The essay discusses on the topic of sustainable housing in Mediterranean region through the testing of an architectural design process based on raw materials optimization, technicalconstructive components standardization, and simplification of procedures for assembly and the yard control. The aim is to pursue an idea of housing with high environmental, social and economic compatibility. Hence the birth of a housing prototype that by adopting a and is able to obtain a high housing flexibility and solve a wide spectrum of environmental conditions, from those of building of isolated spaces to those of urban clogging or edification of residential blocks. These are some aspects of the international patent (PCT/IB2013/000830) of the Polytechnic of Bari on the new building construction system "Nexus: Earthquake-proof Self-supporting "dry" construction system composed by environmentally sustainable, stratified and selfclinching blocks".

In such a difficult historical moment, as the one Syria is living nowadays, the narration of Hama, the fortress Hamath, a town troubled by destructions and tragic events, wants to be a hymn to the beauty of the hidden places of the Mediterranean area. Hama is the town of “norias”, huge hydraulic wheels dating back to the Seleucid period, raised the Orontes water and directed it, through appropriate air ducts, to the houses of the town and to the fields; it is historically lived maintaining an extraordinary balance in the connection between town and nature and witnessing through its extraordinary architecture, a glorious past. In this context the Polytechnic of Bari carried out its activity, cooperating with the Syrian territory through different programs aiming at the analysis of the territories and the understanding of the connections between cities and territory and the promotion of actions of development and regional cooperation among Foreign Ministry and the local towns.

Il paesaggio della costa ugentina è particolarmente suggestivo: una folta fascia a pineta si protende fin sulla spiaggia di sabbia fine e bianca; basse dune rigogliose di macchia mediterranea arrivano fin quasi a lambire il mare. In questo contesto grandi canali e bacini idrici occupano un’area in passato paludosa. Questo ambiente è ormai a forte rischio di estinzione. Il caso studio del territorio di Ugento è, in tal senso, emblematico, in quanto caratterizzato da un alto livello di pressione antropica e fragilità ambientale ma anche da una grande diversità ecologica. In questo contesto si colloca la ricerca progettuale svolta sul territorio di Ugento attraverso Progetti Europei (INTERREG III_A_Wet Sys B) e programmi di ricerca orientati alla definizione di un metodo di controllo e progettazione del paesaggio successivamente applicato alla progettazione del Parco Regionale Litorale Costiero di Ugento e del paesaggio urbano costiero.

Made famous by its relation with the river Orontes, Hama has kept for a long time the immense heritage of history and architecture which characterized one of the most interesting urban realities of Syria. In such a difficult historical moment, as the one Syria is living nowadays, the narration of Hama, the fortress Hamath, a town troubled by destructions and tragic events, wants to be a hymn to the beauty of the hidden places of the Mediterranean area. Hama is the town of “norias”, huge hydraulic wheels dating back to the Seleucid period. They raised the Orontes water and directed it, through appropriate ducts, to the houses of the town and to the fields; the town is historically lived maintaining an extraordinary balance in the connection between town and nature and witnessing through its extraordinary architecture, a glorious past. Among the different influences from the past of this city, particular attention should be paid to the Ottoman period. During this phase the city, extremely rich, comes out from its historic core and entrusts to posterity its greatness exalting the solemn image of its buildings and bringing to full maturity the traditional type of "courtyard house," so that it becomes "Borghese Palace ".

The area of study of this piece of writing is the one that delimits the low plain of Neretva. This area affects the Croatian region crossing Metković and the settlement of Opuzen (that rules the well-watered plain of the Neretva delta) that flows into the Adriatic sea near Ploče, whose port controls a wide internal canyon of the Adriatic basin, where the islands of Hvar (Lesina) and Korcula and the peninsula of Peljesac overlook. The writing talks about the relation between a territory and a specific identity and shape of the anthropic space. Here, the rural space, intended as a place of production – of agriculture as sheep farming - and as urban space - composed of villages and scattered settlements – is the direct manifestation of the deep interaction of the architectural space with the environmental structure, with the conditions of use of the territory and the living rules of the inhabitants. All this talks about a specific way of interpreting the places (with their raw materials and geographical features), but also about a particular technical knowledge, grown through a complex historical and cultural evolution. This condition becomes particularly complex and rich of places like these that, for their geographical position and environmental characterization, can be considered all along, real “middle earth”. Places in which different cultures and histories meet; where the boundaries among ethnic groups, civilizations, different identities overlap and mix, generating an environmental and cultural cohesion extremely variegated and, anyway, capable of reaching an extraordinary balance. Thus, the territory of the low plain of Neretva seems, in the first place, having forgot the deep contribution given to the building of this territory by the Roman civilization. The attention of the Roman civilization to the building of the urban and country landscape left in these places a witness that in the course of centuries, identified with the deepest meaning of these places and that the current logics of the development can not see and risk to erase definitively. The aim of this study is, thus, to demonstrate how the concept of sustainability of architecture is not in the research of architectural shapes and urban, economic and cultural solutions, internationally recognizable but, on the contrary, in the discovery of those historical and cultural identities that better optimize the material, social and economic resources of a territory and that the history of these places continues to communicate with its shapes and traditions.

