Oice: ‘Design is key to regenerating urban spaces’

‘We will have to find solutions to the housing crisis facing the country without using up any more land. We have those spaces – which some refer to as ‘black holes’ – that we need to reclaim and regenerate, and here too, planning is key to securing the necessary funding to carry out these projects.” These are the words of OICE President Giorgio Lupoi, speaking at the opening of the annual conference of the association of engineering and architectural firms.

An event which this year, in addition to topics such as infrastructure and major projects, devoted a significant section specifically to the Housing Plan. This Plan raises a number of questions within the association, starting with resources, which are likely to be insufficient for all the planned interventions, and the clarity of the rules: on the fringes of the programme to tackle the housing crisis, the issue of the law on urban regeneration still remains to be addressed.

The meeting brought together public and private sector stakeholders, highlighting how engineering and architecture are, and must always be, central to the success and quality of projects that can transform the country. Speaking about the Housing Plan during the day, ANCE President Federica Brancaccio said: ‘The Housing Plan,’ she said, ‘is an opportunity to respond to a social emergency, and design can and must play a decisive role in bringing these initiatives to fruition. But if we want this emergency response to become a structural policy for the transformation of our cities, we must consider the housing issue as an integral part of a broader strategy. Therefore, alongside increasing the supply of housing, we must focus on the regeneration of the built environment and the enhancement of unused public assets’.

Stefano Scalera, CEO of Invimit Sgr, spoke instead about the second pillar of the Plan: “It stems,” he said, “from the need to speed up the use of funds already earmarked for housing. The role of the regions and local authorities is crucial in this regard.” Both the regions and local authorities, in fact, ‘can provide two decisive factors: their own properties and their own administrative powers’.

Indeed, if, in a given area, ‘there were no public properties suitable or sufficient to be converted for the purposes of social housing’, the CEO continued, ‘it might instead be the case that there are private assets with such characteristics. In this second case, projects involving private properties must be promoted by the public body, through recognition of their significance in resolving a public issue’.