Milan, Italy
Milan, Italy
The demo case building in Italy is a community house that is located 7.5 km away of Milan’s city centre. The community house belongs to the Municipality of Milan and is surrounded by an almost residential neighbourhood. It is used by the Fondazione Progetto Arca association, which hosts 16 vulnerable people, including tenants who are on an addiction recovery path. The community house was constructed and retrofitted in 1965 and 2005, respectively. The two-floor building has four bedrooms, 6 toilets, a laundry room, a living room, a kitchen, a TV room, an office and a boiler room.
The climate of the region is continental, with minimum winter temperatures at -4.9 °C and maximum summer temperature reaching at 35.8 °C. In July 2023, the building’s roof was damaged by a tornado leading to water infiltration. However, a waterproof sheath was quickly installed to protect the building interiors from water, and a similar roof was reconstructed.
A precise and accurate photographic survey of the interior rooms was carried out to provide an overview of the interior spaces in a 3D tool. Also, two sensors have been installed in the building to measure the temperature and humidity of the rooms. The construction and installation works will last for eight months in total. The roof was temporarily fixed in July 2024 and the new roof is being installed now. Further execution work will finish by the end of April 2025.
Location: Via Amantea, 5, 20153 Milan, Italy
Owner: Municipality of Milan
Construction/retrofit date: 1965 & 2005
Total floor area: 190 m2
Total height: 6.5 m (east facade) to 8.6 m (west facade)
Climate: Continental
Partner: Municipality of Milan
Contact Person:
Ilaria Giuliani, ilaria.giuliani@comune.milano.it
State of the building before the RE-SKIN renovation
Facade: Walls constructed with uninsulated bricks
Windows: Simple double-glazing windows with thermal break insulation PVC frame
Heating: There are tubular steel radiators with double or triple columns, with varying heights and numbers of elements. During mid-October 2022 to mid-April in 2023, the radiators were used 14 hours daily. The distribution of the heat transfer fluid to the radiators is managed through zone traditional brass collectors installed vertically, without any pipeline interception. Also, no thermostatic valves have been detected on any radiators to control the flow, based on room temperature, for consumption management. Therefore, the control system is not able to set the proper temperature/flow rate of the working fluid for providing ideal indoor conditions of temperature and humidity. The heating system and the domestic hot water preparation systems for the ground floor and the first floor are completely independent of each other, and they are connected to two separate gas boilers. tubular steel radiators Hot water: Two gas boilers on the ground and first floor are used to ensure the production of domestic hot water needs of each floor.
Cooling: During the time of survey, from mid-October 2022 to mid-April in 2023, there was no air conditioning system or mechanical ventilation system installed in the building. This can be quite problematic for the health of the tenants, as outdoor summer temperatures can be 35.8 °C. To start resolving this problem, two sensors have been installed in the building to measure the temperature and humidity of the rooms.
Key challenges
- The building hosts fragile people, thus, the work has to be carried out quickly with non-intrusive techniques. • The building is characterised by small and low technical rooms. Therefore, the technical system should be adap
- The building is characterised by small and low technical rooms. Therefore, the technical system should be adapted to the space constraints.
Architectural plan
Before the renovation After the renovation

