The global climate challenge, together with the numerous economic, energy and societal crisis, requires architects, designers, citymakers and stakeholders to re-think their approach to the city and the territory. Moreover, the shared urge for a sustainable and inclusive future in the built environment claims for a new way to approach the design of the space. In this frame of uncertainty and technocracy, we want to investigate and understand possible scenarios of transformation and their impact on the design of space. Among the many possibilities, the concept of ‘Adaptive Architecture’ can constitute a holistic approach to cope with future challenges, by providing site- and time-specific solutions to the contemporary issues architecture and urban design are facing nowadays. The scientific paper presents some outputs of our current research project on Adaptive Architecture. We focus on explorations around the theme of adaptability and its recurrence in time in the disciplinary literature, in order to explore in which way(s) it contributes to the design of architectonic and urban space beyond traditional confines. Keeping in mind the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their impact on the design of urban spaces, we want to explore the different concepts and methods of Adaptive Architecture in the last decades, as well as in recent times, and future possibilities, focusing on how they define sustainable and inclusive ways of living as core qualities of a “messy city”. In fact, as design approach, Adaptive Architecture, reveals through the years a continuous search for new spatial configurations that can respond to users’, usages’ and environmental needs. Therefore, these endogenous and exogenous variables contribute to define the difference between the various facets of Adaptability through time, together with the advancements in technology. This manifests at every scale of spatial interactions, from the interpersonal, to those with the direct surroundings, from the architectural to the urban and territorial scales, with specific regards to the social engagement. The capability of responding to many and various aspects have caught the interest of several disciplines, from urban design, to built environment, to civic design and so on, resulting in an overlapping of meanings and definitions. We have been mapping out those interpretations and put them into relations to define the methodological and conceptual resources for a new way of understanding and designing urban spaces. The paper aims to generate holistic insights on the concept and methods of adaptive cities through some of the research outcomes. The expanding mechanism that we reckon in the growth of the adaptive approach -from the building to the network- will be explored, aiming at investigating new lines of research, education and practice, so as to address urgently needed research questions.

In Europe, cities host around the 75% of the population (80% expected before 2050), they produce the 85% of the GDP and are responsible of around the 80% of the Total Final (energy) Consumption (TFC) and the 80% of the total Green House Gases (GHG) emissions. For securing the impact of the measures taken by cities while addressing climate change, sustainability, and the energy transition, there is the need for a wide approach, covering at least the national and European levels. Energy transitions should consider a mix of various commodities (electricity, heat, hydrogen, synthetic fuels, etc.), but it is generally agreed that electricity is going to play a central role. The electrification process is based on an “energy triangle”: 1. direct production of electricity from RESs; 2. electricity as an energy vector for distribution and storage; and 3. electrification of energy final uses. This transition requires new ways of thinking and new paradigms for exploiting electricity in the cities. Accordingly, new concepts are popping up like energy communities, positive energy districts, distributed generation and storage, autonomous micro grids, requesting a deep change in the present vision. In order to make it happen, the electricity infrastructure needs a “smart” upgrade in terms of both physical and cyber network assets, and operational approaches and practices. The present electricity infrastructure shows clearly its limits while trying to implement the new paradigms when current assets and operations criteria are kept unchanged. We need a new vision of the electricity infrastructure, capable of matching the new vision of the cities. This vision will require for its implementation not just technical measures, but also new approaches to the governance of the local energy system, new instruments for financing the transformation in a relatively short period, and new market rules for rewarding all actors. Among the emerging challenges one should consider: - the increasing penetration of small size distributed generation based on low controllable RESs, - the growth of power/energy demand due to increased electrification of final uses, - the challenging local resources’ exploitation (mainly RESs, but also storage) to satisfy the needs of local energy communities, and, - the possibility to share production with other communities with “positive energy” contributions, Finally, the changes operated on the new infrastructure could involve the distribution system shifting from the present AC (Alternate Current) to a new DC (Direct Current) energy vector as a promising option. This paper aims to present and discuss in their salient features new visions that make it possible to implement new sustainability scenarios so that the energy transition towards pre-established objectives can gradually be implemented and propagated from the cities towards the entire Country system, maintaining adequate quality levels for consumers and producers of electricity.

This study critically examines the role of architects in negotiating urban politics and urban imaginaries in the context of large-scale iconic architecture. Using the Taipei Performing Arts Centre (TPAC) designed by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) as a case study, we explore the complex dynamics between policymakers, citizens, and architects in shaping architectural projects and urban space. The TPAC was envisioned as a cultural flagship project that aimed to integrate the existing local culture with the new ‘high culture’ represented by the theatre. However, conflicts arose between the policymakers' vision, the architects' agenda, and the perspectives of local citizens. The controversy centered around the integration of a historical local food market into the design, with policymakers and citizens contesting this attempt. Drawing on a theoretical framework of urban imaginaries (Castoriadis, 1987; Kaika, 2011), we analyze the contrasting perspectives of different urban stakeholders and shed light on the architects' attempts to navigate between these perspectives while pursuing their own agenda. Through a review of internal documents, interviews, and content analysis of archival data, we uncover the misunderstandings and conflicts that emerged during the negotiation process. Despite claims of representing 'the people' from policy makers and architects, there were discrepancies in understanding their actual needs and desires, and indeed of who ‘the people’ were. In conclusion, this study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the role of architects in negotiating urban imaginaries and shaping urban spaces. It argues that the practice of architecture cannot be simply categorized as being good, bad, or ugly, but instead involves a complex balance between the visions held by different stakeholders, each with their own interpretations of what constitutes the good, the bad, and the ugly. References: Castoriadis, C. (1987). The Imaginary Institution of Society, trans. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Kaika, M. (2011). Autistic architecture: the fall of the icon and the rise of the serial object of architecture. Environment and Planning D-Society & Space, 29(6), 968-992.

My research aims to embed the Randstad to the postmodernist model of cities by the Los Angeles School. I compare the characteristics of LA and the Randstad, arguing that the Randstad is a mutation of the model. My arguments land on perspectives such as geographical structure, production regime, nature, etc. The Randstad shares a similar sprawling pattern with LA and have similar problems such as inequality and privatization within the urban areas. The Randstad also have a similar post-Fordist regime of accumulation that prevails in LA. In addition, the Ranstad bears a higher intricacy of ecological problems than LA. Rem Koolhaas's work plays an important role in my arguments. My research also attempts to provoke other thoughts on framing the Randstad and its implications to the academic field of urban planning.