The preservation of historical heritage in a sustainable manner (environmentally, socially and economically) and is becoming increasingly complex and critical. While incentives to speed deep-energy improvements are growing, a stalling economy presents significant hurdles to real estate owners. In addition to these challenges, structural stability, safety, and social well-being are directly jeopardizing our historical and cultural heritage. These consequences are amplified by increasingly frequent and extremely weather events. In such a complex environment, property managers, owners, and local governments tasked with future-proofing old buildings are juggling numerous competing demands. On the one hand, there is a need to quickly implement and scale deep energy retrofit approaches at a reasonable cost. Architects and designers are consequently driven to develop one-size-fits-all, plug-and-play solutions and rapidly duplicate best practices across multiple structures. On the other hand, there is a need to strengthen local identities and restore cultural values through distinct architectural flavors that adhere to the original (building) traditions to improve the welfare of local communities. Despite substantial investments in tackling this challenge over the past decade, the renovation rate is still too slow, and the solutions implemented are suboptimal. Besides a few brilliant exceptions, many of the approaches adopted to this day often rely on a case-by-case trade-off that compromises one aspect (e.g., energy efficiency) over the other (e.g., preserving architectural identity, often for the sake of tourism). While all these efforts have been instrumental in advancing existing knowledge, historical buildings are far from meeting the needs of present and future generations. Simultaneously, building decay is affecting local communities in many ways, from endangering touristic attractions to disrupting building surroundings, leading to declining real estate values and capital loss, all while being far from meeting ambitious climate targets. This paper, based on results of a European Commission-funded research project that was later developed by the Inception spin-off team at the University of Ferrara, will provide an account of the Florence (Italy) case study, including detailed mapping, modeling, and making descriptions. It will focus on economic valuation, building regulatory compliance, historical building document analysis, user preference definition, and building inspection phases. It will also cover the construction of BIM models and the technical design evaluation process, with a focus on energy efficiency gains and problems encountered. Finally, it will cover the building and monitoring phases, highlighting new solutions and their influence on energy efficiency and indoor environmental quality.
Balancing Preservation and Innovation: A Case Study on Sustainable Deep-Energy Renovation of European Historical Buildings in Florence
Emanuele Piaia
Primo
;Roberto Di Giulio
2024
Abstract
The preservation of historical heritage in a sustainable manner (environmentally, socially and economically) and is becoming increasingly complex and critical. While incentives to speed deep-energy improvements are growing, a stalling economy presents significant hurdles to real estate owners. In addition to these challenges, structural stability, safety, and social well-being are directly jeopardizing our historical and cultural heritage. These consequences are amplified by increasingly frequent and extremely weather events. In such a complex environment, property managers, owners, and local governments tasked with future-proofing old buildings are juggling numerous competing demands. On the one hand, there is a need to quickly implement and scale deep energy retrofit approaches at a reasonable cost. Architects and designers are consequently driven to develop one-size-fits-all, plug-and-play solutions and rapidly duplicate best practices across multiple structures. On the other hand, there is a need to strengthen local identities and restore cultural values through distinct architectural flavors that adhere to the original (building) traditions to improve the welfare of local communities. Despite substantial investments in tackling this challenge over the past decade, the renovation rate is still too slow, and the solutions implemented are suboptimal. Besides a few brilliant exceptions, many of the approaches adopted to this day often rely on a case-by-case trade-off that compromises one aspect (e.g., energy efficiency) over the other (e.g., preserving architectural identity, often for the sake of tourism). While all these efforts have been instrumental in advancing existing knowledge, historical buildings are far from meeting the needs of present and future generations. Simultaneously, building decay is affecting local communities in many ways, from endangering touristic attractions to disrupting building surroundings, leading to declining real estate values and capital loss, all while being far from meeting ambitious climate targets. This paper, based on results of a European Commission-funded research project that was later developed by the Inception spin-off team at the University of Ferrara, will provide an account of the Florence (Italy) case study, including detailed mapping, modeling, and making descriptions. It will focus on economic valuation, building regulatory compliance, historical building document analysis, user preference definition, and building inspection phases. It will also cover the construction of BIM models and the technical design evaluation process, with a focus on energy efficiency gains and problems encountered. Finally, it will cover the building and monitoring phases, highlighting new solutions and their influence on energy efficiency and indoor environmental quality.I documenti in SFERA sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
