The project aims to identify and quantify the energy saving potential and opportunities for increased quality of life that can emerge from future urban scenarios involving new modalities of living and working, changes in leisure and mobility behaviours, and different business models. Besides aiming to propose environmental and technological solutions, this proposal builds upon the premise that energy demand is, first and foremost, an outcome of social dynamics, involving complex patterns of energy usage and requiring creative approaches in material flows. As a result, it considers the focus on the wellbeing of people, seen both as individuals and as a collectivity, as a crucial component of the energy transition, which, to be successful, must be socially embraced and implemented in the physical spaces we inhabit. More specifically, the project seeks to experiment and implement sustainable social change practices based on less energy-intensive behaviours through carefully co-designed interventions on the physical environment taking place in daily living, working and leisure. While people and socio-material dynamics are considered the main “agents of change” in this energy transition, three main “sectors of change” are identified in terms of impact on energy demand and supply management: the built environment, open spaces and mobility. For these distinct - yet strongly interrelated - areas of action, the project will provide solutions and best practices for a sustainable congruence between an apparently insatiable desire for “more” (more living space and material comfort) and requirements for greenhouse gas emission reductions and circular economy, while improving quality of life.
