A laboratory to study sustainable urban regeneration

The course is part of the Research Lab in Sustainable Urban Regeneration established by the Department of Social and Political Sciences of Bocconi with the support of Intesa Sanpaolo together with Hines, Milanosesto S.P.A. and Prelios. The partnership - which includes the IMI Corporate & Investment Banking Division - aims at the development of studies, research and projects concerning sustainable urban regeneration achieved with solutions based on an efficient use of natural resources, with high circularity and resilience and with reduced environmental impact.                          
The course will allow students to face, study and understand the new frontier trends on sustainable urban regeneration processes.

Since 15 December, the MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) “Sustainable Urban Regeneration”. has been available. The course - available on the Coursera platformin English - is developed over 5 learning modules and includes a final test. Through numerous case studies presented by Bocconi lecturers and external experts, students will be able to analyse policy and business models that enable successful urban regeneration. This adds to and enhances the educational value of the Research Lab in Sustainable Urban Regeneration (SUR Lab).

Urban regeneration represents a strategic opportunity to rethink our cities starting from three essential current drivers:

• - perspective of social inclusion
•  - sustainability
• - digitization.

Urbanization is an opportunity: cities attract people and investments that promote rapid dissemination of knowledge and innovation and stimulate economic development for the territory and for the country of origin.                       
From another point of view, urbanization also creates disadvantages: the increase in population density generates congestion that increases the demand for services and sometimes has a negative impact on environmental quality. Congestion itself, if not steered, produces a significant increase in inequalities and social poverty, undermining the most vulnerable people such as younger and / or less skilled workers, students and the elderly.

Starting from these facts, it becomes a priority to promote urbanization that follows the principle of doing well by doing good. In other words, urban regeneration projects and initiatives must be launched keeping the care of vulnerable people at the center and being sustainable from the point of view of the impact they generate, in terms of adequate health care, efficient transport systems, the presence of school complexes, service centers and sports facilities. 

Intesa Sanpaolo will continue to experiment and activate synergies and collaborations with Italian and international universities to develop and disseminate knowledge on sustainable urban regeneration processes, as in the case of the Research Lab in Sustainable Urban Regeneration.
The commitment will then also be persistent on supporting implementation projects, such as those aimed at creating favorable conditions to encourage academic researchers to work in Italy, or those designed to accompany businesses and families in tackling recovery plans urban areas included in the PNRR.

The partnership and support for the Research Lab in Sustainable Urban Regeneration add an important step to our ambition to be more and more an impact bank. Supporting researchers and students in the analysis and understanding of global dynamics and the main social, environmental and economic challenges that cities are facing will help us to better orient our commitment and our determination to promote fair, sustainable urban development and capable of accelerating individual and collective growth.