ECOLOPES

Urban areas are facing significant challenges regarding degradation of environments and ecosystems, species loss, and increased vulnerability to climate hazards, all of which impact negatively upon human health and well-being. Focusing on building envelopes can offer an effective approach to the regeneration of urban ecosystems, by providing new spatial opportunities in dense urban environments. The H2020 FET Open project ECOLOPES - ECOlogical building enveLOPES aims to develop a game-changing design approach for regenerative urban ecosystems. An Ecolope is a building envelope designed as a multi-species living space for four types of inhabitants: plants, animals, microbiota, and humans. ECOLOPES adopts a holistic multi-species approach, going beyond the provision of ecosystem services (i.e., benefits provided by nature to society and the economy). The goal is to develop the technology to plan and design urbanization with an integrated approach that addresses the requirements of the urban ecosystem. The paper presents an overview of the first steps towards this approach with focuses on data selection and integration, algorithmic modelling, and on developing an urban classification system that will be used for the project development.