The requalification of industrial buildings: a circular economy perspective

Abstract

Since the 1970s, in Europe the industrial decommissioning phenomenon has led to the generation of an obsolescent and widespread building stock, located in highly strategic areas. This paper, aiming to make abandoned industrial buildings re-enter the market, focused on the development of prefabricated housing modules, according to the nested-building renovation approach. The project started from the constraint’s typological analysis (architectural, functional and structural) of 900 reinforced concrete industrial buildings in view of the intervention replicability. Finally, to validate the design and technological choices, the analysed system was applied to a real case study in Verona: the Greggi Warehouse (1960) in the “ex-Manifattura Tabacchi” factory area.