ESR10

Sustainable neighbourhoods and co-creation

School of Architecture, Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain

Back to Projects

Supervisor

Dr. Carla Sentieri

Co-supervisors

Dr. Adriene Csizmady, Institute for Sociology, Centre for Social Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary

Dr. Anna Martinez, School of Architecture La Salle, Ramon Llull University, Barcelona, Spain 

Secondments

School of Architecture La Salle, Ramon Llull University, Barcelona, Spain

Budapest Methodological Centre of Social Policy, Budapest, Hungary

Metropolitan Research Institute, Budapest, Hungary

Research project

The ageing of certain residential areas is causing an increase in the number of inhabitants living in derelict neighbourhoods with a lack of adequate buildings, no public spaces, poor communications and insufficient public services. At the same time, there is urgent need to develop policies and guidelines to promote sustainability for a decarbonized and climate-neutral Europe.

The rehabilitation of social housing neighbourhoods is necessary in many European cities. Housing rehabilitation programmes must be addressed with a holistic and systematic approach that takes into account the overall impact at the neighbourhood scale. Therefore, it is necessary 1) to learn from the experience of previous interventions, 2) to set up follow-up processes aimed at creating more sustainable living environments and to monitor their impact, and 3) to involve users in co-design and co-creation processes, in order to identify their living habits and the values they give to the places they inhabit.

The main purpose of this research is to develop new guidelines for the rehabilitation of neighbourhoods with sustainable and affordable housing through co-creation processes. The current environmental, social and economic sustainability standards used for rehabilitation will be examined in order to identify the most effective ones to contribute to the decarbonization of Europe.

Qualitative and quantitative research methods will be applied to identify issues related to the rehabilitation of affordable and sustainable social housing districts and the measures needed to improve them. Through a comparative analysis of the rehabilitated districts and new processes of co-design and co-creation of social housing, new rehabilitation measures and strategies will be proposed.

Tasks
->To conduct individual research project, interlinked with the other ESRs projects, focusing on:
  • Reviewing the rehabilitation regulations and literature under the current parameters of sustainability
  • Identifying the standards of sustainable neighbourhoods through analysis of cases study
  • Analysing co-design and co-creation processes in the creation of sustainable neighbourhoods
  • Using qualitative and quantitative research tools to analyse rehabilitated neighbourhoods according to sustainable criteria
  • Developing a framework to rehabilitate affordable and low carbon emissions housing.
  • Involving inhabitants in the building lifecycle to reduce the energy performance gap
  • Proposing actions and strategies for the rehabilitation of sustainable neighbourhoods
->To participate in the network-wide activities (workshops, summer schools, conferences)
->To carry out the training required by the PhD programme of the host university.

As part of the individual research project, ESRs will carry out three secondments, between 1 and 2 months, in the partner organisations.

ESRs are expected to have completed a doctoral thesis that can be defended at the host institution within or shortly thereafter the project lifetime.

Host university

Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) is currently considered one of the leading universities in Spain, being the only Spanish Science and Technology University to feature in relevant world university rankings. Founded in 1971, it comprises nearly 30,000 students, 2,500 academics and researchers, and 17 university research centres of excellence driven to solve the challenges of the European citizens.

UPV has been awarded by the European Commission with the 'HR Excellence in Research' seal (https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/hrs4r#show_SPAIN ), which gives public recognition to research institutions that have made progress in aligning their human resource policies with the principles set out in the "Charter & Code".

UPV has participated in 129 FP7 actions and led 20 of them. UPV has participated or is currently participating in nearly H2020’s 170 signed actions, coordinating 30 of them (October 2020), and partnering in several major consortium initiatives (JTIs, PPPs, KICs). Updated and more detailed information regarding UPV’s participation in European programmes can be found here.

Research at the School of Architecture is currently carried out by research groups integrated in the various school departments. Each group brings together academic staff, researchers, and postgraduate research scholars within common areas of interest. The Architectural Projects Department is leading this ESR research project.

Contact

Dr. Carla Sentieri (carsenom@pra.upv.es)

Back to Projects