As is well-known, the role of the building sector in the Italian and European economies is an important one because of the extent of the investment made, the mobilisation of material resources and jobs involved and also the knock-on effects in other industrial sectors.

In this market, one of the most interesting environments in occupational repercussions terms and for the significance of the economic interests involved is the so-called management of the built environment, namely those activities aimed at guaranteeing the maintenance and modernisation over time of a building’s performance in order to maximise its profitability and/or market value.

New skills are required of sector operators and the management of the built environment is therefore not a situational phenomenon but something that is continually taking shape as a true strategic development sector defined by a miscellaneous set of technical, economic, organisational, social and cultural factors including:

• a reduction in the new building sector and a growth in investment – both Italian and foreign – in pre-existing property. This is mainly caused by the progressive ageing of the building heritage (subjected to both physical neglect and functional obsolescence) and by the gradual saturation of the built territory. In particular, the bulk of the building stock built in the 50s and 60s, which used low quality products and processes, is in growing need of action;
• structural transformations – both as far as quality and quantity are concerned – regarding demand;
• system upgrading in buildings in accordance with multiple standards (fire prevention, wheelchair accessibility, electric system safety, noise insulation, energy efficiency, etc.);
• raising of building quality standards;
• changes in user culture, regarding both the concept of environmental quality and the preservation of existing quality, energy and materials savings and attention to health risk materials;
• the increasing attention paid by industrial and service companies to real estate development, testified to by the increasingly important weight of this type of component in planning and strategies aimed at generating economic value;
• growing financial market increase in real estate, as shown also by the popularisation of investment funds, with the resulting development of real estate heritage enhancement strategies.

The result is innovation phenomena and the modification of traditional organisation assets, such as:

• the appearance of new management forms with integration potential, namely facility management, asset management and property management which see the creation of new professional figures, new forms of involvement for sub-suppliers, with innovations in the contractual mechanisms of client-supplier relationship adjustment (think, for example, about the relatively recent spread of global service contracts);
• the maturation of traditional institutes/companies managing real estate which are transforming their business profiles from simple operation management into strategic management, passing from corrective maintenance logic to programmed maintenance logic and procedures;
• the appearance of new suppliers of integrated management services for real estate, bearers of managerial culture, followed by increasingly frequent outsourcing policies.

In response to the factors listed above and to needs strongly connected to the job market, the School is offering this Laurea Magistrale (equivalent to Master of Science) which is extremely innovative and unique in Italy.