The first edition of REGENERATION, the 64 hours non-stop European design competition organized by Macro Design Studio in collaboration with the International Living Future Institute ended last Saturday 18th, April. The challenge launched by MDS was to “regenerate” a public building in Dro (Trento, Italy) where the library and local associations are based, following the “Living Building Challenge”, the world’s most ambitious sustainability protocol. The task for the 15 under-35 professionals from all over Europe was to meet the needs of the Municipality of Dro (new spaces for associations and young people, reorganization of the library, connection to the river Sarca) transforming the building, for the benefit of future generations, in a kind of living organism (a “Living Building”) completely autonomous in the use of resources and harmoniously integrated into the natural environment and the village.
The winning team was composed of Bernardette (architect from Seville, Spain), Emanuele (architect from Vicenza, Veneto), Guido (energy engineer from Turin, Piedmont), Luigi (urban planner from Agrigento, Sicily) and Maija (civil engineer from Riga, Latvia), who were thus able to win the 3,000 Euros prize donated by Fondazione Inarcassa (National Welfare Fund for architects and engineers). The winning project showed not only that the time is ripe to consolidate in a very efficient way our built environment – without settling for “a bit less consuming …” solutions – but also that a generation of young professionals is ready to meet this challenge in a radically innovative and effective way.
More than eighty people from all over Italy attended the public conference on Saturday morning, showing that a bunch of designers, public administrators, companies are ready to follow these “pioneers”. Amanda Sturgeon (Executive Director of the International Living Future Institute), Martin Brown (Fairsnape, United Kingdom), Sue Clark (Sweden Green Building Council) and Emanuele Naboni (Faculty of Architecture, Copenhagen) opened our eyes on a future of “regenerated” cities. Communities that are not satisfied with “doing less harm to the environment” but that are actually able to combine respect for nature, social equity and sustainable economy.
This is also the mission of the Living Building Challenge Collaborative: Italy, which aims to create local conditions for the development of living buildings, territories and communities sharing the principles of Living Building Challenge.
