After disasters — such as the study case considered: the 2009 L’Aquila earthquake — there is a need to understand how to deal with reconstruction and how to manage the social and economic regeneration of the city and territory. The discussion presented and carried out within the Multidisciplinary Research Programme Architecture de la Grande Echelle (AGE) set up by BRAUP and PUCA, and coordinated by Nicoletta Trasi of the Faculty of Architecture of Rome Sapienza, set this objective with the aim of ensuring the ‘overall sustainability’ of the intervention. Research is based on the idea that reconstruction can assert itself as an opportunity for real sustainability, of course both social, economic, seismic and bioclimatic. The sustainability of cities similar to L’Aquila and many others around the world, hit by disasters of all kinds and entities, requires a deep reflection on the “way” to address these challenges that we are increasingly facing with nature