Sinfonia - A European Project

Since 2014, Sinfonia has been bringing together local stakeholders to transform Bolzano into a smarter city. The Municipality of Bolzano, the Provincial Institute for Social Housing IPES, Alperia, CasaClima and IDM - under the direction of Eurac Research – have been collaborating to reduce emissions in certain parts of the city and, to introduce new technology for monitoring and augmenting interaction with its inhabitants.

A massive energy refurbishment of five social housing complexes (two owned by the Municipality and three owned by IPES), has changed the face of certain areas in both the Don Bosco and the Aslago Oltrisarco districts. More than 300 families are now living in more comfortable apartments with a reduced impact on the environment (energy consumption has been reduced by 40-60 percent and use of renewable energy has increased by 20 percent).

Thanks to an advanced control system that reduces energy losses by up to 5%, Alperia has not only made the city's district heating network more efficient, but also tested a more sustainable power supply system for one of the two cogeneration plants in the Alperia-Ecoplus district heating plant.

The Municipality of Bolzano has distributed a network of sensors throughout the region to collect traffic and environmental data as well as new technological tools to communicate with its citizens. The screen you are reading right now is one of them.

Sinfonia's mediation has enabled Bolzano partners to experiment with innovative procedures in redevelopment and to adopt a more integrated and long-term approach in the future of the city’s decision making.

As a European project, Sinfonia's activities have not been exclusive to Bolzano and were instigated to develop good practices in two pilot cities (Bolzano and Innsbruck), to be replicable in other parts of Europe. Five other European administrations have also been involved as "early adopters", observers ready to recreate smart transformation processes in their cities too. Over the past 6 years, Sinfonia has involved 30 partners with a total budget of over 40 million Euros.