Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, an awareness of being in a new geological era of the Anthropocene has become a keystone for several fields of knowledge. At the global and local scales, society has become increasingly aware that humanity is facing challenges that daily put at risk the precarious balance between humanity and the environment. While this consciousness has spread the idea of an essential inseparable connection between the natural and the social spheres, economic and technological motivations have worn down human relations with the environment and with communities.

This is a particularly debated topic for the built environment, where increasing technological capabilities and the dominant role of economic systems have led, too often, the process of decision making. Nevertheless, in spite of this general tendency, in the XXI century, innovative practices of intervention in the built environment, based on social sustainable strategies, are increasingly common. Among the others, topics such as commons and communitarian development, rural–urban relations, and healthy and accessible territories are becoming crucial in the debate on the built environment.

This Special Issue proposes a theoretical and critical discussion of the relations between innovative practices of intervention on the built environment and their impact on the social fabric. From the scale of the globe to the scale of the neighborhood, what makes an action a successful intervention and a successful promoter of social development? How does the social realities promote positive actions in the built environment?

For this purpose, societies invite papers of original research that address any practice coming from all the disciplines related to the built environment, and whose effects impact our society.

Dr. Emanuele Giorgi
Guest Editor

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