SPATIAL DESIGN FOR THE ENERGY TRANSITION

The space neutrality of eco-modernist energy policies contrasts the transition in many consolidated urban areas, in which “just technofix” transformations are not always feasible in historical, dense, fragmented and car-oriented urban patterns. What is lacking -and crucially needed- is understanding and developing design solutions that cross the scales from deepening the attention to existing configuration and living community. The ongoing research PEDFORALL is trying to interpret this challenge starting from a specific urban context -the neighborhood of Ostiense in Rome- exploring and testing possible design solutions for a place-based energy transition. Integrating diverse energy transition paradigms -as the energy sufficiency- the contribution builds a theoretical framework collecting and conceptualising design references in three main design strategies. The same strategies are tested then in the case study, raising first questions, limits and potentials of this application. The paper mainly suggests a spatial approach to energy transition, overcoming a mere idea of technological transformation to caring for the design of space (both domestic and urban) and for the bodies that inhabit it.