The integrated requalification of Author's Urban Peripheries. Strategies and technological environmental solutions for a balance between sustainability and safeguarding existing qualities.

The actions to be taken on residential buildings of Italian urban Periferies, with a view to the Agenda 2030 SDGs, need new tools, starting from the identification of contemporary quality architectures within the extended field of recent construction production. Although these buildings, from a historical-critical point of view, are fully included in the Cultural Heritage concept - and the listing in the Census of contemporary Architecture of Italian Ministry of Culture is an evidence - still there is no defined a technological and environmental operational strategy that adapts them to the needs and uses of contemporary society, compatibly with the "designing intentions", their quality and with respect to their recognized cultural value. The research approach to these buildings has looked only to functional, performance and perceptual improvement related to economic needs; the solutions evaluated only in relation to technological, energy, economic and functional priorities; proposed actions concern partial demolitions, addition and substitution, obtaining higher levels of performance but never oriented to a balanced strategy that could operate in respect of cultural value. Outlining the state of the art in the field of research within the requalification of residential buildings in Europe, the paper will examine some emblematic case that represent the two main approaches.