Adaptability as a multi-scale strategy for the regeneration of the built
environment through circular economy perspective
Authors: Cellucci Cristiana 
Published: July 2023

Since its founding documents, sustainability has recognized collective
well-being and environmental protection as the key to the development of
society and, at the same time, the main challenge in the relationships
between human activities and the limited capacity of ecosystems to support
them. For a long time, it was believed that natural and anthropic systems
responded to perturbations gradually through a slow adaptive process. Today,
we know that vulnerability (economic, social, environmental and health)
projects us into a condition of sudden discontinuity, unpredictable and
uncontrollable immersive events, in which every single fragility is related
to the "whole" and every single action produces an eco or a cascading effect
on the well-being of users and the health of the planet. The global crisis
scenarios, the conditions of uncertainty and reality complexity, the limited
resources and the variability of the framework of the needs show the failure
of a "rigid" conception-organization of the built environment often forced
to reorganize itself as a result of stressful events for reach acceptable
levels of efficiency or to show its fragility (seismic, hydro-geological,
climatic, social) by undermining the concepts of stability (environmental,
economic and social security) we are used to. Precisely in urban areas, a
context in which human health-planetary health relationships express their
effects more than elsewhere, it is necessary to intercept new solutions and
rules to deal with the direct consequences (deterioration of surface
materials, structures, reduction of energy performance) and indirect (loss
of identity, interruption of socio-economic activities, loss of livability
and conditions of well-being) of climate change on urban centres. Although
the literature recognizes the need for impact forecasting tools, it appears
increasingly important to support strategies aimed at increasing
adaptability understood as a characteristic of the designed system that
allows its transformation/modification, increasing its performance qualities
and its life span useful. In this sense, adaptability is one of the
fundamental requisites for a holistic-circular regeneration and
redevelopment of neighbourhoods and architectures, conceived as products
that are not "disposable" but "error-friendliness" or "prone to error" and
structured to "regenerate" following damage or decompensation through
actions of transformation, repair, maintenance, reuse, reconditioning, etc.A
paradigm shift is needed in the interpretation of adaptive intervention as a
"regenerative process", understood not only as a solution for the
restoration/maintenance of acceptable performance conditions - in a linear
vision of the life cycle of the designed system - but a moment of "reset
/restart" in which the action (of transformability, maintainability,
replaceability, reversibility, mitigation/compensation, etc.) underlies a
set of strategies structured in a circular process (Refuse, Rethink, Reduce,
Re-use, Repair, Refurbish, Remanufacture, Repurpose, Recycle, Recover). In
this sense, interventions on the built environment constitute an opportunity
to lead cities towards an ecological transition, if considered both as
adaptive actions of external (environmental, social and economic) and
internal vulnerabilities (variability linked to user needs) but also as
interferences (of circular micro processes) to the linear process with which
cities have been conceived and evolved, to constitute a step towards the
creation of a potentially regenerative and resilient built environment. The
paper is part of a study on the topic of sustainable regeneration and
redevelopment of existing buildings and urban areas. It explores the
implications between the need for adaptive regeneration to ensure both the
adequate levels of performance and functionality of the space (indoor,
outdoor space ) with its components/materials and the equally urgent need to
conceive such adaptive actions in a circular way. The collection, review and
systematization of the literature and case studies led to the identification
of a framework of adaptive/circular strategies at the micro (the single
component), meso (the building) and macro (the public space) scales. The
strategies were then validated in three social housing districts in three
Italian cities.