The Project

Prologue

Situated in the north of Reggio Calabria, District X of the city, the Archi CEP neighbourhood consists of a cluster of public housing built since the 60s. It is notorious for having been the stage of the “second war of the ‘ndrangheta”, in the 80s. An event that has negatively labeled the territory and negatively “branded” thousands of honest people who, in all these years, have sought, and still seek, to revive the territory. Aiming at giving it a new face and getting the social redemption they deserve.

The Archi CEP neighbourhood

This project will start from this specific cluster of public housing, CEP, (Case Economiche Popolari), built in the 60s and will project it into the future with the “new face” of the New Polyenergetic Eco-friendly Centre, Nuovo CEP (Nuovo Centro Ecosostenibile Polienergetico).

Description

The first step of the Nuovo CEP project is to utilize the roof space of the buildings of the CEP neighbourhood for the construction of a solar park and transform the whole neighbourhood into a mini smart solar city.

The pitched roofs of these buildings are made of zinced sheets fixed on an iron structure. This in turn is fixed to a flat roof made of reinforced concrete.

The following figure highlights the roof of the concerned buildings to a total of approximately 37,500 m².

Emphasis of buildings’ roof

The particular construction of the buildings’ roof, already composed by a reinforced concrete flat roof, allows for easy and immediate installation of photovoltaic panels on either fixed or movable frames to follow the sun’s position.

Prior to the installation phase of the solar panels must be taken into account:

  • the activity of dismantling and disposal of the roof and an eventual recycling of part of the structure;
  • the activity of isolation and preparation of the flat roof;
  • the preparation of centralized television antennas and/or of a part of the flat roof dedicated to the installation of antennas for housing.

Objectives

With the implementation of the solar park, the project would like to converge objectives apparently different from each other in a single main goal. That is, to “redevelop the territory”.

Below is a list of objectives, grouped into three areas, and their return on the main objective.

Economic-Social Area

  • Give investors the “right” economic return. The widespread attitude to try and get the most out of every eurocent invested without paying any attention to the needs of the territory you are investing in is a form of looting inherent in many organizations not only in criminals. Escaping from this attitude can lay the groundwork for an advantageous and synergic growth of the territory.
  • Involve local businesses in the project. Increasing job opportunities is the first step to developing the territory as it provides dignity to individuals, self-sustenance and consequent possibilities for growth.
  • Involve local authorities and associations. Both local authorities and associations can take advantage of the nature of the project, which is strongly environmentalist and technologically advanced. This facilitates the promotion of increased respect for the environment, which expresses itself in different forms, as well as in behaviours which reflect this, i.e. energy saving. Highlighting this territory as a concrete example of positive development plants the seeds for an optimistic future.
  • Provide the inhabitants of the concerned buildings with electricity at advantageous prices. This leads to a reduction of costs and a consequent increase of the state of wellness. In addition, the work will be seen as a “common good” to be safeguard.
  • Establish processes for supplying “electricity service advantageous” for concerned buildings which also lead to a gradual regularization of housing and tenants In this way, you would address the territory towards greater awareness about the benefits of the legality according to the thesis: “be in good standing is worthwhile for me”.

Cultural, Scientific and Research Area

  • Involve the University “Mediterranea” of Reggio Calabria. To both establish relationships of national and international collaboration, and new branches of research and development, in the field of renewable energy sources, sustainable building and Smart Grids, that is, the new technology for the smart electricity distribution grid. In such perspective, the project and its implementation would be a permanent active laboratory for researchers and professors. However, more importantly it would represent a motivational drive for new generations of local students to invest in research and cultural growth. This in turn would promise job opportunities and professional growth within their own territory.
  • Plan the conversion of the territory into an smart solar city. From this project, Archi can become the Italian reality of so called solar cities such as Linz in Austria, Freiburg in Germany, and BedZED (Beddington Zero Energy) district of London in the UK. Reggio Calabria is a city with a latitude and climate favourable for realizing a solar city. In fact, the sky is clear for most of the year. In this perspective Archi and its inhabitants could be an example to follow, furthermore inhabitants would be encourage to keep up the example.
  • Plan the integration of this project with other already existing projects by studying and exploiting sources of energy other than those from the sun. For example, the Okeanos laboratory of the University “Mediterranea” of Reggio Calabria, uses the energy of the sea. The whole environment of Reggio Calabria and Messina is characterized by strong different sources of renewable energy sources that can be studied and exploited: the constancy of the sun, the force of the sea, known in ancient Greece as Scilla (the wave energy on the coast) and Charybdis (the energy of the currents); the pervasiveness of the wind (which can be exploited in a distributed manner with vertical axis wind turbines). This integration, together with new studies in sustainable architecture, could lay the groundwork for the creation of a National and International Research Centre for Renewable Energies and bring the two cities of the “heart of the Mediterranean”, Reggio Calabria and Messina, to be a national and international landmark in renewable energy and sustainable architecture.

Touristic Area

  • Tourist business. The smart solar city, the use of solar energy combined with other forms of energy, the national and international attention to this reality, would give positive prominence to the territory. You can use this prominence to increase tourism, providing fertile ground for the tourist industry and environmental entrepreneurship.
  • Light art. Recalling the characteristics of the type of energy used, a new kind of art can arise. Artistic high schools and Academies of the Fine Arts could teach light art and lay the foundations for new international professions. Special lighting effects and the play of light (e.g. through neon, LED, low-power laser, etc.) can become a futuristic attraction and so strengthen the touristic business.

Conclusions

The purpose of this project is to involve all possible stakeholders in a project which goes beyond the project itself, in order to assess the possibility of the realization.

In this perspective, the construction of the solar park on the roofs of the neighborhood CEP is at the heart of the project of which have to be detailed interventions and accounted for the costs and economic returns, but his motivational main objective is to “redevelop the territory” and its raison d’être in the objectives already set out for the reaching of the main objective.