Multilevel rivers for contemporary urban spaces. From research to design solutions

The paper is part of the debate and experimentation on architectural and urban design resilient to climate change and investigates the possibilities of reusing riverbeds in important cities in the southern Mediterranean and Middle East areas such as Genoa, Malaga and Isfahan. These riverbeds, due to climate change and a series of hydraulic works, are today characterized by a strong variability of the water level and abandonment, even if they represent central areas of the urban structure available to host contemporary public spaces of cities through innovative design solutions. In this perspective, the paper contributes to the debate with a review of theoretical references and recent international practices and a comparison of three selected case studies (Bisagno-Genoa, Guadalmedina-Malaga, Zayanderud-Isfahan) that have been the scope of didactic design experimentations in the framework of international workshops promoted by Sapienza University in collaboration with other Universities.