Abstract

Sustainability today is of central importance in the development of territories and better exploitation of its resources, not only in terms of ecology, but also to the development of economic and social models with the necessary dynamism to overcome the economic crisis that apparently won a international dimension and in which the cultural component often remains ignored.
Given the scenario of the imminence of a multi-pronged crisis on the planet, where the current systems of production, distribution and consumption have led us, the challenge has been set for the various decision-making bodies to preserve the resilience of their territories to environmental aggression, present and future.
Rurality has often lost those characteristics that made it viable as territory that is appropriable and exploitable by man, but still has potential to be reconfigured, on the one hand, to receive new inhabitants and sustainable forms of occupation, and on the other to re-invigorate soil's productive capacity and the use of natural and cultural capital in different economic activities.
For all this, it is pertinent to invest in sustainable modes of intervention in the territory, which may be constituted as foundations, not only promoting a green economy based on a new rurality, but also the appreciation in all its aspects, from the environment to regions' natural and cultural capital, which could become the incubator for pilot projects.
The Municipality of Mafra, with its recognized natural, social and cultural values, can benefit from an investment in broad and multidisciplinary models of sustainability, which can be assumed as one of the fundamental values of the municipality, projecting itself as an international reference.
Facing architecture, not only as a capacity to produce the constructed devices that constitute the physical environment of the human habitat, but also of the subsistence and production systems associated with them, SUSTENTA is available to contribute scientifically to the foundation of a design, planning and territory management practice, in the following areas:

1. consideration of environmental aspects in relation to living culture;

2. study of knowledge and construction techniques with a lower environmental impact;

3. development of the concept of "sustainable project" as a methodology for the planning and appropriation of habitable space according to principles of cultural, economic and environmental preservation and enhancement.