Building rehabilitation, sustainable development, and rural settlements: a contribution to the state of the art

Abstract

The quality of life in rural housing settlements is at the heart of territorial cohesion concerns across Europe and the United Nations’ sustainable development goals. However, the gap between urban and rural developments remains substantial, stressing the need to adopt integrated approaches for rural territories. These approaches should include heritage preservation strategies as a priority. Vernacular constructions integrate rural built heritage and comprise a sustainable response of communities in territories, stressing the pertinence of its rehabilitation. The aim of this paper is to raise awareness of this issue through a scoping review since it lacks general frameworks that may contribute towards perceiving rural territories and their constructions as catalysts of territorial cohesion and sustainable development. As a main goal, we provide insights on sustainable development and its importance in the global and European contexts, as well as the role of building rehabilitation towards its three dimensions—environmental, social, and economic. Additionally, the impact of rural settlements on territorial cohesion and global sustainability is stressed, and vernacular construction is highlighted as a component of rural heritage.