intervention strategies for renovation of social housing estates

The research set up Chapter 1
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INTRODUCTION TO THIS CHAPTER
CHAPTER 1)
THE RESEARCH SET UP
This chapter provides a general overview of the research in this thesis. It is structured into
four Sections. Section 1.2 describes the problem of the ageing housing stock in Europe and
in Italy. It also introduces the current Dutch context. Section 1.3 discusses the research
design and describes the problem definition, the aim, the main research questions, the
relevance and the applicability. Section 1.4 gives information about the methodology used,
whereas Section 1.5 explains the structure of the research. Finally, an introduction to the
second chapter is provided.
1.1) BACKGROUND
1.1.1) EUROPEAN LEVEL
Most of the European social housing stock was built after the WWII. The demand for housing
in the post-war period necessitated the rapid production of large numbers of dwellings with
less emphasis on qualitative aspects (Andeweg et al., 2007). This massive housing stock now
decays fast, not only physically but increasingly functional performances deteriorating as
well.
Since the production of new dwellings generally decreased to an annual European average of
below 1% of the existing stock, demolition on a large scale will be a less obvious option.
Improvement of existing dwelling quality by renovation will become the main approach (van
der Flier et. al., 2004).
Housing organizations need to periodically refurbish their housing stock and the demand for
sustainable refurbishment is high: from the European Commission, the member states and
the associated states (SUREURO) 1 is high.
Many European countries investigate and apply intervention strategies in order to intervene
in deteriorated housing estates and dwellings. New technologies have been developed, but
have not yet been brought into practice, were ad-hoc implemented or focused on limited
factors. Consequently, these strategies only have limited impact on urban environments
(Andeweg et al., 2007).
A special problem is the large prefabricated post war housing estates in Central and Eastern
Europe. Typically, refurbishment strategies are not integrated with sustainability and lack
sufficient participation of residents. Indeed, many refurbishment projects only focus on
technical issues and initial costs (SUREURO).
International comparative research is dominated by social, spatial and economic surveys like
the European funded Restate project (Restructuring Large-scale Housing Estates in European
Cities: Good practice and Visions for Sustainable Neighborhoods and Cities). Generally,
comparative studies addressing the physical level are lacking.
The European funded research program CostC16 provides an overview of common problems
affecting large housing estates in Europe and applied solutions in renovation of social
housing estates. In this study, common problems were grouped into design, technical and
social aspects and tabulated against common design aspects like monotony of building
layouts, large number of small flats, lack of diversity in dwelling types, lack of dwellings
1 SURERURO stands for SUstainable Refurbishment EUROpe. It is a European research project into the housing
environment. The objective of the research group is the introduction of environmental friendly energy supplies to large
housing sates and the creation of an efficient and healthy environment (www.sureuro.com).
1. A
EUROPEAN LEVEL