Author(s)

S. Brunoro

Abstract

This paper seeks to investigate the use of sustainable strategies of intervention in the refurbishment of social suburban building stock considering some public buildings in Emilia Romagna region of ACER (Emilia Romagna housing company) ownership. In this study, interventions on the envelope and the installations, in order to improve architectural and energetic performance following the new European Energy Standards for energy savings, have been considered. Besides the technology and architectural result, an evaluation of the costs of the interventions and their payback was done; this should be very important considering the nature of the ownership. Examples of interventions pointed to the use of renewable energies and sustainable technologies for building envelopes (external thermal insulation, ventilated façades, and greenhouses) are examined. The investigation is based on a range of examples developed during the course of energetic control of buildings at the Faculty of Architecture of Ferrara and with the support of ACER Ferrara and Reggio Emilia. Social buildings owned by public companies are very popular in the Italian suburbs. These large and highly populated living units clearly represent the main examples of energy consumption in the building sector. Performing envelopes and renewable energies are the most useful strategies to improve not only the energetic balance, but also the architectural value of these buildings. The approach carried out was step by step, starting from the easiest and cheapest operations (e.g. replacement of windows) up to the more expansive (e.g. photovoltaic panels). This approach can be helpful to public administrations to manage interventions by considering their incidence on the overall balance.

Keywords

social housing, renewable energies, sustainable technologies, bioclimatic architecture, energy retrofit