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Promotion of retrofit actions on existing buildings is a goal in Italy, since most of them were built before the 80 s when little attention was paid to energy saving. This paper presents an integrated passive design approach to reduce the heating demand and limit the costs of a representative existing residential complex located in Bologna, in the northern part of Italy. To this purpose, we explored different scenarios upon actions taken on the building structure: (1) High efficiency windows; (2) additional insulation on the external walls; or (3) the simultaneous application of high efficiency windows and improved thermal envelope, on both external walls and roofing. The numerical optimization has been performed dynamically using TRNSYS simulation tool, to evaluate energy consumptions in different structural conditions. Then, the developed model has been calibrated by the real consumption data deduced from energy bills (years 2009-2015). Finally, the energy results obtained in the above mentioned different scenarios have been evaluated under an economic assessment of cost investment: It has been highlighted that the payback time (PBT) results to be strongly influenced by the national policies of fiscal incentives. According to the present model, the most profitable condition is obtained when additional insulation on the external walls is applied: The total amount of energy saving resulted to be equal to 930.4 MWh, with an optimal PBT of roughly six years, when tax refund was contemplated.

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The foundation of architectural acoustics as an independent science is generally referred to Sabine’s early studies and their application. Nevertheless, since the 16th Century, a great number of authors wrote essays and treatises on the design of acoustic spaces, with a growing attention to the newborn typology of the Opera house, whose evolution is strongly connected to the cultural background of the Italian peninsula. With roots in the Renaissance rediscovery of Vitruvius’s treatise and his acoustic theory, 16th- to 19th-Century Italian authors tackled several issues concerning the construction of theatres—among them, architectural and structural features, the choice of the materials, the social meanings of performances. Thanks to this literature, the consolidation of this body of knowledge led to a standardisation of the forms of the Italian Opera house throughout the 19th Century. Therefore, the scope of this review paper is to focus on the treatises, essays and publications regarding theatre design, written by pre-Sabinian Italian scholars. The analysis of such literature aims at highlighting the consistencies in some 19th-Century minor Italian Opera houses, in order to understand to what extent this scientific and experimental background was part of the building tradition during the golden age of the Italian Opera.

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In a Historical Opera House (HOH), the proscenium is the foreground part of the stage. Until the end of the 19th Century, it was extended through the cavea, being the orchestra placed at the same level of the stalls, without an orchestra pit. Soloists often moved in the proscenium when they sung, in order to increase the strength of the voice and the intelligibility of the text. The Alighieri theatre in Ravenna, designed by the Meduna brothers, the former designers of Venice's "La Fenice" theater, is chosen as a case study. During a refurbishment in 1928, the proscenium of the stage was removed in order to open the orchestra pit, which was not considered in the original design. The original design and the present one are compared by using numerical simulations. Acoustic measurements of the opera house and vibro-acoustic measurements on a wooden stage help to reach a proper calibration of both models. Results are discussed by means of ISO 3382 criteria: the proscenium increases the sound strength of the soloists but reduces the intelligibility of the text.