Adaptive Design to Mitigate the Effects of UHI: The Case Study of Piazza Togliatti in the Municipality of Scandicci

The relationship between microclimate and built environment has been explored for almost 40 years, with reference not only to architecture but also to urban and to landscape design as instruments to increase the outdoor comfort. Recently, scientific studies on urban climate pay attention to Urban Heat Island (UHI) and related mitigation strategies as the main focus theme, also by developing new sustainable urban design assessment methods. Moving from these considerations, this paper aims to describe some results of the research ‘Adaptive design and innovative technology for resilient regeneration of urban district depending on climate change’, focused on the study of technological solutions that are able to improve the resilience of the built environment, also reducing the effects of the UHI. Furthermore, attention is given to the issue of urban space design, implemented as an instrument that is able to promote the regeneration of urban districts. In detail, this article presents two design proposals developed for Piazza Togliatti in Scandicci (Florence), analysing the results achieved (in terms of atmospheric temperature and predicted mean vote) by means of the ENVI-Met software.