Socio-technological factors in the assessment of building conditions and development of strategies for public housing estates refurbishment in Italy

Refurbishment of the existing housing stock is a strategic objective of the Italian housing policy for the next years. This policy wants to satisfy the changing housing demand and aims to improve the quality of the housing estates. The assessment of size and condition of the large public housing estates is still the main problem for the development of the refurbishment strategies. On the other hand, the assessment procedures should give the information required to establish the feasibleness of refurbishment works considering the interdependencies between technological, commercial, environmental and social aspects. This paper presents the methodological framework of a first stage research project funded by the Ministry of Scientific Research and carried out by the University of Ferrara (Department of Architecture) and the University of Milano (Polytechnic). The research project concerns the methodological approaches to the condition assessment of buildings and building components, the technical criteria for evaluating the general condition of the housing estates, the development of procedures and tools - such as user and design guidelines, check-lists, technical instructions - for architects, owners and tenants. The research aims to define procedures and parameters to be used for estimating the housing estates condition considering the technical degradation of building components and the loss of the functional performances related to the user needs