Download 2 - Locare

SITE VISIT Report
General description of the subject
Title of the meeting + details of contact person if more information is needed
title: TERRITORIAL
PLANNING SITE VISIT
Sub-theme (to be chosen one only)
Renewables;
Carbon Sink and Carbon Capture;
Procurement Practices; X Low Carbon Territorial Planning;
Empowerment
Organizing Region (to be choose one only, indicating the numbers of visited sites )
South Denmark;
Zeeland;
Gorenjska; n. 4 Emilia-Romagna;
Vastra Gotland; Asturias
contact persons: Claudia Mazzoli; Lara Facca; Maria Paola Dosi;
organization: Regione Emilia Romagna
email: [email protected]; [email protected] ;
[email protected];
telephone number : +39 051 5273984 ; +39 051 527 3118; +39 051 527 3203
mobile:
1. Description of the case studies chosen for the site visit
Each concrete example presented during the site visit by the organizing Region has to be synthetically
described
The site visit in the territories of 2 municipalities of the Province of Ravenna – Faenza and
Conselice - was designed to provide an example of how territorial planning outlined for
organizing urban area spaces (economic activities, educational and social services and
houses) can be a tool for achieving environmental quality objectives while ensuring the
quality of life.
The visit consisted in a tour including brown fields and disused urban areas which have
been renovated or regenerated with particular focus on energy efficiency and renewable
energies. The site visited are the listed below.
 The “Evangelista Torricelli” Art and Science Park
Faenza is an eco-friendly district located in a
strategic position (close to the highway Faenza
exit and easy accessible from the city center)
built following the principles of bio-architecture
whose aim is to provide a point of excellence for
the concentration of strategic resources to
develop new technologies while capitalizing the
ingeniousness of Faenza region, namely in the
ceramic sector. A strong heritage has identified
the ceramic ( majolica ) tout court with Faenza in
so far this is quite the right context to foster
innovation in ceramic materials both for artistic manufactures, industrial start-up
production and for an unpredictable range of applications as well.
This multifunctional centre will be the consistent underlying focus of the neighborhood,
well characterized by a sunshading arcade integrating photovoltaic elements and by the
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ceramic material used in the most innovative way for ventilated facades, cladding,
floating paving combined with new technologies.
The park organized into modules housing in over 2,300 square meters allows the
hosting of the enterprise incubator giving access to research and high-tech laboratories
supporting the study and development of industrial applications of advanced materials,
strengthening its role as a bridge between the world of business and research, in order
to analyze and develop industrial applications of innovative materials, to foster
innovation, and support the prototyping activities. Once completed the specific building
modules, a specific area will be dedicated to apartments for researchers.
The park now brings together, in coordination with the Municipality of Faenza, a
network of important actors of), specialized training (University of Bologna with the
course of degree in Chemistry and Environmental Technology and Materials, Faculty of
industrial Chemistry) and technology transfer and innovation (Agenzia Polo Ceramic,
Centuria - Rit). This partnership leading the park’s organization is one of the 3 sites
identifying the so-called Technopole of Ravenna and Faenza, which is one of the 10
poles of the High Technology Network - Emilia Romagna.
Certainly this centre has one aspect that is the unique “signature” of Faenza: the artistic
ceramics. The very special city hall of Faenza is at the same time the municipality
premise and the Museum of Contemporary Art: a very good example to the citizens in
order to maintain a link with a humanistic culture able to stimulate creativity in the
individuals.
One the main promoter of these initiatives, Ennio Nonni (Manager of the Municipality of
Faenza) illustrated the new urban strategies realized in practice with the Art and
Science Park :
- The environmental compensation can help to decrease global warming as well as
the CO2 emissions and air pollution. These strategies support - both in quantity and
quality standards - urban green to be monitored through the invariance of the
permeability;
- The building energy census will support urban planning and provides future testing
outcomes of territorial planning actions. This is the basis to achieve the European
targets (eg 20-20-20) and for the ex ante evaluation of the new plans. It seems to
be well ahead of the proposed "Directive of the European Parliament and Council
on energy efficiency", which will repeal Directive 2004/8/EC and 2006/32/EC
 The “ex-distillery Neri” site in Faenza
is an example of a quality urban
regeneration process of an industrial
area, place of an old distillery. The
planning project aimed in creating a
mixed-use
area
(residential,
commercial, services), close to the
city center, applying eco-design
principles in the urban and in the
buildings design. The adopted
technological solutions allows to
consume 50% less energy than
similar projects through a careful casing of buildings, photovoltaic panels producing 132
kW electic energy and implementation of green roof. Moreover the 70% of the area is
returned to the city for public uses with approximately 9 acres of parks, green and
paths: the functional mix use of building area are shared between the 50% of
residence, 25% commercial and 25% of offices and services and about 14,000 square
meters of roof gardens and a large covered square where point reference of the
neighborhood. The construction indices are halved (about 200,000 cubic meters)
compared with the similar interventions designed in the 90s insofar anticipating the
regulatory framework of the regional issues of green building, incentives volumetric face
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of a higher quality of these buildings to water recovery, low energy consumption, to
maintain a mix of activities and aesthetic quality as a prerequisite of the project.
