Some basilar questions about building maintenance

The paper presents some considerations on the usage of several maintenance strategies in relation to building typologies with particular reference to "simple" buildings used as dwellings, and "complex" buildings of the services sector. Those considerations originate also from the interpretation of what happens in manufacturing industry, where maintenance studies and experimentations are more advanced. The carried out research has shown that maintenance needs of "complex" buildings are very similar to those ones of industrial machinery and that much closer similarities exist between "complex" buildings and industry than between the former and the "simple" buildings. Moreover, the paper stresses the fundamental role played by maintenability - being merely a project characteristic - which affects the whole duration of the building. Within this framework a determining function is represented by the project.