Integrated Design Strategies for Refurbishment of Large Social Housing, Complexes in European Suburbs

The decay of urban suburbs asks for integrated measures for the refurbishment of the existing building stock, overall of the residential building stock built after the Second World War which characterizes wide areas of the European territory outside the historical centre of large cities. The evident conditions of obsolescence of those buildings point out the need of refurbishment measures considering at the same level and at the same time function and performance requirements. The upgrade of spatial quality and life conditions must go hand in hand with energy efficiency and resource savings. In Europe, the concept of energy efficiency is getting significance, due to the clear regulatory framework at European and national level. Another important issue supporting the importance of sustainable and energy-efficient refurbishment is the reduction of depletion of resources: the extension of materials’ life-cycle could be obtained by promoting the extension of life expectancy in buildings, i.e. by means of conversion/transformation of existing buildings instead of new construction. As the largest part of the embodied energy is in the load-bearing structure, the refurbishment of existing building enable further use of load-bearing structure and a great potential for resource and energy savings. This paper describes the strategies to deal with the refurbishment of large social housing complexes following an integrated design approach. Three case studies, located in three European big cities (Rome, Paris and Milan), show the relevance of a global, integral process involving urban-planning, functional and architectural issues related to energy savings. They are three building complexes built in the 20th century with precast concrete panels. Taking into account the architectural, technical and morphological features of the existing buildings, light and reversible technologies are adopted to improve envelope energy performances and make building extensions. On the urban-planning level, the increased density of site through additional storeys, building addition or extension is a measure that makes better use of developed land and also offers energy savings. The Structure/Envelope technologies enable optimum performances, time and site operations rationalization and cost savings adaptability to future changes.