 The “Fornarina” residential site in Faenza is an example of a successful urban
residential planning. The very idea of community is in the center of planning and
programming choices, defining the sustainability of policy choices before the project
proposals by the active participation of citizens at the debate.
This example demonstrate how it can be changed the short-sighted use of land, where
a confused scene of urban marketing often turns into real estate marketing.
Insofar the planning process including public
participation reached the final project including a
high social housing rate (59%).
Eco-design principles were part of urban design
(proximity to the city center, energy efficient
blocks of buildings, minimized use of motorized
transport an private cars) and of the buildings
construction (green-roof, insulation, solar panels,
compact building volumes, ventilated façades,
sunshields)
-
The eco-friendly supermarket at Conselice where the promoter commercial enterprise
CoopAdriatica is one of the largest food consumer cooperatives in Italy. Consumer
cooperatives are enterprises owned by consumers and managed democratically which
aim to fulfill the needs and aspirations of their
members. The building was being inaugurated on
the 22nd of September 2011 and it has been a
good chance to regenerate a partially disused SME
area. The structure has been built without using
new territory and it has been designed to achieve
optimum integration with the urban surrounding
area and to be a social aggregator. The building
has been designed in accordance with energy
saving principles and innovative architectural
concepts. In particular attention has been paid to:
- the quality of the development, both from an architectural and an urban point of view;
- the safety standards for both consumers and employees
- the energy and water saving
- the waste management processes
- the accessibility
This construction is saving the 40% of energy consumption of similar commercial
buildings, and reducing the environmental impacts while improving the welfare of
customers and employees by selling a large variety of “green certified” products.
2. Why it has been chosen
Describe why and how the chosen case studies are representing the specific sub-theme
The experiences described during the visit were chosen with the aim to show how urban
planning can be a useful tool to address and achieve many goals including those of
environmental quality
The issues and experiences discussed during the site visit have been chosen to explain how
planning and land use planning is a way to express a multitude of strategies with which it will
operate on the territory, by means of the citizens’ empowerment and involvement in the
design of low-carbon cities and areas. These methods and processes on planning will
ensure broad agreements in society on meeting high low carbon standards, new systems of
Public-Private Partnership for territorial governance, the re-urbanization of Brownfield areas
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vs. development of new Greenfield sites: reducing the external costs of infrastructure. These
strategies run the territory and regulate the relations between local authorities and local
town planning in accordance with principles of subsidiarity and cooperation.
A special interest was applied in bringing out the principles upon which the regional action
aimed at containing the impact of human activities and repair the damage from actions of
urban renewal.
The intents of the site visit were to ensure strength and witness to this fundamental concept
by highlighting how in such cases a balance between many factors (CO2 reduction, safety,
noise protection, water conservation, sanitation, recycling and material recovery, sustainable
mobility, etc..) is achieved. At the same time the importance of art, aesthetics and beauty as
key factors in the humanities was shown.
3. Relevance for the Region and the other actors involved
Describe why and how the concrete examples presented during the site visit by the organizing Region are
important for the policy makers and stakeholders that have a role or a specific interest on the sub-theme
In this context, the role of Emilia-Romagna is to exercise regulatory functions, monitoring
and legal support in four areas of action: law and rules, observation planning, monitoring
and testing, integrated assessment.
The region considers that the assumption of the principle of sustainability - which also
includes the aim of reducing CO2 – and its practical implementation has to overcome the
division between environmental protection and transformation, which has instead to get
together to produce higher social, urban , and therefore also environmental quality.
