Proposals for sustainable planning for the territory of Seulo

The conservation and valorization of the historic built and natural landscape are, for Sardinia, a starting point for the development of environmental sustainability. Although regional policies directed towards these issues, municipalities find it difficult to propose projects that are developed according to the practices of sustainable development. Within these issues, we established a multidisciplinary team to carry out a methodological study of analysis about the issues of spatial planning and the preservation and enhancement of the built heritage, adopting as a reference area, the territory of Seulo. Located in the mountainous interior of Sardinia (Italy), Seulo presents some of the most typical problems common to rural areas of the island: isolation, depopulation, degradation of the historical center and monuments, poor enhancement of the natural and built heritage. Starting from an analysis of these aspects we have analyzed the problems and the potential of specific areas of investigation, and then we have proposed solutions for sustainable development and promotion of local heritage. Specifically, the study focused on the following topics: • conservation and enhancement of the distinguishing marks of the area: diffuse architectural heritage, monuments, landscape (understood in a historicized+natural environment); • changes in the urban fabric, typological features, and construction techniques; • energy retrofit of the built; • exploitation of local resources and implementation of a competitive tourist system. Currently there are very few, multidisciplinary studies (similar to the one described here) which have as their object the territory of the smaller towns of the island and in particular the historical, environmental and built heritage. The survey methodology adopted has led to the formulation of a protocol guide for a sustainable future planning of the city of Seulo. The protocol is formulated so that it can be replicated in similar cases both in Sardinia and elsewhere. This protocol, starting from the careful examination of the current situation and problems, has been prepared in consultation with local government using open source analysis tools. The formulation of the protocol led to the determination of the following possible ways of development and enhancement of the environmental, cultural and economic heritage: • the identification of guidelines to support the drafting of planning instruments for the management of the historical center. We have formulated guidelines that encourage conscious intervention practices, covering both the scope of new construction and their proper placement in the context, and the adaptation and recovery of existing assets, in an attempt to propose a strategy for sustainable recovery of the consolidated town; • the redesign of the documentation system of the architectural heritage in order to standardize and integrate existing data with regard to diffuse built heritage, and monuments including the analysis and inventory of materials used in construction of historical buildings; • the promotion of the dissemination of information on the web so that it can also boost the tourist potential offered by the area of Seulo and areas surrounding it; • the development of local renewable natural resources (such as sheep wool) through a regional wise association of production, conversion into highly marketable innovative products (such as mats for thermal insulation apparel, interior and technical textiles) and the creation of new opportunities; • The development and formulation of appropriate recommendations to the enhancement and redevelopment in a sustainable, from the energy point of view, of the architectural heritage Seulo. We have identified and formulated a set of guidelines and strategies appropriate in principle, to be implemented for the purpose of energy efficiency and optimization of fuel consumption. that strategies are implemented, not only through targeted interventions, the wrapping of the buildings themselves, but also in terms of a new way of conceiving the building, or the building is no longer understood as consisting of a building structure in itself, but as a complex system and composite, fully integrated with its plant infrastructures.