The recently intensified trend of centripetal movements from small to bigger centres has multiplied the number of inhabitants of large cities. In Italy, this has resulted in worrying figures: more than 70% of Italian Municipalities have less than 5,000 inhabitants. Despite several regional and national policies dedicating programs and funds to counteract this progressive phenomenon fostering the repopulation of abandoned villages, this trend is far from being halted. Though the functional gap between cities and villages is evident, this study and previous research on this theme aim to change the perspective on the possible uses and repopulation processes of villages, pivoting on their potential as places where to enjoy different lifestyles. The focus is on the ecovillage model, developing a set of specific indicators to individuate them through their peculiar aspects and assess their benefits and vulnerabilities. An experimental application is also proposed on 7 ecovillages. This set of indicators is not conceived as completely substitutive of those used in current policies, but rather as a suggestion of possible integrations to avoid demoting this category of villages in policy-related evaluations for funding allocation.

The field of facility management, especially concerning condition assessment, is affected by two main issues: one is the incompleteness and heterogeneity of information transfer between the involved subjects; the other is the frequent lack of specific advanced skills needed for technically complex tools. The immediate consequences of this process inefficiency fall on economic and environmental aspects: the unavailability or incorrect structuring of data related to building conditions does not allow for making optimal choices concerning interventions on components. This paper attempts to provide a solution in this framework by presenting a methodology for simplified condition assessment, in which the evaluation of decay parameters draws from economic evaluation techniques, and which optimizes data collection, systematization, and elaboration, also integrating it with a mobile app for automatic data upload and centralization. The research underlying its development draws from decay evaluation criteria and national standards for the analysis and breakdown of buildings. The methodology was tested on a case study of the Cloister of Santa Croce in Florence, which also served as the client of the tool. The proposed methodology stands as an easily implementable integration to condition assessment for maintenance planning and building inspection activities.