The political position of the region is to consider the social, business, economic and
institutional system as a whole. System that deals with the issues of inclusive growth and
sustainable employment for young people, sustainability and service to citizens, making a
common effort to give itself the priority objectives. This is a very important data considering
the difficult situation that Emilia-Romagna, Italy and Europe are facing.
The priority objectives are economic, socially and environmentally compatible growth, in
which the word quality is at the forefront of every action no matter who and what is facing:
the construction of a new model of development that is compatible with Europe 2020, the
future of the new generations, the contrast to job insecurity, business relations to manage
such a difficult process, the environment for a sustainable economy, the social welfare
system capable of ensuring the general access in services.
4. Lessons learned
Summary for what has been learned from the concrete examples presented during the site visit
by the organizing Region.
The practices presented at the site visit could be applied to other European regions, but it
obviously depends on their institutional position to urban issues.
As each European region has different social and political situations, the concern is that
urban planning is losing interest as a science also able to bring together and try to respond
to the different needs of a territory and its people.
The objectives of the European projects are concentrated on a specific theme (eg CO2
reduction), however the issue should be seen considering all the aspects with respect to a
cognitive framework of each area and the relevant critical issues.
This cognitive framework is not in-depth in Locare project.
So before applying the methods shown during the site visits in general, it should be cleared
which are the competences of the European regions related to each site visit theme .
As far as this site visit concerns, it would be interesting to see how the regions deals with
the territorial government, what are the relevant powers and rules on the field, if there are
zoning laws and building regulations in the territories and how these functions are carried
out. Meanwhile some obstacles (to be overcome) could prevent a smooth execution of the
relevant policy in the regional territorial planning as the following:
- The lack of a political and administrative system in terms of territorial government.
- Lack of curiosity and the humanities in particular aimed at urban planning and construction
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issues.
- Poor attitude to change
- Lack of participation of many actors and professional experts who might be interested in
the topics covered.
Details of the various topics per site visit
5. Description of lessons learned in context with the 3 Themes: New Leadership,
New Energy, New Climate
The topics could be identified in the Annex “ Topic Intersections between Themes and Sub-themes” the
intersection between the sub-Theme “Low Carbon Territorial planning” and the 3 LoCaRe main pillars
New Energy:

Efficient cities: new public transport schemes, renewables in district heating systems, low carbon
water and sewerage, passive solar urban design.
Brownfield regeneration planning and design is an extraordinary opportunity to introduce
innovative solutions from the “new energy” perspective.
The “Art and Science Park E. Torricelli” site in Faenza showed how low carbon territorial
planning can stimulate innovation in renewables jointly linked with energy saving such as:
- although not fully implemented yet, the eco-design principles are adopted in
urban design (sun axis orientation, a solar energy tower - and district heating, open
space green design for micro-climate;in buildings construction (solar panels,
green roofs, compact building volumes, ventilated façades, sunshields);
- contribution to new public transport schemes (cycle and pedestrian paths
design, no-car areas) with discouragement of private car use
The “ex-distillery Neri” site in Faenza showed how low carbon territorial planning can
increase urban energy efficiency, such as:
- promotion of relocation and refurbishment of a former wasting-energy area (where
the distillery where located) by incentives in closing down and regenerating ;
- eco-design principles in: urban design (illumination/shade streets layout, district
heating, open space green design for micro-climate); in buildings construction
(green-roof, insulation, photovoltaic panels in residential, commercial and public
buildings);
- limitation of land consumption and compact design (proximity to the city center,
energy efficient blocks of buildings, minimized use of motorized transport an private
cars);
- sustainable mobility (cycle path design, low carbon public transport).
The “Fornarina” residential site in Faenza showed some of the solutions for energy
efficiency in low carbon territorial planning already mentioned, mainly in eco-design
principles in urban design (compact neighbourhood, streets layout) and building design
(green roof, insulation).
The “Coop supermarket” site in Conselice showed how a quite small area renewal can be
the opportunity of a wide regeneration process for the town. The project introduced energy
efficient solution, such as:
- advanced eco-design principles in buildings construction (photovoltaic panels,
green roofs, smart sunshields, top roof free cooling and ventilation system, thermal
insulation, use of recycled materials, geothermal energy);
- energy saving solution for the indoor market (closed-window refrigerators, smart
illumination of different of counters and work areas with dimmering, natural light and
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-
LED systems, smart climatization for different areas according to the product
counters)
sustainable mobility (cycle and pedestrian paths design, electric car/bike station)
promotion of low carbon products (eco-label products, km zero products, tap
water).
