Immobili confiscati alla mafia: recupero funzionale e adeguamento sismico

More than 95% of the property confiscated from the mafia is concentrated in eight Italian regions,with a clear prevalence of Sicily (40%). Most of these buildings are degraded and abandoned and must berecovered with change of intended use. Moreover, in many Italian cities, the households with living discomfortis increasing, mainly due to social and economic fragility. This paper examines the functional recovery andstructural consolidation of a building located in a sub-urban area in Catania (Sicily), to turn it into a socialhotel. The community activities are placed on the ground floor while the private activities are on the first floor.Moreover, the external areas were used to create a space for social agriculture. The seismic improvement hasbeen achieved thanks to steel bracing included into the building envelope. In addition to complying with thestandards on seismic constructions, technological solutions have been aimed at reducing energy consumptionand greenhouse gas emission using natural materials. The results show that the reuse of property confiscatedfrom the mafia can help to increase the housing supply from people feeding the temporary emergency.