Urban Recondensation: Global Strategy and Local approaches in Contemporary City/Network,an integrated strategy for urban development and environmental sustainability.

This issue sketches out the relationships between urban design and sustainable development”. Moreover it emphasises the role of urban design for a sustainable urban development. Over half of greenhouse gas emissions are created in and by cities. 80% of the population lives and works in cities, where up to 80% of energy is consumed. So urban design principle can address the challenges in a comprehensive way, facilitating the conciliation between development and sustainability. The most challenging project for any city is to address both its competitive status and its ecological stewardship. So the issue attempts to establish relationship between energy saving, public transportation development, environmental policies and contemporary urban form searching on some new design principles. Actually, Energy, Infrastructure, Environment seems to be the new key factors for reaching a sustainable development as well as to better off the quality of contemporary urban life. The text outlines the profound changes these elements would bring to the urban form, drawing heavily from few selected urban design projects studied for some East Europe cities. These projects as significant case study, focus on the importance of specific subjects for urban design, as: -­ quality of the environment and living standards as a factor of people attraction; -­ public transportation efficiency for better sustainable development; -­ energy saving policy and its relevance for urban design; -­ city brand and its using for investment attractiveness promotion; -­ compactness, density and mixed uses as a key factor for the urban form;