The residential heritage that was built during the great expansion of real estate after the Second World War has severe deficiencies in structural safety, fire resistance, energy efficiency, and accessibility and these cannot be solved with sustainable renovation measures. This study focuses on replacement interventions and promotes a management model that addresses three areas (technical, social, and economic) and it refers to the application of the circularity principle to the construction sector for the goal of climate neutrality by 2050. The final objective is to define a protocol—namely, the guidelines—to reference in a decision-making process that promotes urban regeneration by comparing demolition with reconstruction and renovation. The proposed methodology allows for the determination of suitable areas in Bologna for replacement and the joining of the municipal geodatabase with data from archival research on building permits in 1949–1965 by using GIS software. This digital archive can be implemented in a digital twin for an urban block, which can become a predictive tool for urban planning and the management of the whole life of a building. The main result is the characterization of urban blocks by identifying typical features belonging to specific building libraries that are validated with density analyses. These urban clusters and building archetypes can be used to assess targeted intervention measures by using specific tools, such as predictive maps and 3D city models.

Depopulation has become a significant issue for local culture and built heritage conservation of many European rural areas. In San Giovanni Lipioni, a province of Chieti (Italy), this phenomenon has increased to the point that, nowadays, there are only 150 inhabitants and no significant economic activities. In this regard, the present paper aims to describe the crucial role of nature-oriented tourism in an economic, social, and revitalization strategy; how digital tools can be used to map and create a territorial trail system between municipalities; and, finally, outline the operations necessary for reactivation. The proposed methodology consists of a first digital survey phase using GPS receivers and outdoor navigation apps. The second phase would create a web platform with a system of virtual itineraries between villages, named “The Golden Leaves Paths”. After that, the last phase concerns the creation of analysis factsheets to guide the maintenance of paths and the design of iconic signage with artistic illustrations based on the oak leaves leitmotif to be installed along the paths. A local social promotion association will employ the outcomes, technical drawings, and strategies to reactivate paths as an attractive element for nature-oriented tourism and create a digital platform to foster the village’s territorial and cultural heritage.

The Italian residential building stock consists of 12.2 million buildings, with 7.2 constructed post-World War II during the economic boom. These structures were designed without specific regulations for seismic safety, fire resistance, and energy efficiency, and today lies the current state of strong obsolescence. Therefore, energy refurbishment may not always be the best cost/benefit solution due to these intrinsic issues. Consequently, the transition to construction systems based on circular economy principles brings new opportunities and becomes key to proposing replacement interventions for this heritage. This paper presents a comparative GIS-based bottom-up approach to evaluate the lifecycle impact of residential building blocks, encompassing energy, environmental, and economic aspects. Two tools are introduced: one for measuring energy consumption and the other for quantifying the quantities of materials stored in buildings. This methodology permits comparing the new circular buildings and different refurbishment scenarios to identify the most suitable solution from an environmental impact and financial point of view. The application of a case study, a residential urban block in Bologna, built in 1945–1965, highlights how the demolition and reconstruction scenario based on circular economy principles presents the lowest environmental impacts and is economically competitive compared to standard deep renovation techniques.

Situated in the province of Chieti, Italy, San Giovanni Lipioni is a representative case of depopulation, mirroring the challenges numerous rural areas across Europe face. In this regard, the present paper describes the activities of a four-year research project in collaboration with a territorial promotion association and a local action group (LAG) aimed at fostering the sustainable development of the territory, focusing on nature-based tourism, digital-based communication and activation strategies, and the preservation of built heritage. A multidisciplinary approach is employed, delving into three distinct levels, as follows: (i) a comprehensive analysis of the built heritage and the tangible and intangible culture; (ii) the activation of the nature hiking trails between surrounding municipalities; and (iii) an exploration of digital communication strategies for tourism promotion and territorial reactivation.

The development of existing technologies and the emergence of new technologies aiming at the total decarbonization of the buildings sector by 2050 requires and encourages upskilling and reskilling of existing professionals as well as the development of new subjects from higher education courses to be able to respond to the demands of these challenges. In responding to those challenges, the main objective of the research is to design, implement, and evaluate a novel, integrated, and transnational educational approach aimed at equipping professionals and students in the construction sector with the necessary skills to achieve sustainable and energy-efficient buildings. This study aligns with the European Union’s 2050 decarbonization goals by developing innovative methodologies that address the multidisciplinary challenges of sustainable building design, operation, and renovation. The proposed educational approach was developed in the framework of an Erasmus+ project entitled “Training for Sustainable and Healthy Building for 2050 (BUILD2050)”. Six higher education institutions from five European countries joined forces to create transversal skills in the building sector knowledge for emerging challenges through an integrated training composed of eight training courses for students and professionals of the construction area. In this work, the pedagogical approach used to develop the course contents, curricular development issues, technology, and infrastructure, as well as student support, the results obtained from the evaluation carried out after the pilot training of the eight training courses, and best practices and lessons learned, are presented and discussed. The courses’ learning objectives, the learning material, and the assessment activities were well-accomplished. However, based on the feedback of students and teachers, some improvements for future editions of the courses are required.

The building sector accounts for approximately 40% of energy consumption and 36% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Renovation and reconstruction are two of the main strategies to mitigate the energy use of existing building heritage and take action at the urban scale. Starting from GIS data concerning an Italian case study of the second half of the 20th century, a scenario-based analysis approach was taken to evaluate the energy savings of seven different renovation and reconstruction scenarios. The proposed methodology combines the municipal geodatabase with a building database of a specific period from archival research on building permits. Subsequently, data processing in Grasshopper allows the semi-automatically transforming of the 2D GIS geometric polygons into 3D models characterized by proper morphology, approximate window accuracy and construction information. In this way, building elements featured by material parameters (density, thermal conductivity, etc.) are used inside the two environmental analysis plugins, Ladybug and Honeybee (Ladybug Tools LLC), to achieve the building block energy modelling. The thermal model provides the energy consumption of the existing residential block and simulates the renovation and reconstruction scenarios. These findings are employed as part of a decision-making urban regeneration platform that compares demolition with reconstruction and renovation, considering economic, social, structural safety, obsolescence, and environmental aspects.