Vol. 29 No. 1 (2025): BEYOND DECARBONIZATION toward a Climate Neutral urban environment
Essays and Viewpoint

Productive housing for self-sufficient communities

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  • Paolo Cascone,
  • Maddalena Laddaga,
  • Filippo Orsini
Paolo Cascone
School Architecture and Cities, University of Westminster, London, United Kingdom
Maddalena Laddaga
Dipartimento di Architettura e Studi Urbani, Politecnico di Milano, Italia
Filippo Orsini
Dipartimento di Architettura e Studi Urbani, Politecnico di Milano, Italia
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/techne-16672

Published 2025-07-31

Keywords

  • energy-sufficiency,
  • decarbonisation,
  • vertical farm,
  • collective housing,
  • energy/food production

How to Cite

Cascone, P., Laddaga, M., & Orsini, F. (2025). Productive housing for self-sufficient communities. TECHNE - Journal of Technology for Architecture and Environment, 29(1), 89–99. https://doi.org/10.36253/techne-16672

Copyright (c) 2025 Paolo Cascone, Maddalena Laddaga, Filippo Orsini

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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Abstract

Due to the consequences of climate change and the Ukrainian conflict, nearly 42 million people across Europe could not afford to heat their homes properly in 2022. Beyond the political debate on the energy price cap, as recently suggested in the European Green Deal project, refurbished and new sustainable buildings in the EU will need to pave the way for a clean and affordable energy system. The paper will focus on a scientific design methodology based on a comparative analysis of case studies in the field of self-sufficiency, energy and food production in collective housing. The theoretical frame is based on a diachronic vision of relations between energy, food, architecture, and its production chains as drivers for innovative and integrated design processes. This also aims to develop alternative economic models where communities could become more accountable, share resources, and self-produce their energy and food, shifting their role from consumers to producers.

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