Architecture and civic engagement, an ethical balance between social, architectural, structural, and energy issues in the redevelopment of existing building stock

Contemporary architectural criticism is characterised by a dichotomy that could be described as ethical in nature. On the one hand, that of believing that architecture is limited to the physical dimension of the building. On the other, that of understanding architecture as an expressly media event, separated from reasons of physicality. This requires a rethinking of the role of architecture, of a discipline that, to preserve its scientific status, is able to understand the new demands of cultural and technical interdisciplinarity that characterise the contemporary context. The design practice of AdESA (Adeguamento Energetico, Sismico e Architettonico - Energy, Seismic and Architectural Adjustment) stems from these concepts. A path that is linked to the analysis of the building's function, its genesis and history. The city, the context and the social aspects of a place are an indispensable setting for choices, through multidisciplinary contributions, that are certainly part of technical choices but, at the same time, a synthesis of them in the public service. The case of the Don Milani Gym in the Villaggio Badia in Brescia, where the AdESA project was realised, allowed us to enter into the life of the neighbourhood and, through architecture, to generate new relationships, gathering spaces and community dynamics. In doing so, architecture has once again assumed a pivotal role in the design process between the demands of a technical nature and those of responsibility, in terms of social and environmental sustainability.