“Universal Design as an instrument for sustainable reuse of buildings”

The relationship between a building and the environment entails a set of rules that need to be respected as the precondition for the survival of the ecosystem “man-nature”. Cyclical processes of extraction, use and reintroduction of materials in the ecosystem are necessary to achieve the balance between limited resources and human needs. Historically this process was encouraged by the continuous recycling and recovery of materials and buildings. The construction of settlements is the main cause for the use of land, raw materials, energy (about 50% of materials and 40% of energy are used for and in buildings) and it produces bulky and sometimes dangerous waste (about 50% of solid waste). Building construction dramatically influences the natural environment: the speed with which humans have used the natural environment has resulted in the decrease of the capacity to absorb the waste products of the construction sector. The significant impact that the construction sector has on the global energy balance validates the increase of recovery interventions on existing buildings. These interventions, through the use of appropriate technologies and design criteria, can meet the building performance requirements. In this way, the recovery becomes “an act of culture”, an “integrated recovery”, addressing the ecological and environmental issues, the use and reuse needs as well as material and technological requirements. This paper focuses on reuse of existing buildings through design of an environment that can be used by everyone. The instrument to achieve this is the Universal Design, a concept that restores a key objective of meeting the needs of as many users as possible. It aims to achieve an objective value, not just provide a set of dimensional requirements. It induces the designers to think not just about the codes and special features for specific users, but to find solutions that meet the needs of all the users. The concept of Universal Design is a response to the complexity of the real world. It is an open system that considers a dialectic relationship between environment, a building and the users.