The latest innovations in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) along with the establishment of the new paradigms of Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data Management are opening up innovative scenarios with respect to cognitive and decision making processes related to the management of the built environment. The novel availability of information offered by these digital technologies can lead to the definition of strategies aimed at significantly reducing management costs and improving building performance and service quality. Although this potential is now widely recognized by the various operators in the sector, experimentations have not yet led to a harmonization and standardization of procedures, processes and enabling technologies applications. The paper proposes strategies and tools for supporting the various FM operators in the choice and implementation of IoT technologies as well as in the management of Big Data and their sources, aiming at optimizing and innovating the current FM processes, models and services.

The topic of sustainable affordable housing in developing countries is gaining increasing importance within international debates. The challenge is to find a balance between the concepts of sustainability and affordability in building construction within fragile contexts, overcoming basic self-made shelter solutions towards the creation of sustainable durable housing. In particular, concerning the selection of constructive technological solutions, the goal is to shift from the current decision-making process based only on economic factors to a more holistic approach based on a triple bottom line perspective, integrating economic, environmental and social sustainability. With this aim, this paper proposes a decisional support tool for contexts characterized by poor information to sustain decision-makers in identifying suitable technological solutions. The tool is based on a set of key indicators, articulated into the three pillars of sustainability. The proposed tool, conceived as scalable and replicable, is finally applied to the specific context of Mogadishu (Somalia), since it is representative of the uncertain social, political and economic nature of fragile contexts.

The paper introduces the "BECOMe" project, winner of the PoliSocial Award 2018. BECOMe deals with sustainable affordable housing in developing countries. In particular, the research aims to deliver an integrated development plan for a new business ecosystem design model oriented to new sustainable settlements in Mogadishu (Somalia), involving local entrepreneurship, social facilities and renewable energies. Indeed, the topic of sustainable affordable housing in developing countries is gaining increasing importance for Somali and international stakeholders. Nowadays, the major gap in the provision of adequate and affordable housing is to build a social community and to go beyond just providing basic shelters, to create sustainable durable settlements. The fragile and uncertain nature of the social, political and economic context, characterized by the lack of common shared legislative references and business strategies within the housing sector, makes Mogadishu a complex and challenging reality to be explored and improved.

The paper introduces the on-going project Re-NetTA, which contributes to apply circular economy in the building sector, focusing on tertiary sector building components, characterized by rapid obsolescence and temporary uses. The Re-NetTA project identifies re-manufacturing and reuse networks and processes as tools to reduce the generation of waste deriving from renewals/transformations carried out on short-term cycles, applying Life Cycle Management and sustainable business models. The goal is to maintain over time the value of the environmental and economic resources, integrated into manufactured products, once they have been removed from buildings, extending their useful life and their usability with the least possible consumption of other materials and energy and with the maximum containment of emissions into the environment. At first, the paper shows how circular economy can be applied to the built environment, according to literature. Secondly, the problem of waste coming from renewal interventions, carried out on short-term cycles of the tertiary sector, is discussed on quantitative data. Consequently, the aims of the research and the methodology, based on an interdisciplinary approach, are introduced. Finally, the research output is pointed out, highlighting the related economic, environmental, and social impacts.

The application of innovative Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to the field of Urban Facility Management (UFM) outlines new possibilities for optimizing existing services and for developing new services based on the key concepts of: Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, information sharing and smart applications. Such ICT-based services could potentially be able to: transform the demand for infrastructures and physical assets; participate to requalification processes; influence the sustainability of the built environment as well as the economic value of urban areas. Starting from this premise, the paper deals with the contents and the current results of an ongoing research whose aim is to propose sets of classification and coding rules and a framework for identifying, analysing and linking Smart Cities (SC) domains and sub-domains, related UFM services and the various levels of enabling ICT technologies. The application of the proposed framework to a selected representative sample made up by both European Initiatives (e.g. H2020 projects) involved with SC solutions at the urban scale and virtuous cases of cities that have implemented smart solutions, allows to collect, allocate and process information, in a unified way, in order to: • identify and describe the current main trends within each of the SC domains (e.g. mobility, energy, waste, building, governance) and sub-domains; • implement a taxonomy of UFM services, including related characterising parameters and stakeholders; • identify and analyse, according to reading keys, smart UFM services that may have meaningful impacts (accessibility, transport, land-use, etc.) on urban areas; • draw the current innovative scenarios of smart UFM services enabled by ICTs, characterized by information sharing (Big Data flows) and by the integration of physical and digital infrastructures and assets; • highlight the emerging and widespread enabling technologies for smart UFM services, related to each of the layers of the technological infrastructure (e.g. sensing, network, platform, analytics, applications); • investigate the possibility of the creation of context-aware communities through the inclusion of multiple social components. The research, which is part of the PRIN research “Metropolitan cities: economic-territorial strategies, financial constraints and circular regeneration”, aims at providing interpretive keys and structured information, useful to study, evaluate and compare possible influences and impacts of the smart UFM services on the sustainability of the urban environment and on the dynamics of property values. The scenario that emerges from the analysis is inscribed in the broader framework of the circular economy where, with the support of ICTs -based services, cities can put in place virtuous processes to reduce, recycle and reuse waste.