37º IAHS World Congress on Housing: - Universidad de Cantabria

XXXVII <strong>IAHS</strong><strong>World</strong> <strong>Congress</strong> on HousingOctober 26 – 29, 2010, Santander, SpainCODE: 608URBAN PLANNING AND ENVIRONMENTAL DIMENSION:THE SUSTAINABLE QUARTERLosco S.Department of Civil EngineeringSecond University of Naplese-mail: salvatore.losco@unina2.itKey words: urban planning, urban sustainability, metropolitan area, town, quarter, up-gradingAbstractOur contribution aims at thinking over the subject of the environmentally sustainable quarter,placing it within the wider scientific and technical background that links the impact of theenvironmental dimension in contemporary town planning to the emergency of the unsolvedquestion of urban suburbs, that is showing all its problematic nature and impossibility ofpostponement in the upgrading of the existing town, in the light of the more and more urgingthemes of environmental sustainability, that identify the precondition for a suitableintervention in the compact town. Town planning logics of these urban areas, that arequantitatively prevailing on the dimensions taken by the settlements built in Italy during thesecond postwar period, are strongly related to the research works of the modern movement inarchitecture and town planning, that assigned to the quarter a vital role in town planning andbuilding. It is for this reason that some features are proposed to debate, that sustainablequarters should have in order to address requalification planning choices of the existing townsand/or of the reconstruction/construction from the beginning.37º <strong>IAHS</strong> <strong>World</strong> <strong>Congress</strong> On Housing Science 237