GREEN SOUL: sustainable urban regeneration and affordable housing in Bologna, Italy

Assignment: Social housing architecture design

Services: Concept design, Feasibility project

The neighbourhood of Ravone-Prati on the outskirts of Bologna, northern Italy, is about to undergo a complete urban regeneration, including building new affordable homes to tackle the housing crisis. GREEN SOUL is the winning project of C40 Reinventing cities, a global network seeking to renovate cities all over the world in a sustainable and human-centered way. TAMassociati contributed to this major project by designing the social housing.

Main features of the project

The Ravoni-Prati area was a former railway depot covered in concrete and steel. The GREEN SOUL project aims to revitalise and regenerate it in a way that is nature-positive and socially inclusive. It will be a mixed-use district that includes housing, services, research, cultural, social and sporting activities, public transportation and green spaces. To address environmental sustainability, the team developed a holistic strategy.

• Public green spaces covering 43,000 square metres, including trees, permeable surfaces and urban gardens.
• Complete energy self-sufficiency through a photovoltaic plant that will also enable complete decarbonisation in 50 years.
• A car-free neighbourhood, made possible by an efficient public transport system linking the neighbourhood to Bologna, urban cycling and pedestrian links.
  

Affordable housing for residents

Bologna is experiencing an acute housing crisis caused by many factors. These include the modest size of the city for the many students enrolled in its world-renowned university, the rapid growth of tourism and the consequent rise in housing prices.

Nevertheless, we believe that architecture can and must find solutions that allow citizens, especially vulnerable groups such as students, young families and those on low incomes, to have access to decent and affordable housing. This is also to avoid a common phenomenon in regenerated neighbourhoods, where prices soar to the point where they are only affordable to those with higher incomes.

To this end, we have designed 110 social housing units that are also environmentally sustainable. The apartments range in size from 30 to 95 square metres to meet the needs of different types of residents, from students to families. This will also allow the social fabric of the new neighbourhood to be diverse and inclusive.

These affordable housing units will be a mix of apartments, connecting porches, shared services and spaces, green spaces, roof gardens, underground parking and photovoltaic panels for energy self-sufficiency. Shared spaces will include laundries, leisure areas, work areas, nurseries, solidarity shopping warehouses, etc. This communal living system aims to foster a sense of community based on sharing, protection of common goods and sustainability.

We have addressed the environmental sustainability of the homes in a number of ways. The materials chosen include wood panels, precast concrete with eco-cement and 100% recycled steel bars. Remaining emissions from the construction phase are neutralised by the production of photovoltaic energy and the use of biofuels in construction machinery. In total, our building system mix saves approximately 13,500 tonnes of CO2 compared to a traditional building solution.