The Shapes of Adaptive Ground Design: A New Taxonomy Between Spatial Quality and Ecological Performance

The paper investigates the operational modalities that the discipline of architecture can deploy in constructing climate change adaptation solutions that, in addition to including technical issues and performative aspects of risk response, can take on wider urban significance and produce outcomes in terms of spatial quality. Recognizing the problem of downscaling as the critical step in the planning process, there seems to be a substantial absence, in local-scale urban planning instruments, of guidance on how adaptive devices can intercept place-specific characteristics in spatial terms. Almost always the design directions are elaborated by supporting studies that return catalogs of homologated solutions that can be replicated anywhere, whose operational translation within the city lies in the sensibility of the team drafting the project. What emerges is an idea of urban regeneration that is heavily focused on ecological concerns and performance characteristics, systematically neglecting the relational aspects of reconnecting parts of the city, spatial quality, and aesthetic values that are proper to the discipline of architecture. Therefore, an inquiry method capable of informing planners and local governments is proposed: starting from the recognition of soil as a privileged field of action for structuring adaptation design, it’s possible to determine a new taxonomy of replicable spatial typologies, investigating the relationship between soil forms, adaptive capacity, and specificity of places in terms of measurement, visual relationships, and relationship to the memory of a site.