Three Sustainable Residential Neighborhoods in South Italy

In this study, we examine three social housing case studies in the Campania region. The projects have been made with the aspiration to be sustainable residential neighborhoods. The Region, indeed, proposed a pilot program to test an innovative model of the design and construction of social housing. The topic of this program is the spreading of urban quality and construction, the culture energy conservation, the reduction of the construction impact activities on the environment and the offering to lower classes proper housing. This program was created to implement new guidelines referring to ITACA protocol. The cases involve three medium-small municipalities: one in the province of Avellino-Mirabella Eclano, one in the province of Salerno - Castelnuovo Cilento and the last one in the province of Naples - Nola. The first case was concluded, the second one is almost completed and the last one is still in progress. These are three different cases by geographical location and contextual conditions. Mirabella Eclano has a land area of 34 sq km and a population of just 8000 inh., with a population density of 230 inh. per sq km; Castelnuovo Cilento, however, has an area of only 18 sq km and a population of about 2,500 inh. Nola, finally, is a city of the province of Naples, with a land area of 39 sq km and about 33,000 inh., located in the eastern part of the plain to the north of Vesuvio. In all three cases, however, despite the obvious differences, the projects presented have tried to entrust the leadership to public housing in research and dissemination of new sustainable urban models. The paper will describe in detail all the sustainable urban and building elements.