Renovation Wave in Europe: Low-Carbon Design for the Refurbishment of Social Housing in Southern Italy

Abstract

The public housing stock, called social housing, in Italy was developed between the 1950s and the 1980s. As of today, the first residential developments are almost nearing their end-of-life age and are in need of urgent and intensive renovation. The European Commission, with the Renovation Wave, has set a goal of doubling the rate of building renovation over the next 10 years, reducing emissions, improving energy performance, and promoting decarburization. Renovation interventions, including structural, functional, energy, and plant upgrading interventions, etc., are to be preferred over integral demolition and reconstruction interventions, which have significant repercussions in terms of managerial and social discomfort. The case studies examined concern renovation interventions aimed at energy efficiency, functional adaptation of housing, as well as façade restyling. The design variants analyzed were evaluated in terms of CO2e emissions, according to life cycle inventory (LCI) and Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) approaches. This approach has a twofold purpose: to propose design guidelines, with low CO2e emissions, through hypotheses of variants in the case studies, and to propose, to the economic operators, economically advantageous bidding scenarios in the procurement process.