Building envelope implementation in a refurbishment case study in the Venice hinterland

The progressive reduction of public investment in the last 20 years for the residential sector has reduced the Italian stock of social housing to less than one and half million units, which represent only 5,8 % of the residential buildings in use. This stock – built up between the ’60s and ’80s – is affected by many and relevant lacks in functionality and performances, due to its age and void of maintenance. The economic crisis burst in 2008 has produced both a dramatic intensification of affordable rental apartments request and a further reduction of the already small availability of investments to expand the social housing stock. So the evaluation of refurbishment interventions has acquired a strategic role in this sector. A research project – which follows a research program lead in cooperation between the Faculty of Architecture of Università Iuav di Venezia and ATER (Territorial Agency for Residential Building) of Venice – assumed a social housing complex, built in the ’70 and placed in the Venice hinterland, as case study in order to investigate the refurbishment opportunities. The project foresees a building envelope implementation (including a new one for the first floor galleries) and a volumetric addition on the ground floor connecting the existing volumes as a "functional and commercial platform” to generate part of the financial resources to support the initiative. The paper will outline the results of refurbishment scenarios performed on the case study describing the transformation strategy adopted, the functional and technical upgrade and the obtained energy savings.