New Leadership:



Methods and processes on planning that will ensure broad agreements in society on meeting high
low carbon standards
Citizens’ empowerment and involvement in the design of low-carbon cities and areas.
New systems of Public-Private Partnership for territorial governance
Low carbon territorial planning can be an opportunity of improving citizens’ empowerment
and of creating new systems of Public-Private Partnerships for territorial governance.
The “Art and Science Park E. Torricelli” site in Faenza showed how low carbon territorial
planning can stimulate new leadership, such as:
- promotion of a powerful network of actors involved in low carbon economy
(entrepreneurs, citizens, research centers, universities, public administrations);
- public-private agreement in innovating and strengthening a local product (ceramics
for art & industry) by creating a hub connecting private sector (enterprises: research
spin-off, designers) and public sectors (municipalities, research institutions,
Universities);
- change in producer attitudes (specially in ceramic products) for using more new
energy efficient process taking advantage from the technology network for research
and innovation of different Italian research centers
- contribution in growing the innovative producers by introducing the incubators
for spin-offs developing new materials and applications expecially in ceramics
- promotion of energy efficient product and material (mainly in ceramics) in the
local (and global) market
The “ex-distillery Neri” site in Faenza showed some positive aspects from this perspective,
such as:
- involvement and participation of several actors (citizens, entrepreneurs,
designers, municipal technicians and politicians);in the process of relocation of the
old distillery
- public-private agreement in the project (brownfield regeneration and requalification
of the site);
- social mix for the high standard for energy performance area (50% residential,
25% commercial, 25% services) can contribute to improve to share the value in low
carbon standards;
The “Fornarina” residential site in Faenza showed some interesting effects of low carbon
planning from a “new leadership” perspective, such as:
- citizens participation in the planning process contributed to improve citizens
empowerment;
- high social housing rate (59%) contributes to citizens diversity, integration and
exchange in social and business activities;
- high quality of urban spaces, designed in an energy efficient way, can contribute in
local citizens knowledge and habits on environmental matters;
- diffusion of ceramic local art by totem and landmarks in open spaces as an open air
museum, contributes to improve citizens sense of belonging to the Faenza -“the
ceramic land”- community
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The “Coop supermarket” site in Conselice showed how a quite small area renewal can be
the opportunity of a wide regeneration process for the town, creating new producersconsumers relationships. Insofar the territorial planning was the opportunity to enhance
producers-consumers relationship from a low carbon perspective, by introducing:
- promotion of low carbon habits in local population, by increasing the amount of
green products available (eco-label products, km zero products, tap water) and by
providing low carbon services (electric car/bike station, advanced recycle point);
- empowerment of citizens’ by private-public participation in the regeneration process
of the area;
- leading the spontaneous improvement of the proximate areas as a
consequence of the general regeneration of the brownfield (improvement in façades
and gardens of houses by owners living nearby);
- promotion of volunteering activities in environmental fields (room for community
meetings) and of low carbon communication (presence of dashboards outside the
market with information on energy savings, CO2 emissions avoided, etc.).
New Climate:



Compact cities vs urban sprawl: minimising the use of motorised transport and private cars.
Reurbanization of Brownfield areas vs. development of new Greenfield sites: reducing the external
costs of infrastructure
press on urbanisation of the areas near national parks/protected areas- possible or no cohabitation of
protected and city areas (monitoring + possible new ways of planning)
Low carbon territorial planning is a crucial theme in low carbon economy, as it can
contribute in increasing local and regional competitiveness.
The “Art and Science Park E. Torricelli” site in Faenza showed how low carbon territorial
planning can stimulate a “new climate” toward low carbon economy, such as:
- promotion of low carbon philosophy, by creating a powerful network of actors
involved in low carbon economy (entrepreneurs, citizens, research centers,
universities, public administrations) and spreading energy efficiency concept;
- strengthening of local enterprisers, by promoting investment and research on a
local product (ceramics) for the overall benefit of the community;
- contributing in characterizing the Faenza territory (attracting artists and
designers) with the “ceramic landmark” insofar contributing to the landscape
harmony and beauty;
- creation of new low carbon job market in the field of ceramics (by promoting startup enterprise incubators);
The “ex-distillery Neri” site in Faenza showed some positive aspects from this perspective,
such as:
- new businesses and services for the community generated by the redevelopment
of a brownfield area
- new local markets creation for the construction and maintenance phases (low
carbon materials required when possible came from local enterprises);
- social links and cohesion (thanks also to the mix of residential and social housing
areas, commercial areas and service areas);
The “Fornarina” residential site in Faenza also showed how low carbon planning was able to
create a “new climate” in the neighbourhood, with solutions such as
- introduction of local materials and art (ceramics), in order to enhance the local
community and enterprises;
- creation of new markets in the construction phase (low carbon materials required
when possible came from local businesses) and use phase (maintenance);
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-
promoting efficiency in the building sector and in the transport sector.
