The built environment adaptive reuse: architectural protection and younger generations' empowerment.A research commitment for the Sanità district (Naples)

The international scientific community agrees in recognizing training as an essential commitment in the use of the Recovery fund, to prepare the younger generations to face the new post-Covid 19 normal. Urban contexts and built heritage are central to this challenge, not only as a physical safeguard for the prevention of infectious disease, but as a lever for the cure and regeneration of societies and economies. Distance learning, in schools and universities, affected the educational and professional paths with an impact on social capital similar to that on physical capital that characterized the years of the world conflict. The paper deals with the adaptive reuse of built heritage, in order to heal and empower the younger generation with services and residences for long life learning. The Sanità district in Naples, traditionally a place of health, is proposed as a pilot site where to validate the cultural and economic enhancement of urban systems, through the built heritage adaptive reuse, with the support of functional and technological innovations. The paper presents a circular model, which is gradually adapting to the changing urban environment according to the needs of young people in training. The model is able to generate new values resulting from synergies between the local community, the built environment, and new residents.