REcube: REthink, REvive, REuse – Transmitting knowledge for the green regeneration of the European Concrete Heritage – FIRST PRESS RELEASE
December 1st 2021 has been the official starting day for the international didactical project REcube: REthink, REvive, REuse – Transmitting knowledge for the green regeneration of the European Concrete Heritage.
REcube, funded by the ERASMUS + program, line KA220 – European cooperation partnerships in Higher Education, intends to transmit and disseminate at a European and international level a new sustainable approach to the conservation and reuse of modern reinforced concrete architecture, helping preserve this significant European heritage.
Designed for students of the different partner universities enrolled in Engineering and Architecture master’s programmes, the REcube training program aims to foster the development of a new mindset in the field of Modern Heritage Regeneration.
It is time to rethink how we manage and transform the architectures of our recent past, how we can restore and reuse them correctly and in a sustainable manner. It is an extremely topical issue, given that for many European countries by 2050 80% of the architecture will consist of pre-existing buildings, of which 97% will have to be renovated and possibly repurposed.
The REcube project, which will last 36 months, was conceived and implemented by a large-scale European university partnership, led by the Politecnico di Milano with the Laboratorio Nervi on the Lecco Campus.
Members of the partnership are: Budapest University of Technology and Economics (Hungary), Delft University of Technology (Netherlands), Hafencity University Hamburg (Germany), Middle East Technical University (Turkey), Politecnico di Torino (Italy), Technical University of Madrid (Spain), University of Naples Federico II (Italy), Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium), University of Minho (Portugal) and University of Rome La Sapienza (Italy).
Also participating: the Pier Luigi Nervi Project Foundation in Brussels, which for over 10 years has been engaged in the study and dissemination of the work by the great Italian designer and builder, as well as ICOMOS Italia, the Italian chapter of the UNESCO advisor non-governmental international organisation, whose mission is the conservation of the world’s monuments and sites.
During the three-year duration of the project, the 33 students selected annually by the participating universities will receive training that involves the completion of a MOOC (Massive Online Open Course) expressly created for Recube, which will be propaedeutic to the participation in 2 annual workshops: an intensive online course on cutting-edge scientific topics, followed by an on-site case-study focusing on the redevelopment and the architectural and structural recovery of works created by one of the Masters of reinforced concrete, Pier Luigi Nervi (the Municipal Stadium in Florence, Torino Esposizioni and the Mincio swimming pool in Milan).
The materials produced during the partnership will be made available online on an open-source platform, while the methodology proposed to students will be codified in the REcube Guidelines, published at the end of the project.
Structures and buildings in reinforced concrete have shaped European modernity, giving life to a shared architectural culture that has marked our continent with a common constructive language. We believe that establishing, promoting and teaching unified and sustainable best practices in the field of Modern architectural preservation strengthens our common European identity while opening up new creative possibilities and career opportunities for young designers, builders and city planners everywhere in the Union.
REcube Communication referents: Elisabetta Margiotta Nervi e.margiottanervi@gmail.com; Cristiana Chiorino cristiana.chiorino@gmail.com
