Circular Economy and Social Circularity. Diffuse Social Housing and Adaptive Reuse of Real Estate in Internal Areas

In internal areas subject to depopulation, a high percentage of real estate assets remain unused not only because of short-term contingent factors (such as physical and technological obsolescence, mismatch between supply and demand, speculative expectations, etc.), but also because of long-term structural trends. Such properties become a ‘waste’ of the economic system, both as a private cost for owners and as a social cost for communities due to the huge quantity of natural, human and financial resources that had been invested in their realization. In line with the adaptive and ex-active reuse approach, vacant real estate stocks may be reused through their physical, technological and functional refurbishment. This can also be an opportunity to develop ‘social circularity’ and to experiment with models of spatially diffused Social Housing, in order to meet the demand for housing and social services by low-income groups, as well as to build community and social cohesion. Taking as an example the internal areas of Sicily (Italy), we propose the development of a multidimensional model to support the decision-making process of selection of unused buildings that have the suitable features to be included in a virtuous circuit of reuse to provide Social Housing.