Digital Progress in the Regeneration of Obsolete Neighbourhoods of the 1960s: Opportunities and Risk

Neighbourhoods built in the 1950s and 1960s in Europe in response to the massive migration of workers to the cities need to be rehabilitated because they are currently showing high rates of obsolescence. Such action cannot be approached in terms of demolition or new construction but in terms of comprehensive urban regeneration. The intervention strategy in these obsolete neighbourhoods must be based on methodologies that allow the rehabilitation of buildings, based on the conservation and reuse of the existing urban fabric, as opposed to other approaches based on demolition and new construction, explicitly reducing the carbon footprint of the process. This intervention methodology is the one proposed by the AURA Strategy, developed by a group of researchers from the University of Seville, tested in different editions of the international Solar Decathlon competition, and currently being applied to the Polígono San Pablo neighbourhood (Seville, Spain) as part of the Research Project “Direct application of “Aura Strategy” of the SOLAR DECATHLON-U.S. TEAM, in the rehabilitation of obsolete Andalusian neighborhoods”, funded by the Local Government of the Junta de Andalucía (Spain). The Aura Strategy proposes, in a gradual way, the requalification of the social, material and energetic identity, seeking an improvement in the comfort and health of the inhabitants, resulting in an increase in their quality of life. The current Digital Technological Development must be integrated into urban regeneration projects, from the territory analysis phase, relying on the use of GIS systems and UAV technology, with the aim of solving problems such as energy poverty, communications, transport, health care or levels of public safety. However, the high average age and the low level of education of the population in this type of neighbourhoods can lead to situations of social exclusion and that digital progress becomes an obstacle in people's lives.