Sustainability and Energy Efficiency in Twentieth-Century Italian Built Heritage

This research dealt with the urban under-utilization of a specific part of the 20th-century architectural heritage in Italy, i.e. the War Wounded Houses. These build-ings, widespread throughout the Nation, are mostly abandoned or in a state of neglect. They are also technologically obsolete, and their energy refurbishment seems to be highly unavoidable to promote a new use for these premises. This paper analyzed and suggested a strategic approach to increase sustainability in the building sector in terms of landscape (re-)use and energy efficiency interventions. Acting on the 20th-century Italian cultural heritage is an opportunity to revitalize urban settings through the cooperation between the theories of architectural con-servation, energy retrofit procedures and financial analyses. The proposed ap-proach, applied to one pilot case study, involves a life cycle costing and a cost-optimal method, used to evaluate and compare different possible energy retrofit scenarios, balancing initial and running costs until the optimal level of interven-tion is identified. The procedure allows finding the design solution that combines their best energy efficiency targets with costs reduction goals over an extended analysis period. The model also aims at being a repeatable approach for similar cases, where buildings, not appropriately used in their urban context, can be a strategic element in renewal and sustainability processes.