364
O. E. Bellini
1 A New Strategy to Build In and On the Built
We are an extraordinary and beautiful country but at the same time very fragile. [The landscape is fragile and Cities are fragile, especially suburbs where no one has spent time and
money to maintain them. But it is precisely the suburbs that are the city of the future, […]
one that we will bequeath to our children. We need to carry out a monumental project of
“mending” and we need ideas. (Piano 2014)
This important statement by the Italian architect Renzo Piano underlines the strategic importance of intervening in the obsolete construction of our suburbs and introduces the imperative and need to put forward new ideas to pursue the objective now
recognized on the political, economic and disciplinary level to intervene in the built
environment
1 (Murie et al. 2003).
Few are the designers who have the skills and professionalism to know what to
do about the enormous, at least in terms of size, built heritage present in these realities starting from the great real estate assets, such as public housing. This enormous
building heredity, which dates back to the second post-war period, now constitutes a
significant part of our suburbs in terms of quantity, and it must be “adjusted”, in line
with a much needed responsible initiative.
2 This paper describes a pragmatic proposal for the redesign of post-Second World War buildings based on the most recent
international experiences and provides an operational instrument for the “integrated”
and “adaptive” redevelopment of built environments: on a structural, technological,
typological, morphological, functional, performance, economic and social level of
social housing real estate.
3
2 Integrated Design in Social Housing: Looking for a New
Balance
According to scientific literature, there are different ways of intervening on built
environments without resorting to demolition. These methods can be traced back
to key attitudes, which must absolutely be integrated with one another, so that the
1 In 2017, the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture—Mies Van der Rohe Award
was awarded to a Dutch project for the renovation and rental of a social housing building. The
award was given to NL Architects, XVW Architecture kleinburg DeFlat, Amsterdam, 2013–2016.
Although in Italy social housing is less developed than in other European countries, it still represents
a far from negligible asset with performance deficits that are largely the same as those of private
assets. This means the study field should extend to include the entire housing sector.
2 Building rehabilitation projects are interventions to create new dwelling habits, new uses, new
functions and new aesthetic and architecture solutions.
3 The European Committee for the Promotion of Housing Rights considers social housing as services
provision for those without access to the housing market in order to reinforce their position within
the community. It is possible to associate the term “social housing” with the public housing sector.
O. E. Bellini
1 A New Strategy to Build In and On the Built
We are an extraordinary and beautiful country but at the same time very fragile. [The landscape is fragile and Cities are fragile, especially suburbs where no one has spent time and
money to maintain them. But it is precisely the suburbs that are the city of the future, […]
one that we will bequeath to our children. We need to carry out a monumental project of
“mending” and we need ideas. (Piano 2014)
This important statement by the Italian architect Renzo Piano underlines the strategic importance of intervening in the obsolete construction of our suburbs and introduces the imperative and need to put forward new ideas to pursue the objective now
recognized on the political, economic and disciplinary level to intervene in the built
environment
1 (Murie et al. 2003).
Few are the designers who have the skills and professionalism to know what to
do about the enormous, at least in terms of size, built heritage present in these realities starting from the great real estate assets, such as public housing. This enormous
building heredity, which dates back to the second post-war period, now constitutes a
significant part of our suburbs in terms of quantity, and it must be “adjusted”, in line
with a much needed responsible initiative.
2 This paper describes a pragmatic proposal for the redesign of post-Second World War buildings based on the most recent
international experiences and provides an operational instrument for the “integrated”
and “adaptive” redevelopment of built environments: on a structural, technological,
typological, morphological, functional, performance, economic and social level of
social housing real estate.
3
2 Integrated Design in Social Housing: Looking for a New
Balance
According to scientific literature, there are different ways of intervening on built
environments without resorting to demolition. These methods can be traced back
to key attitudes, which must absolutely be integrated with one another, so that the
1 In 2017, the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture—Mies Van der Rohe Award
was awarded to a Dutch project for the renovation and rental of a social housing building. The
award was given to NL Architects, XVW Architecture kleinburg DeFlat, Amsterdam, 2013–2016.
Although in Italy social housing is less developed than in other European countries, it still represents
a far from negligible asset with performance deficits that are largely the same as those of private
assets. This means the study field should extend to include the entire housing sector.
2 Building rehabilitation projects are interventions to create new dwelling habits, new uses, new
functions and new aesthetic and architecture solutions.
3 The European Committee for the Promotion of Housing Rights considers social housing as services
provision for those without access to the housing market in order to reinforce their position within
the community. It is possible to associate the term “social housing” with the public housing sector.