COLD-FORMED STEEL A HISTORICAL ANALYSIS IN ORDER TO IDENTIFY NEW BUILDING PROCESSES FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF SOCIAL HOUSING

The innovations of Architectural Technologies enable a reflection on the means, goals, capabilities, limitations, and results of the actions regarding the development of housing. The proposed paper analyzes the evolution of Cold-Formed Steel. A construction system which in Europe is used less frequently than concrete but, in the current context, it can also offer suggestions for new uses within the legislative body dedicated to social housing. Since the first trials in Europe of post-war reconstruction, the history of buildings made of cold-formed steel shows its vocation to the realization of housing. Strategic decisions affecting businesses, technologies and work, however, have favored the use of other solutions. The development of the construction system, however, has not stopped, and in the East, has led to innovations that reflect forms of society, economy and real estate properties that differ from those of European Countries, and from the Italian ones in particular. Today, in a liquid society, the boundaries between the areas of action of the construction industries become labile, and the solutions for the future development of social housing can take advantage only if they are identified through reinterpretation and redesign of technological innovations, at the international and global scale.