Designing Environments

The Designing Environments book series addresses questions regarding necessary environmental transformation in the context of the fast-unfolding environmental crisis. This is done from a broad interdisciplinary perspective, examining the negative impact of human transformations of the environment and providing different inroads towards sustainable environmental transformation with net positive impact.

Volume one of the Designing Environments book series brings together experts from different disciplines and often inter- and transdisciplinary contexts, who discuss specific approaches to overcoming the negative impact of the transformation of environments by humans. Across the 12 chapters of volume one, specific keywords recur that are indicative of shared insights and concerns. These include Anthropocene, climate change, complexity, critical zone, ecosystem services, and sustainability. Furthermore, interdisciplinary approaches to human–environment interactions, sustainability transitions, and socio-ecological systems take center stage and are discussed in relation to conceptual and methodological as well as societal and technological challenges and opportunities.

The book addresses the interdisciplinary and multiscale theme of the design of sustainable, inclusive and creative urban green spaces in relation to the socio-ecological transition and in line with the systemic vision promoted by the 2030 Agenda, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the principles outlined by the New European Bauhaus (European Commission, 2021). The publication refers to the International Study Day organized in June 2022 by the Unit for Internationalization of the PDTA Department of the Sapienza University of Rome, develops and updates its themes, with essays that deepen theories and methodologies pursued in specific disciplinary and research fields, and with case studies of design experiments and achievements that constitute best practices at an international level in the sign of a conscious sustainability.

The book is therefore part of an international and interdisciplinary dialogue and discussion focused on the challenges of climate change, economic crises and social inequalities as well as the questions that emerged during the Covid-19 pandemic. These issues are fundamental in the rethinking and reconfiguration of the role of urban green spaces, conceived as a priority place for the existence of citizens, the archetype of European culture, the conservation of biodiversity, and the relationship with nature.