Mass housing in transition: innovability in large-scale housing complexes

‘Mass housing’ has a very controversial heritage, often associated with policies of transformation that do not pay respect to characteristics or value. Additionally, they are frequently under market pressures that promote its demolition. This paper aims to highlight mass housing as having a special heritage that represents new visions and cultural values to be preserved. Mass housing could represent an explorative field for innovation and sustainability, leading cities towards energy transition. The topic is addressed through theoretical and critical observations on mass housing and its legacy in the contemporary, and through comments on project solutions concerning transformation strategies. In conclusion, the research showed an urban design solution utilizing the transformation of open spaces in a mass housing neighborhood near Naples (south Italy). The project converts empty and abandoned areas within the neighborhood into a new agro-urban landscape crossed by pedestrian and bicycle paths and surrounded by small rest areas where people can sit and enjoy the landscape and panoramic views. The project combines paths of innovation and sustainability to increase the urban quality of the district with the aim of supporting the recognition of mass housing as having a special heritage, including material integrity and inherent value, involved in the process of transformation that needs to be preserved.