Locarno is digitally reorganising 70 buildings
Locarno is transitioning its municipal building stock to a digital database. This will enable more than 70 properties to be compared in terms of their condition, energy requirements and investment needs. As a result, the focus for refurbishments and budgets is shifting from individual decisions to an ongoing prioritisation process.
In Locarno, the overhaul of the property management system is taking place behind the scenes, but with tangible benefits for future refurbishments. The city is recording data on more than 70 municipal buildings in the Stratus portfolio management solution in order to assess their condition, technical components, maintenance cycles and investment requirements on a standardised basis.
This follows a response from the Municipality to a question raised by Luca Panizzolo, which was published on the city’s website on 19 August 2026. In it, the city describes the aim of creating a comprehensive database that will enable interventions to be prioritised according to technical, functional, energy-related and financial criteria. According to the city, the cost for the approximately 30 most important properties is estimated at around 300 million Swiss francs, whilst the total value of the entire portfolio runs into several hundred million Swiss francs.
Energy becomes a triage criterion
The city is monitoring buildings with high energy consumption or special operational requirements particularly closely. These include, amongst others, Palazzo Marcacci, the building on Piazzetta de’ Capitani, the Technical Logistics Centre, the PalaCinema, the Centro di Pronto Intervento, the Kursaal, the PalExpo FEVI and school buildings. Structured data on energy consumption and operating costs is available for these properties, which serves as the basis for renovation and modernisation decisions.
Some of this energy data goes back a long way. According to the city’s own statements, it maintains an annual energy ledger recording the consumption of electricity, heating oil, liquefied petroleum gas and water in the largest municipal buildings over a 25-year period. This means that energy is not merely treated as a sustainability issue, but as a criterion for prioritising investments in the existing building stock.
Renovations are already underway
Digital data collection is not just a theory in Locarno. According to the city, several projects are either underway or at an advanced stage of planning. These include the Centro di Pronto Intervento, a nursery school and, above all, the complete renovation of the primary schools in Solduno. Further measures are planned for the schools in Saleggi, the Palazzo Morettini, the Castello Visconteo and the PalExpo FEVI.
Added to this are the consequences of previous damage. Following the hailstorm in August 2023, roofs and attics were upgraded on various municipal buildings, which has reduced energy loss. At the same time, the town is focusing on smaller, quick-impact measures such as replacing lighting systems or installing thermostatic valves in school buildings.
More data, more control
For owners with diverse portfolios, the real value of such systems lies in their comparability. Stratus is geared towards public property portfolios and is designed to provide a data-driven overview of long-term financial requirements. Locarno combines this approach with an existing energy policy. According to the city, its photovoltaic systems covered around 31 per cent of the electricity consumption of municipal buildings in 2025, amounting to 720 MWh. The plan is to increase this share to 50 per cent over the next few years. For the property strategy, this means that maintenance, energy-efficiency refurbishment and the use of self-generated electricity will increasingly be managed using the same data set.