The “Coop supermarket” site in Conselice showed how a quite small area renewal was the
opportunity of a wide regeneration process for the town, creating a new local “low carbon
climate”, by introducing:
- improving Coop image and competitiveness in green investments within the
market of big food distribution businesses;
- activation of local synergies among business actors in the common aim of
improving their market and image (water distribution company, electric car/bike
station, waste recycling company, etc.);
- improvement of the local area economy and social networks, thanks also to the
refurbishment of the surrounding areas and to the activation of new initiatives;
- improvement of the local area economy, thanks also to the attractiveness of the
brand-new supermarket and to the media exposure of this pilot project;
- increase in low carbon business potential, by increasing the request from the
community of low carbon products (eco-label products, km zero products, tap water)
and low carbon services (electric car/bike station, advanced recycle point), when
possible favouring local companies (i.e. agriculture and km zero food).
6. Focus on the topics identified above
 Role of the Region
 Success and failure factors
Describe the ideas coming from the showed examples referring to the 3 Themes and the other sub-Themes
by the topics described in the Annex “ Topic Intersections between Themes and Sub-themes”
Explain the opportunity to transfer the good practices presented to other Regions (if there is enough
information available or which information is needed in order to assess their transferability)
 Role of the Region
Territorial planning refers to the methods used by the public sector to influence the
distribution of people and activities in spaces of various scales; according to the
principles of subsidiarity and cooperation, each institutional level (national, regional and
local authorities) are involved in its definition.
In Italy large power is given to the Regions (according to their legislative power) specially
in territorial planning and every region can have a “tailor made” model. In EmiliaRomagna it’s articulated in a multi-scale level, where the Provinces and the
Municipalities are delegated in development planning of their territories inside the
framework defined by the Regional Authority. Emilia Romagna Region has the role of
promoting the initiatives, coordinating the process, assessing the plans and projects,
(partially) financing the plans and projects, testing, monitoring. LCE issues are one of the
inspiring principle such as land consumption limitation promoting brownfields
regeneration and urban requalification, coherently with other strategies like the
innovation promotions and research transfers in synergy with the territorial potential (i.e.
the high technology hub hosted by “Art and Science Park E. Torricelli” in the artistic
ceramic district)
 Success factors
The site visit showed experience of successful territorial planning from a low carbon
perspective, as underlined above for the three main themes “new energy”, “new
leadership”, “new climate”.
The most relevant topics that represents success factors are the opportunities to
introduce in the territory the following items effective for LCE transition
- 1) innovative solutions in energy efficiency (municipal energy planning, district
heating, eco-design buildings)
- 2) mobility solutions for low carbon transportation (i.e.bike paths) in more compacted
areas
- 2) new systems of Public-Private Partnerships for territorial governance;
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Especially the brownfield regeneration planning and design is an extraordinary
opportunity of improving citizens’ empowerment choosing the best mix for improving the
quality of life while increasing local and regional competitiveness
 Failure factors
The site visit was focused on showing success case of low carbon territorial planning;
nevertheless some failure aspects can be underlined at regional level on these issues:
- A rather inflexible administrative systems in territorial planning, while plans need to
be flexible and adaptive to the fast change of society in transition towards LCE );
- lack of a systemic common national framework for the Italian Regions to act in
territorial government inspired to LCE concepts;
- the virtuous examples presented unfortunately coexist with other ones that
experienced a lack of cooperation among actors in the planning process;
- between planning actors, the cultural change attitude toward LCE principles, such as
lower land consumption, urban sprawl prevention are still relatively rare, while the
real estate marketing is still a strong pressure on municipal planning processes;
- lack of investments and local economy problems (see the ceramics crisis and the
slowdown construction of the “Art and Science Park E. Torricelli” site in Faenza);
- lack of commitments in LC territorial planning that is characterized by medium/long
term results unfortunately combined with the policy makers short term mandate and
agendas
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