Digital Models for Technological Design of Social Housing Sustainable Renewal. a Selection of Case Studies on the First Public Housing Plan Stock in Rome (1964)

According to the New European Bauhaus, a key area for a sustainable transformation of the built environment is the definition of new strategies and operational tools for the renovation of the existing building stock. It is therefore necessary to create environmentally sustainable buildings, reducing consumption and costs for the end user. The research focuses on how to renovate post-war social housing neighborhoods—not only in technical and energy-saving terms but also from a social, cultural, and economic perspective. The objective of this proposal is to develop strategies for the rehabilitation of a large stock of social housing projects in Rome which were realized between the sixties and the eighties of last century. The need to have strategies in place for the re-calibration of these buildings rather than their demolition is an important objective of the European New Green Deal. The research examines the predisposition to the implementation of improvement measures. The element at play here is digitization and the use of digital technologies for greater efficiency and sustainability, with positive spin-offs for the entire economy. This should re-qualify and enrich rather than demolish, resulting in a higher quality of space to support an architecture that meets the needs of the users. These solutions are not limited to technical-normative and typological-functional adaptations. They also consider urban, social and economic implications, as well as the design possibilities and explorations of this reinterpretation and recalibration in function of different contemporary lifestyles and societal needs, through the use of digital technologies.