If in other geographical contexts, sustainability is an aspiration, in the oasis it is essential to survive. In this context, the dialectic man-soil is a fight, that does not require titanic interventions, but daily adjustments to compensate the challenges of nature. When the sand advances, the daily maintenance brings it back over the barriers. The big interventions of modernization, set out by the burocrats of the far capital, although spurred on by good intentions, seriously damage the oases. For example, the introduction in modern times of deep forage devastates the balance of the oases, producing a huge quantity of sewage, that collected in the low areas, has increased the saltiness of the soil, taking away hectares of precious agricultural lands. On the contrary, the interventions on a small scale, carried out with a adeguate knowledge of the context, are the only solution for the oases. So, sustainability is not considered as highly wasteful technological acrobatics to compensate wrong planning actions or the adoption of improper materials, but it is considered as development related to the real needs following the principle of maximum efficiency and complete metabolization of current technologies, before introducing a more advanced one. The use of natural materials such as land, rock, brick and wood are a good encouragement for a sustainable architecture. This is what the Politecnico of Bari tried to do in this study about the hill of Shali, in Siwa oasis, within the “Regional Cooperation Support Program” - APQ (Framework Program Agreement) South Mediterranean Area – Line 2.4 DIALOGUE AND CULTURE- Integrated project DIARCHEO - SUB-PROJECT SIWA Guided by a solid scientific method, that dates back to the teaching of the typological school, we have first of all analyzed with manual and topographical measurements the building structures of the settlement, conscious that the time spent in the survey allows a habit with the structure, that exceeds the impressionistic analyses. According to the continuity with history, the following process has worked either in the open and abandoned spaces after numerous collapses, with the aim of sewing up and restitch the building fabric, or in the building structures, proposing, in some cases, a scientific restoration with traditional techniques and materials, as in the case of the mosque, or the reutilization and rehabilitation of the houses, in respect of the functions and the local building traditions. The integrations with new building units have imposed the use of typologies coherent with the previous ones, but with the introduction of some innovative aspects, in order to respond to the requirements of society. The choice of using the karsheef cannot help being tempted to consider some shortcuts, represented by some modern, disguised and “antiqued” technologies in reinforced concrete, has imposed a scientific research on the properties of this material, that revealed very efficient responses to t

At the end of '800, Italy became a new nation and timidly trying to build its own national identity. It will confront immediately with the need for expansion of the cities, just gone beyond the bounds of its city walls. Thus opens the way for that fervent period, rich in architectural and urban experimentation that, starting from the end of the '20s will infect the Italy and many Mediterranean countries. The main Italian coastal cities which until then had experienced the relationship with the sea in terms of defense and protection, almost to the point to deny it, by this time become places of a strong expressive research based on the ability to build a new relationship with the water. The image of a large new urban unit, visible by those who come and watch the city from the sea, becomes a new, specific, cultural and expressive choice. It was born in these terms the urban theme of the "lungomare", the picture frame in which the Italian cities built their monumental and scenographic image toward the sea. The "lungomare" thus becomes for the Italian architectural experimentation, especially during the Fascist period, a manifesto of national identity; a new vehicle of communication, necessary to symbolize the power (especially in the cities of southern Italy), and steer the Italian colonial policy towards other Mediterranean regions. In this perspective, we can interpret the experiences of lungomare of cities such as Bari and Taranto in Apulia Region, but also the contemporaneous and very often similar experiences of Tripoli and Benghazi, in the Libyan colony.

A modular, self-supporting structural element for house building construction is described, which is provided whit mechanical constraining means for the dry mutual connection with at least one second modular structural element. The modular structural element has a variable density along at least one reference direction. A building structure comprising a plurality of structural elements which are constrained to each other by said constraining means and a process for the construction of the building structure are also described.

The Netflix block has been designed to solve a wide range of issues related to the division and articulation of interior spaces for residential purposes (temporary housing, highly flexible dwellings, rented houses, ...) and commercial (store, event areas, commercial centers, ...).  Its lightness, ease of handling and ease of assembly ensure rapid installation and flexibility of use for living and furniture spaces.  The guiding philosophy of the block is to ensure a high degree of flexibility in everyday living spaces, guaranteeing acoustic, structural (self-porting and fixing of furniture, wall hangings, etc.) and techniques properties (possibility to host installations) comparable to a traditional masonry, for the walls and elements of division resulting from it. The Netflix system provides several important benefits:  Easy assembly and dismantling of partition walls in self-construction and without the support of any kind of construction equipment, with height varying from the floor  Possibility of individual blocks to be anchored to each other by means of specific mechanical hooks that solidify the wall making it uniform and self-supporting  Possibility of the block and the wall to accommodate the plants thanks to the provision of special cavities and trenches  Possibility of disassembling and re-assembling the same walls at a later stage for obtaining distinct spatial and environmental solutions  Possibility of quick assembly and removal of the finishing surfaces of the blocks and walls.  Possibility of inserting doors and windows into the walls thus obtained  Possibility of interchangeability of the finishes or their partial replacement to obtain different decorative effects within a few minutes  Possibility to use the Netflix Block for basic furniture solutions such as kitchen environments, for the construction of recessed furniture and work surfaces or furniture solutions such as open bookcases, cupboards, .... These features make the product highly appealing to the interior design market, for designing versatile living spaces where it is easy and quick to re-divide spaces and, above all, for commercial, cultural and creative spaces in which requires strong creativity, transformability and high versatility of space in time.