Public assets, the State Property Department focuses on digital and Ai to enhance the value of properties

The digitalisation of the built environment is increasingly becoming part of the agenda of public administrations. This is the message that came out of the meeting promoted on 15 April by the Cnel, the Agenzia del Demanio and the Italian Centre for Digital Innovation in Construction, which focused on the relationship between technologies, public property management and the enhancement of cultural and social heritage. The key passage of the day was the official presentation of Cidic, a new multidisciplinary scientific association that brings together experts, universities and research centres with the aim of accompanying the digital transition in the construction sector. On the table, against the backdrop of a theme that administrations know well: using data, digital models and new tools to improve building knowledge, design, maintenance and intervention times. A path that is not always easy, as technicians and operators know.

Opening the proceedings were Cnel president Renato Brunetta and Agenzia del Demanio director Alessandra dal Verme. Brunetta spoke of an "epoch-making revolution" linked to the digitalisation of the built environment, emphasising that "it is not so much a revolution in computerisation and design", but a more profound change affecting the timing, management and maintenance of works. Administrations grappling with construction sites that drag on for years are well aware of this: "If a work takes ten years to complete, in public opinion it is ten years of inconvenience," he said, warning that this way "the assessment of psychological, human and environmental costs prevails over the benefits". The president of the Cnel also recalled the size of the heritage to be managed: "45 thousand state properties and 46 thousand private historical residences", a set that can become a "catalyst for growth and development" if accompanied by investments and adequate organisation.

Dal Verme brought the discourse back to operational ground, linking maintenance to the theme of 'care'. "You maintain when you take care of something," he explained, insisting on public responsibility in heritage management. "Our responsibility first of all ethical, even before the legal one, is to take care of our heritage in order to create values". Digitisation, he added, is decisive because 'it helps on knowledge, design quality and property management'. This is a key step for an agency that manages '45,000 public properties distributed throughout the territory'. A change of approach also weighs in the State Property Department's reasoning: "The objective is the user, not the walls," said Dal Verme, recalling the need to respond to the needs of territories and administrations.

This is where the contribution of the research world comes in. "We are in a key moment that can be understood by the speed with which the turbulence arrives," explained Berardo Naticchia, president of Cidic. "It is not just digitisation, it is global interconnection. Hence the need to change approach: 'We must take complexity as a reference' and 'put ourselves at the service of the social fabric'. Overwhelmed by the acceleration of artificial intelligence, the risk pointed out is also cultural. 'The biggest mistake would be to pretend it does not exist,' he said, but at the same time we must avoid 'the loss of cultural ownership', i.e. the ability to represent territories and communities. Hence the creation of the centre: 'A transdisciplinary body' capable of 'conversing with administrations' and accompanying public decisions.

The operational front was referred to by the State Property Department. "Digitisation is not just an enabler but the foundation of the real estate life cycle," explained Massimo Bollati, director for digital transformation. The Agency claims a path that has already been set in motion: 'All our projects today focus on the Bim methodology,' he said, also emphasising the development of digital models and field experiments. The point, however, is to make a leap forward: "We need a very operational direction," warned Bollati, because the network between universities and institutions "has value if it produces models, projects and clear guidelines". At the centre remains the issue of skills: "Digital skills must not be a qualification, but the foundation of the profession". And again: "We need a common language", otherwise the complexity risks remaining unmanageable. Downstream, the issue of heritage knowledge returns. "We cannot enhance what we do not know," recalled Cnel councillor Massimo Giuntoli. The starting point is well known: 'We have more than 2 million pre-1900 sites', an enormous heritage that requires continuous maintenance. "When you say that a building is finished, in reality that is where it starts to live," he noted. The delay also comes down to skills. "In Italia, architects who know Bim are about 50 per cent," while in other European countries the percentages are higher. And the structure of the market weighs in: "Design studios have on average less than two employees," a limitation that makes it more difficult to adopt advanced digital tools.