Managing the existing built environment: innovation in practice

In the light of the great contribution that construction can provide for global sustainability, the existing built environment assumes substantial importance in developed countries. It actually constitutes a wide field of experimentation and application of new urban policies in cities and towns beset by newly emerging problems and questions, such as immigration, new forms of poverty, increase in elderly population, shift from material to immaterial infrastructures and networks, society’s urgent expectations concerning well-being and more generally the quality of life. Therefore, it is not only a matter of new products at any level but rather of innovative procedures and processes which can involve various actors with different roles and have significant effects on economy, environment, and society. The work described in the paper takes the scenario of action sketched above as starting point for an exploration of new ways for maintaining and managing existing building stock, focusing on innovation in processes that can succeed in meeting the requirements of all the actors involved and following Agenda 21 directions. In particular, public housing stock existing in a city is regarded as a very significant field of experimentation, considering the institutional decisional levels concerned and the model nature that public policies can assume for spreading new behaviour. A specific public housing settlement is used as case study for testing new procedures based on participation and collaboration among all actors concerned and aimed at sharing decisions which affect whole communities. Both physical and non physical aspects of maintaining and managing buildings are dealt with and special attention is paid to a key role that technology can play in the process. Thus, the paper may contribute to the major theme of performance, considering that the work presented certainly pursues the aim of building performance but also that of the built environment performance and the processes which can make them feasible and potentially successful. One of the distinguishing points of the contribution can be found in the inseparable link between construction, community and technology in order to provide possible paths towards sustainability. The main operational outcome of the work can be seen in two major issues: the construction of a decision support system and the implementation of practice, both with some contents of innovation. This can probably be considered as best practice and the related knowledge can be shared among all the people engaged in the building field