Saie, 27 to 30 October 2010, Bologna, Italy

For Italy’s house owners ecology is at the top of the list – Saie reacts with restructuring of trade fair themes

A comprehensive study by the Italian Building Institute Cresme on Italy’s building trade has shown that Italy’s house owners give top priority to environmentally compatible and energy-saving materials, and other criteria such as position or ambience of the property no longer play a main part. In the last three years a rethinking process has come about in Italy. Meanwhile 65 % of those questioned regarded sustainable modernization as the most significant value increase for one’s own home.

This rethinking process was favoured by stiffened regulations in regard to the use of energy-efficient materials. In particular the local building authorities resident in Northern and Central Italy influence this development through correspondingly strict regulations. The Italians however are lagging behind the German technological lead, so that the demand for modern sustainable technologies cannot be satisfied by the Italian production and therefore German products have great opportunities on the Italian market.

The motto of this year’s Saie, Italy’s leading Building Exhibition, is therefore “Integrate to build”. The 46th edition bundles the event themes into three large columns: sustainability, production, services. For the third time now the theme block of sustainable, energy-efficient construction is presented by the SaieEnergia. In 2008 this area hardly filled one hall; last year the area was doubled, and in 2010 three halls (14, 16 and 19) are available for the SaieEnergia. The theme of sustainability is being accompanied very intensively by numerous initiatives, conferences, workshops and podium discussions. A further column of the Saie is the SaieServici for the fields of building software and hardware, IT applications for architects, CAD, EDP services, organization techniques. The third column SaieCantieri covers the traditional areas of the building site and construction technologies.