SUSTENAIBILITY REHABILITATION OF COLLECTIVE HOUSING. SPATIAL, FUNCTIONAL AND SOCIAL ASPECTS.

As part of the topic of interest concerning dwelling conditions, the issues of the residential housing stock, of the large scale collective dwellings impaired by wear and tear, have been given a lot of attention in Western Europe, since the 8th decade of the last century. The rehabilitation of collective housing ensembles has become a major contemporary concern, requiring answers and solutions on a list of priorities, all the more so in the former communist countries, where the urban housing is mostly represented, for economic reasons, by the dense, large scale collective residential ensembles. Alongside the other components of the sustainable rehabilitation projects i.e., technical and constructive, architectural and urban, in an integrated and multidimensional approach, the psycho-social component cannot be minimised or ignored. The paper's objective is to define, develop and, finally, propose an holistic approach to intervention in the existing collective residential buildings in view of their sustainable rehabilitation, from a multidimensional architectural urban, socio-economic and ecologic perspective, through differentiated levels: from that of primary, basic residential units (apartments), to the group they are aggregated into (architectural object) and to the housing ensembles. The paper is not aimed only at physically renovating the architectural and urban components; its implicit objective, through the proposed measures, being to revitalize and regenerate the residential areas from a psycho-social perspective, as well, by limiting social segregation, stimulating microcommunity sociability, creating a beneficial, secure environment, enhancing life quality and dwelling satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]