Construction Site Masterplan for New Towns

Many forecasts indicate that by 2020 there will be an increase of 50% of the urbanization rate in developing countries. So in these nations the governments have to plan new spaces where to build houses and relevant citizens facilities. For this reason an Italian Public Agency for Social Housing has involved the B.E.S.T. Department of Politecnico di Milano in a research concerning the development of an innovative construction process for the realization of new towns. This paper outlines the requirements of a Construction Site Masterplan (CSM), providing as well some examples. This document could be seen as a tool to define the essential elements – connected with the construction site aspects of the building process – for the preliminary design document. In the CSM are considered the criticalities related to the contextualization aspects of the executive phase, suggesting a possible building sequence for the realization of the town. The research takes a particular attention to the minimization of the impact between both the construction site and the territory, as well as the ongoing yard and the part of the town already finished. For the same reason, the CSM is studied to be flexible. The different elements composing the structure of the yard – e.g. roads, energy resources, technologies – are studied to be partially or totally converted in order to satisfy the needs of citizens, considering, obviously, the final urban plan. Moreover, the study pays a particular attention in submitting innovative methods that follow a sustainable approach. In fact the construction site design is developed to make a sustainable building process by proposing construction technologies based on the use of renewable energies, reducing CO2 emissions and decreasing energy consumption. The approach illustrated in the paper will be experimented for the construction of a new small urban area in Lombardy, Italy. In this way, through the evaluation of the results, it shall be possible to identify any additional issue and the real capability to transfer the tested solutions in a different context, as a developing country.