Urban Regeneration for Smart Communities. Applying methods for megalopolis and towns in China

Urban regeneration refers to a process from a functional, economic, social and environmental point of view. In this study, it is linked in particular to the topic of smart communities defined as the entity able to promote communication with the individual inhabitants of a neighborhood and to share contents, knowledge, planning, forms and ways of social action of the new millennium. The authors studied these concepts referring specifically to China: in this reality, planning is more oriented towards short-term vision of the buildings (about 40% of housing realized before 2000 will be replaced during the next 10-15 years). Therefore, urban regeneration arises in order to establish new ways of designing that can ensure longer life to architectures and meet the real needs of population. To get interesting results, it has been studied a methodology which works for big industrial areas regeneration. In fact future structures of the cities are conditioned by the evolution of the industrial areas; in China, in particular, analyzes on the potential of industrial heritage have been developed only recently. Authors propose a methodology defined by five main elements (general strategy) that constitute the starting point for the development of the single projects and their planning choices (specific tactics and actions) that enhance the smartness of each community. By analyzing one case located in Shanghai (megalopolis) and another in Lianshi, Zhejiang province (town), authors demonstrate how the proposed method and its tools can perfectly work even applied to complete different urban contexts and, therefore, can be defined as a multi-scale approach.