Cohousing as a model of sustainable rehabilitation and active preservation for small historical centers in Italy.

With the view to the sustainable rehabilitation and active preservation, that considers Italian small historical villages not only as a cultural heritage, but also as a building resource suitable to be refurbished from the social-economic and technological point of view, the selection of a compatible and attractive housing model is crucial. Cohousing overcomes traditional real estate development model which considers the “final client” as an undifferentiated user, excluded from design-building process and it proposes his direct participation to the design of future housing context according to patterns that are never rigidly preset. In response to the change of the residential settlement model and to the light of new life models and family organization, with the aim of redefining new types of housing, a methodological and operation approach has been defined, which allows the definition of morphological housing models and the evaluation of their compatibility, as well as need frame translated into technical requirements. The paper intends to present the results of a research applied tol case studies, exemplifying the housing model investigated.