Design the Urban Microclimate: Nature-based Solutions and Technology at Nexus

This chapter outlines the general impacts and direct consequences climate change is producing in urban areas, especially in terms of negative influence on urbanites’ thermal comfort, and how green infrastructure combined with appropriate building technologies could increase our climate-adaptive capacity, and reduce the various health risks associated with urban heat waves and soil sealing. The study focuses on urban microclimate and energy balance in the built environment, and discusses key challenges for successful implementation of integrated design solutions, at different scales, for climate change adaptation. Through the development of two experimental renovation case studies – i.e. the former slaughterhouse of Velletri, and the heritage “Leo” penicillin factory in Rome – the authors investigate the microclimatic impacts of different environmental design strategies, showing in particular the effectiveness of combined landscape technologies, levering on vegetation and soil permeability to mitigate the urban microclimate, as well as improve the outdoor thermal comfort of urban people.