Design, technologies and innovation in cultural heritage enhancement

Environmental issues are critical all over Europe, but especially in Italy, where valuable natural resources are closely integrated with an equally important cultural heritage.  As a fact, environment, landscape and cultural heritage are part of a indivisible dynamic system continuously subjected to human actions that compromise the precarious equilibrium between nature and built environment. But the territorial quality is a crucial factor of the global competitiveness, to attract resources and to support the socio economic growth. In the Architectural Technology approach, the environmental project aims to develop a territory and to build the future heritage with the consciousness that every action is part of a broader scenario which combines local identity (cultural and landscape values), environmental qualities (ecological and ecosystem values) and socio economic factors. So, the cultural heritage enhancement is: management of usability, design of territorial networks, reuse of abandoned buildings, construction of new social opportunities, access to new services and experiences. Because of the inseparable link between its cultural, environmental and landscape heritage, the town of Mantova - Unesco site since 2008 and Italian Capital of Culture 2016 - represents a perfect site to experiment a multiscalar and transdisciplinary design approach for the cultural heritage enhancement. Elena Mussinelli, full professor in Architectural Technology at Politecnico di Milano. She has been Coordinator of the PhD program "Design and technologies for cultural heritage" since 2012 and Coordinator of the Bachelor Degree Program "Architecture and building construction" since 2011. Her research interests are in the area of process innovation, with particular regard to: enhancement of landscape and cultural and environmental heritage; interventions for the morphological, functional and technological requalification at the building and urban scales; environmental and technological design of complex settlement systems approached considering the interrelations between urban and natural components; environmental quality regulations (protection of resources, EIA, SEA, landscape insertions, environmentally-friendly technologies).