A White Elephant as Opportunity: Transforming the Approach to Public Real Estate

Abstract

Public real estate assets can be considered as a layered repository of collective values generated by various long-term processes. These processes reflect a system of intertwining institutional policies and socio-economic developments that can be observed both at the macro and micro scale . Vastness, Variety and Variability are the main characteristics that hinder satisfactory management. The general state of preservation  and use of public real estate, aggravated by the prevailing era of construction (boomer buildings), transforms it into a white elephant an inconvenient legacy rather than a real opportunity.

After decades of government’s efforts and due to recent EU directives, our country is currently undergoing a methodological renewal to manage public buildings, distinguishing between instrumental goods, those producing an income, and unused assets.

This contribution is the result of reflections and design experiments carried out over the past twenty years in the academic field. It departs from a sector-specific approach, proposing a key to understand public real estate that provides a unified basis for a flexible approach. To address the technical, procedural, and ethical dimensions that shape and continuously transform public real estate as a common good, the paper adopts the four components of any technological products-hardware, software, and the technology support network as an integrated analytical framework.