compactness, Convenience and safety

Cities are energy-using systems in their own right, and they can use energy in dramatically more or less efficient ways. Hence urban settlement forms could have a disproportionately large effect over the Energy consumption and consequently on any effective long-term strategy for reducing C02 greenhouse gases and emission in atmosphere. This paper demonstrates through the study case of Barcelona, how to transform an existing neighborhood into a lower energy consumption and better performing system. Based on IMM (Integrated Modification Methodology) the research discusses how the urban system performance could be optimized, expanding the energy efficiency goals from buildings to the urban scale. With available an average solar radiation of about 1500 kWh/m2/year city of Barcelona has a potential to produce a significant amount of energy. Then possible mitigating solution for the Urban Heat Island effect has been considered. In this approach, the city of Barcelona, considered as a Complex Adaptive System, has been transformed with a symbiotic integration, of built-up mass layer; open spaces, streets, etc. layer; land use layer; Transportation and Mobility Layer, in order to improve the sustainability as well the living conditions, comfort and health for inhabitants in the urban and building environment. A cluster of buildings in the Eixample neighborhood has been grouped together to be the subject of potential solar power installations and associated together with the UHI (Urban Heat Island) mitigation method and then retrofitted