Life quality end energy efficiency in social housing

Usage of natural resources, energy efficiency, adaptation to climate change, waste reduction and mobility are, at the same time, both the problematic issues of sustainability and areas where the discipline of architectural technology has the specific skills and tools to contribute improve. In line of recent intensification of this problems, also in Italy, housing requires a critical reflection oriented to definition of innovative design approaches. Technology teaching, especially in laboratories, represents an stimulating field for further investigation and experimentation. The didactic experience, carried out within the Architecture Construction Laboratory (IInd year) at the Second University of Naples - Faculty of Architecture -, brought out the importance within the architecture design to realize objectives as sustainable usage of natural resources (water, solar energy and wind) in social housing. This paper explores innovation and quality question in social housing. The complex balance between needs for housing, quality of buildings and economical feasibility, well explain the challenge of Social Housing. Architectural and technological experimentation are important interpretation tools both of user needs and performance’s improvement in relation to built environment and collective spaces. Changed housing needs, increasingly oriented to flexibility, as well as the need for high performance energy and, in general, environmental urban settlements (and building) require a strong educational approach based on teaching of a design "method" able to contemplate this complexity. Probably, if the question regards “How can we assure to our students the ability to be innovative?”, the need for innovation could mean, from an educational point of view, teaching a designing method opens to changes and innovation.