Upcycling of industrialized architecture from the second half of the 20th century: from inventory to reuse strategies for steel components

Within the heritage of twentieth-century industrialised architecture, lightweight prefabrication systems represent a particularly significant field for in- vestigating the reuse potential of building components, due to the standardisation of elements and the legibility of assembly processes. Within this framework, the present contribution proposes a procedure to translate industrialized buildings at the end of their service life into an inventory of traceable steel components and, subsequently, into estimated avoidable kgCO2eq emissions. The work is structured into the following phases: the development of a GIS- HBIM census of industrialised buildings characterised by lightweight systems in the Lazio region; the identification of a homogeneous cluster of buildings with steel-based systems, corresponding to the BDS-Tecnosider school programme; and the in-depth investigation of the case study of the “Alessandro Volta” Technical Institute in Tivoli. For this case study, an as-built BIM model was developed from a knowledge base derived from archival sources, technical documentation, on-site surveys, and recent technical and performance-related data, with the specific aim of identifying the building’s steel components. The model was then used to generate an inventory of the steel elements currently present in the structure. On this basis, the Life Cycle Inventory was defined, and a preliminary LCA was carried out to quantify the potential avoided kgCO2eq emissions from the reuse of the existing stock of steel components. The study shows how a BIM/GIS census, integrated with information modelling and environmental assessment tools, can support the analysis of existing buildings by considering them as a source of reusable materials and components. From this perspective, the Tivoli case study provides a valuable testing ground for verifying replicable procedures for the identification, inventorying, and environmental val- orisation of steel components in twentieth-century industrialised buildings.