The disappearance of kilometers of railways that once structured their surrounding territory has become an alarming issue in the last decades. These days, several disused railway infrastructures have been converted into non-motorized transport infrastructures. Meanwhile, most of the railway nodes have been abandoned or reused without consideration of the linear infrastructure. This paper argues that former railway nodes can have potential in their surrounding environment and as part of a non-motorized transport axis, i.e., to again be nodes of the former linear infrastructure. Accordingly, the objective of the paper is to analyze the potential of disused railway nodes, focusing on the possibilities they could offer in the area, and defining future approaches for more sustainable development. For that purpose, relations between former railway nodes and their surrounding environment are studied considering transport and land use in the non-motorized influence areas. Existing node/place models were adapted and a multiaxial model was created to measure the balance between transport and land use and typify the defined area. The proposed methodology was applied in a case study, classifying node areas in different development typologies that will be related to different future approaches.

Social housing users are generally more vulnerable due to age and socioeconomic conditions and have to deal with specific problems related to vulnerability to poor indoor environment exposure. The current housing model does not respond to the diversity of family structures and their needs, and it is, therefore, essential to integrate residents’ perspectives into the process of improving their quality of life, health and comfort. This study aims to analyse the factors that influence the perceived Indoor Environmental Quality and comfort of public rental housing. It also aims to study occupants’ perceived comfort in relation to the characteristics of the dwellings. To achieve the objective of the study, a multifactorial approach has been applied to a sample of 283 dwellings in 16 buildings of the public rental stock in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, Spain, with data obtained in a survey conducted in the winter. The analysis of the incident variables in the perceived indoor environment supports the idea of the influence of occupants’ perspectives and the subjectivity of their responses in the comfort analyses and provides new insight into the relationship between the physical characteristics of social housing and households’ perceived comfort.

There is extensive scientific evidence showing that the characteristics of the urban and residential environment directly affect people’s quality of life and health. In this framework, numerous building renovation policies have been developed in Europe, mainly focused on improving energy efficiency. However, we are dealing with a multifactorial and multicausal phenomenon of a complex system where competent institutions need quantitative diagnosis mechanisms that consider this holistic vision when making decisions and prioritizing interventions. Regarding this, the present research develops the potential of the multi-criteria methodology in a first proposal, which integrates social, energy, environmental and spatial aspects linked to the relationship between housing and the effects on the health of its inhabitants. It is a multidimensional method based on systematized and exportable vulnerability indices, which applies indicators that have been calculated using cadastral data and a typomorphological characterization of the residential stock. The analysis of the results through geostatistical techniques of autocorrelation and clustering applied to the case study of Donostia-San Sebastián shows that the proposed methodology is effective in achieving the objectives set. The associated GIS tool has proved to be agile and replicable.

Due to the current climate situation, it is necessary to apply new methods that support environmental, social, and energy challenges to respond to global emergencies. In this regard, Living Labs have increased their popularity as a strategic tool to promote innovation from the local level and proximity. This study aims to detect the patterns, trends, and coherence of the so-called Living Labs. For this purpose, a characterisation of Living Labs has been undertaken that focuses on energy, environmental, and social issues in Europe to support urban transition. It concludes that Living Labs do not have a single solution. They are highly influenced by the current European trends and promoted topics. They can be multi-dimensional (digital and physical), multi-scale (from small, such as the product, to large, such as the territory) and multi-purpose. It is determined that there is an absence of working in real-life environments and some of the Living Lab’s principles. Among the topics, the most common ones are social inclusion, environment, energy, health, and IoT. The implemented scale in a building and the product on the application scale are the most frequent ones. Urban Living Labs are identified as a niche opportunity because of their low current development.