Fostering architecture efficiency through urban quality. A project for via Milano site in Brescia

The topic of the enhancement of historical centers is taking importance in contemporary planning due of different reasons. The main ones are the will to empower the efficiency of older houses under the energetic point of view, but also, as it is shown by the recent tragic seismic facts, to increase the capability of ancient buildings to reach higher performances creating a safer place for people. The protection of historical areas of cities involved not only monuments and constrained architectures, it concerns also civil houses and open spaces because there is the will to promote historical sites ensuring the achievement of high standards of life and performances. The goal is to make historical sites resilient, to ensure the architectural heritage to respond to external stresses such as the one linked to climate change, the increase of touristic flows or seismic events. Enhancing historical parts of cities ensure to maintain the features that characterize most urban landscapes. This allows to create better places for citizens and to promote new touristic sectors. The paper considers the case study of the city of Brescia, a middle-sized city, in the north of Italy, which has been interested by an urban regeneration process involving especially a suburban neighborhood. A process that has begun in 2016 in Brescia and it is still in development, with firsts consequences on the physical and social matrix of the area.