The refurbishment of prefabricated residential buildings in socialist countries (1954-1970): methodological criteria and social perspectives

Prefabrication was the instrument by which European countries, both the Eastern and the Western countries, sought to cope with the growing demand for housing after the Second World War. In the Soviet Union and the socialist countries, this choice is closely linked to the construction of the communist society. The paper analyzes the housing and construction models developed in the Soviet Union in the late 1950s and subsequently exported to Eastern Bloc countries, focusing on the Albanian case study. The survey aims to define the main characteristics of the buildings with these systems, in terms of seismic resistance and energy performance.