intervention strategies for renovation of social housing estates

The research set up Chapter 1
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To meet the aim of this research, three research questions are formulated:
RQ 1) What solutions to improve renovation of social housing estates in Rome could be
identified in the Dutch housing management model?
RQ 2) What envelope directed physical measures have been applied in good examples
practices of renovation of social housing estates in the Netherlands?
RQ 3) What might be strengths and weaknesses of implementing Dutch physical measures
for renovation in the Roman context?
This research does not adhere to the idea of physical determinism often claimed by people
and architects in particular: ‘technical improvements to the dwellings will automatically make
the residents happier’ (Priemus, 2005). Rather, the fundamental assumption is that physical
renovation alone (technical and functional) cannot succeed in improving the quality of
deprived social housing estates. To be successful in renovation, physical, social and economic
factors have to be integrated. With this in mind, this study mainly focuses on physical and
managerial problems.
1.2.3) CONTENTS AND PURPOSE
As said in the previous section, the aim of this study is to recommend on directions to
improve the intervention strategy of ATER Roma. To provide these directions the Netherlands
is taken as a reference country. Two types of investigations will be considered: insights into
the Dutch managerial model and into good examples and best practices of renovation. Both
investigations are considered relevant to recommend on the possibilities and limitations of
transferring Dutch practices to particularly Roma, and the Italian context in general.
Therefore, this research combines design and managerial aspects.
However, ATER Roma is not an isolated case in Italy, and therefore the output of this
research might be of use for other housing institutions as well. This could be particularly true
for all of those institutes investing more money maintenance and renovation..
Information collected in this research might be seen as a reference for managers of housing
associations and other institutions dealing with renovation of social housing in Italy.
However, since it also based on physical aspects of renovation, is directed to architects as
well. Numerous floor plans and pictures of Dutch renovations projects are provided in two of
the eight chapters.
The research intends to integrate best practices of renovation in the Italian context. Often, in
fact, parties involved in the process ignore the range of solutions they could think about and
do not sufficiently discuss how to put these solutions into practice. Knowing that physical
actions have been actually realized in other countries could serve as a stimulus to go beyond
standard approaches.
Plans and pictures comparing initial and final situation of the blocks are considered an
effective tool for communication because the measures will be visualized. Visualization
should be among the first steps in re-stimulating experimentation in the social housing
sector and will raise interest and debate on ways to deal with housing shortage and decaying
conditions of the social housing stock.
The lack of Italian scientific and non-scientific publications on this subject might pinpoint at a
decreased interest. With few exceptions, in fact, the country does not contribute to
international research on social housing renovation.
This research also has an historical dimension. Both the background of Dutch and Italian
local context will be described to explain the initial conditions of the deprived large social
housing estates. This will enhance understanding of current renovation approaches in the
Netherlands and Italy and partially determine final recommendations on implementation.
8. A