Re-starting from cultural heritage to design the resilience of historical urban centres

Cities resulted more vulnerable to major global challenges, such as climate change and the pandemic. Historical districts are even more fragile due to the compactness of the urban structure and the high concentration of cultural heritage. Considering the urgency of these issues, urban resilience strategies has been a key topic in research for several decades. However, these strategies are often based on standardised actions, easily applicable to peripheral or recent areas, but not suitable for historical centres. Overcoming these limitations requires a change of perspective and the re-placing of cultural specificities at the very centre. A culture-base methodological approach is presented in this contribution. To further explore the topic, the case study of Milan (Italy) was investigated. In this study, we analyse the specific urban and architectural features of the historical centre and we focus on the role of residential courtyards.