Title

Author(s)

Giulia Baccetti

Affiliation

Politecnico di Milano

DOI

https://doi.org/10.65686/NBUR7562

Keywords

Adaptive Heritage Reframing, Community-Led Reuse, Regulatory Frameworks

PP

106-113

How to Cite

Baccetti, Giulia. “From Waste to Worth Participatory and Sustainable Adaptive Reuse.” In Proceedings of the International Conference on Adaptive Reuse. Volume 1, edited by Andrea Crudeli, Francesca Molle, and Emanuele Carrai, 106–113. Firenze: STH Press, 2026.

Abstract

In light of the vast abandoned minor built heritage present across the Italian territory, the research investigates its possible reactivation through interventions that, adopting participatory and unconventional design solutions, aim for sustainable reuse understood as a synergy between socially, environmentally, and economically responsible approaches.
Adaptive reuse applied at the community scale, typically characterized by a wealth of social resources and a scarcity of economic ones, engages self-recovery and self-construction as possible spatial reactivation processes, supported by circular approaches to reusing building materials and waste elements and by possible developments in the regulatory framework of interventions exempt from authorization obligations, defined in the Glossario dell’Edilizia Libera1. The research develops an operational methodology through a case study applied to the Casamatta Circular Hub in the village of Molini di Gurone (Italy), a multi-scale project promoted by Legambiente that has been operating since 2015 in territorial regeneration along the banks of the Olona River. The academic collaboration with Politecnico di Milano has transformed the sixteenth-century building into an experimental laboratory for circular economy practices and participatory self-construction.

Edited by
Andrea Crudeli
Francesca Molle
Emanuele Carrai

Publisher
STH Press, Firenze

ISBN Paperback – 9791281661141
ISBN Ebook – 9791281661158
DOI – https://doi.org/10.65686/SISY7263

Year
2026

Proceedings of
International Conference on Adaptive Reuse
hosted by The University of Pisa, Italy
15-19 September 2025, at the Gispoteca di Arte Antica dell’Università di Pisa.