Proceedings of the 2008 World Sustainable Building Conference

The housing market finds itself facing an emergency due to the difference between supply and demand, in particular in the social housing market. Faced with a demand for cheap social housing, that runs the risk of creating new situations of poverty and profound social marginalisation, the residential buildings market is proposing, at the medium and high end, to turn to the private market and a set of requirements and questions that are more easy to resolve. At the dawning of a new era in social housing, the quantity requirements have to be viewed alongside research that privileges many aspects of environmental and technological quality, characterised by both interactivity and its relationship with the natural environment. The reflections on the technological aspects of the building organism are reflected in the transformations it aims to assist: the new materials introduced on to the market are joined to conventional technology, the new and elevated performance levels required have to face up to the behaviour patterns and functional schemes of contemporary life.