Adaptation to new requirements in residential buildings. Possibilities, performances and innovations of gypsum plasterboards

The paper deals with a study carried on by a group of researchers of Polytechnic of Milan in collaboration with BPB ITALIA. and with the support of apprentices coming from architectural degree courses. The study starts from the observations of several phenomena in Italian society and consequently in residential building industry, such as: -important processes of renovation are regarding residential real estates, due to the ageing of buildings [CRESME, 2005][EUROCONSTRUCT,2005]; -the residential market (sell or buy) has been growing very much in these last years, and consequently refurbishing activities (see main Italian building market studies); -composition and characteristics of families are changing in a significant way, causing changes in the needs of spaces, in the forms of living in home and in the functions related to residential activities [ISTAT, 2002]; -obsolescence of existing equipment and the increasing presence of information and communication technologies inside residential building; -users are becoming more conscious, expressing quality requirements and increasing needs of personalization of their home. Considering the effects of these changing scenario from the point of view of residential buildings, it is possible to state that new requirements are emerging either for living and using the home and for the works execution: possibilities to change easily the space organization; to be fast in interior renovation and refurbishing works; to minimize demolition works for reasons of time, money and environmental sustainability; to maintain and to renovate equipments quickly, etc. It is therefore possible to think that from these aspects a potential demand rises, regarding dryassembled components for interior spaces in residential buildings, even if in Italy some problems are still present in architects’ and in users’ perception. Starting from these considerations, the study has the aim to investigate the possibilities for a wide diffusion of dry-assembled gypsum plaster boards also in residential buildings, by considering three different levels of observations and actions.