The role of vegetation in improving building surroundings in urban regeneration processes: a case study

Abstract

This article presents the partial results of more extensive research on the urban regeneration of neighborhoods entitled,
“Replicable and innovative future ef cient districts and cities” (CITyFiED). Speci cally, this paper discusses the possibility of
ecologically improving building surroundings through vegetation and the primary aim is to develop an overall treatment strategy
for the surroundings of buildings that are in the process of urban improvement. To this end, the paper addresses the rst stage in
which the environmental bene ts of vegetation were analyzed, and presents universal and generalizable parameters and criteria
about the sustainable treatment of free space in neighborhoods. In the second stage, these parameters were applied to a speci c
case: the Torrelago neighborhood, located in the town of Laguna de Duero (Valladolid, Spain). Thus, the main preliminary 103 conclusion of this research is that the treatment of the free space that surrounds buildings plays a determining role in urban sustainability.