THE RECOVERY OF HISTORIC CENTRES: A MULTIPLE STRATEGY FOR THE ENERGY SAVINGS

Sustainable criteria and comfort objectives are nowadays the basis of any design process that seeks to rise the liveability of an urban context and the opportunity of use of its built heritage. This study starts by considering the same criteria and objectives for the reconstruction phases of those small historical cities severely hit by the earthquake: case study is Arquata del Tronto, located in central Italy and affected by the seismic activity starting in 2016. The study we propose illustrates a methodology for achieving the energy efficiency from a multilevel perspective, identifying three different dimensions -the territory, the urban context and the building-. For each dimension we move from a cognitive framework to a phase of planning, providing a series of operative indications. The strategy is not to consider the possible energy solutions independently from each other, but to think about an integration of solutions, by combining the retrofit interventions on buildings with the use of various type of renewable energies. In this regard, the understanding of the territorial resources becomes necessary to suggest reconstructive solutions consistent with the characteristics of the place, while the knowledge about the features of the buildings allows to carefully evaluate the possible impact of the interventions, so to identify the most appropriate energy strategies in respect of the historical value. The study therefore outlines how to supply all the energy demand of the urban center with only retrofit intervention and renewable sources, so to minimise the need of fossil energy. It provides a comparison between the investment cost required to perform all the interventions planned and the total energy savings over the years, so to calculate the amount of time necessary to the full return of investments. In conclusion, the project provides a multi-scale guideline text usable for supporting the reconstruction process and, in general, the recovery of the built heritage, orienting the design activities towards the sustainability requirements and the energy efficiency.