From Popular Neighborhoods to the City of the Future: New Visions for Reclaiming Green Spaces in Urban Regeneration

The city is a system in continuous evolution, with needs that change over time and require adjustment and adaptation strategies. Today, we inherit parts of cities that reflect past urban and planning logics, which have not always met future expectations. Post-World War II peripheral neighborhoods, in particular, frequently suffer abandonment and degradation, often showing the results of dichotomous choices related to the relationship between built structures and green spaces. The mounting urgency of climate change necessitates both adaptation and mitigation, especially within urban contexts. This need, combined with a renewed vision of urban living, calls for a critical reassessment of urban functions, where green space emerges as a strategic and essential element. Within the perspective of ‘reclaiming green spaces’ the objective is to outline a design approach that utilizes the expressive power of drawing for description and representation, capable of guiding sustainable requalification intervention methods for abandoned urban areas. The research follows an integrated methodology, grounded in urban analysis and visual representation, to envision future scenarios. The definition of new images and the creation of new visual suggestions can indeed trigger the regeneration processes for the recovery of existing heritage.