Italian student housing: what furniture the decree asks for, and what it does not fund

In short. The minimum standards for Italian university accommodation set net areas and functional areas: a single room of at least 9.3 square metres, a double of at least 13.6, never more than two beds, a bathroom shared by no more than three beds with at least 2.6 square metres. They do not prescribe the furniture, or its dimensions. Separately, the call does not reimburse furniture. The result is a room that is fixed as a box and free as to its contents, and furniture that has to be budgeted in full from the start.

The line that changes the financial plan

The official questions and answers for the call are explicit: the call does not reimburse the cost of works, charges or furniture. This is not a matter of interpretation; it is a written sentence.

Anyone building the financial plan of a residence on the assumption that the contribution also covers fitting out finds a whole line uncovered, and finds it late, once the rooms are finished and have to be filled. Furnishing a student residence is not a small item: it is the same number of pieces as a hotel of comparable size, with a longer expected life and harder use.

The practical advice is obvious and often ignored: furniture is costed when the room is drawn, not when it is handed over. A 9.3 square metre room designed without the real dimensions in front of you is a room that later gets furnished with whatever fits, rather than with what is needed.

What the decree actually fixes

The minimum standards reason in areas. The figures that matter to whoever furnishes are these.

• Single room, including bed space and study space: at least 9.3 net square metres. Double room, with two bed spaces and a study space: at least 13.6 square metres.
• Expressed per bed, the parameter is 10.6 square metres in a single and 8.1 in a double.
• Rooms with more than two beds are not allowed.
• Where the area for preparing and eating meals is inside the room, the room area increases by at least 0.85 square metres.
• Bathroom with washbasin, shower, WC and bidet, shared by no more than three beds, with an area of not less than 2.6 square metres.
• At least 5% of beds reserved for users with physical or sensory disabilities, with the area per bed increased by at least ten per cent.

There are also reward thresholds above the minimum: in a single, from 11.2 to 11.7 square metres and above 11.7; in a double, from 8.6 to 8.9 square metres per bed and above 8.9. Anyone aiming at those thresholds has more space to work with, and it is worth knowing before the furniture is drawn rather than after.

The absence that matters: the decree does not say what furniture is needed

This is the part that surprises anyone reading the decree looking for a list. There is none. The minimum standards do not name the bed, do not name the desk, do not name the wardrobe and give no dimensions for any of them. The only equipment requirement for rooms concerns technology: integration of information and multimedia technologies, data connectivity and smart-building logic.

On materials the guidance is general, and worth reading because it is what a specification can lean on: "so far as possible" maintainability, durability and replaceability of materials and components, with performance monitored over time; and a preference for low-impact materials, oriented to recycling and reuse, under the minimum environmental criteria.

The word that carries most weight in the whole text, for anyone who makes furniture, is replaceability. In a university residence replacement is not a remote possibility: it is the normal way the furniture ages. A unit whose front changes without dismantling the carcass, a mechanism replaced by a code rather than by a bespoke part, a removable cover: these are choices the decree does not impose and that decide the cost of the following ten years.

Furniture goes on the drawings

There is a point at which furniture stops being a purchase and becomes part of the submitted design: the post-works plans must show the main furnishings, the room types, the accessible bathrooms and the functional areas.

That means the room layout is settled at application stage, with real dimensions. Drawing a generic bed and a generic desk to make the plan work, and then discovering that the actual bed is longer or that the desk needs a chair that does not fit, is a problem born on the drawing and revealed on site.

What to ask the supplier

Four questions, before choosing models.

• Real dimensions including clearances: not the size of the unit, but the space needed to open it, to sit at it and to walk past. In 9.3 square metres the difference between a hinged door and a sliding one is the whole room.
• What gets replaced, and under what code, in five years: fronts, mechanisms, coverings.
• What happens to the accessible bathrooms, which follow their own rules and must be marked on the drawings.
• What reaction-to-fire class the furniture in that residence needs: the standards decree does not decide it, the building's fire file does — the subject of the guide to student housing furniture and of the one on the 1994 decree and the Code.

How we work

A university residence is manufacturing work rather than catalogue work: many identical pieces, dimensions that have to fit inside a tight box, and a long service life in which replacement counts for more than the first delivery. We work to order with in-house workshops, and that is exactly what helps here: a front or a covering can be remade to the same drawing years later, because the drawing is ours.

The value that weighs most is still time: compliant, certified products delivered on schedule mean a residence that opens for the right academic year. On counting that calendar backwards there is the guide to lead times; on what to fix in writing before production, the one on the mock-up room. The contract page explains how we run a project, and contact reaches the people who run it.

Frequently asked questions

Does the Italian student housing call reimburse furniture?

No. The official questions and answers published for the call say so explicitly: the call does not reimburse the cost of works, charges or furniture. The contribution covers other things, and furnishing stays with whoever builds the residence. It is a line worth reading before building the financial plan, not after.

What minimum room areas does the decree set?

The minimum standards set a single room of at least 9.3 net square metres, including a bed space and a study space, and a double room of at least 13.6 square metres with two bed spaces and a study space. Rooms with more than two beds are not allowed. Where the area for preparing and eating meals is inside the room, the room area increases by at least 0.85 square metres.

Are bunk beds allowed in an Italian PNRR student residence?

No. The questions and answers for the call exclude bunk-bed solutions: rooms must be single or double, consistently with the minimum standards, and in no case with more than two beds.

Does the decree say what furniture a room must have?

No, and this is the part that surprises people most. The minimum standards reason in terms of areas, bed spaces and functional areas; they do not list bed, desk, wardrobe or chair and give no dimensions for them. The only guidance on materials is general: maintainability, durability and replaceability of components, and a preference for low-impact materials under the minimum environmental criteria.

Does the furniture have to appear on the drawings?

Yes. The questions and answers for the call require the post-works plans to show the main furnishings, the room types, the accessible bathrooms and the functional areas. That is the point at which furniture choices stop being a purchase and become part of the submitted design.

Talk to us The contract division

This page cites the minimum dimensional and qualitative standards annexed to Italian ministerial decree no. 481 of 2024 of the Ministry of University and Research, in the paragraphs on room areas, bathrooms, beds for users with disabilities, reward thresholds, technologies and materials, together with the official questions and answers published for the call, on the reimbursability of furniture, bunk beds, the number of beds per room and the required drawings. Calls and their questions and answers are updated over time: before setting up a project, what governs is the text of the call in force and its annexes. This page is not a substitute for advice from whoever prepares the application.