INTEGRATING HABITAT QUALITY INDEX TO SUPPORT URBAN DESIGN IN URBAN AREAS. The case of study Basse di Stura, Turin (Italy)

According to some activities conceived, financed and developed in the field of teaching (Design Workshop “Regenerating public space: standard, soil and ecosystem services”, an educational project promoted by the College of Planning and Design of the DIST-Polytechnic of Turin within the framework of the project of Excellence MIUR 2018-2022) and research (Eco-welfare and Intermunicipal governance: soil as an infrastructure for regenerating territories”, a multidisciplinary research co-funded by DIST Excellence Dept. of the Polytechnic of Turin in cooperation with a range of institutional and academic organizations) Basse di Stura was considered an interesting case to defining both operational methods to produce “new knowledge” in support of territorial governance processes aimed at limiting soil consumption (zero balance), and design methodologies for the public space as a strategic area for integrated policies of urban, ecological-landscape, historical-environmental and architectural regeneration of the contemporary city. Basse di Stura is an area of 150 hectares located to the north-west on the edge of the densely settled system while forming a diaphragm with the north ring road of Turin. Despite the presence of partly abandoned industrial activities, here the Stura River once flowed in a typically agricultural landscape, which traces are still visible by the presence of some farmhouses disused and degraded and a residual cultivated landscape, which remained almost unchanged over time (even suffering the harmful effects of the surrounding activities).