The European goal to reach carbon neutrality in 2050 has further put the focus on the construction sector, which is responsible for great impacts on the environment, and new sustainable solutions to renovate the existing building stock are currently under development. In this paper, the AdESA (Adeguamento Energetico Sismico ed Architettonico, in Italian) system, a holistic retrofit technique for the integrated renovation of the existing buildings, is presented. The system was developed by a consortium of enterprises and universities and was applied to a pilot building. The system consists of a dry, modular and flexible shell exoskeleton technique that implements different layers depending on the building retrofit needs (cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels for the structural retrofit, thermal insulation panels for the energy efficiency amelioration, and claddings for the architectural restyling). In order to foster actual sustainability, the solution contextually targets eco-efficiency, safety and resilience. To this end, the system not only couples the structural and energy interventions to reduce the operating costs, but it is also conceived in compliance with life cycle thinking (LCT) principles to reduce impacts throughout the remaining building service life (from retrofit time to the end of its life). The system is designed to be easily mountable and demountable to allow for the reuse/recycling of its components at the end of life by adopting macro-prefabricated dry components and standardized connections, to reduce damage caused by earthquakes by reducing the allowed inter-story drift, and by amassing the possible damage into sacrificial replaceable elements. The paper describes the AdESA system from a multidisciplinary perspective and its effective application for the deep renovation of an existing gymnasium hall.
The renovation of the post-World-War-II reinforced concrete building has become an urgent action in order to meet energy-saving and to foster safety among the European communities. In this context, in order to overcome the major barriers to the renovation and to increase the feasibility of a deep, sustainable renovation action, a new incremental holistic rehabilitation (IHR) approach is introduced. This new approach has the major aim of fostering a safe, resilient and more sustainable society by addressing the life cycle thinking principles and by implementing incremental levels of safety. In this paper, an IHR strategy is defined and applied to a reference scholastic building. Fundamental criteria for the selection of the proper renovation strategy guaranteeing the minimum environmental impact and the applicability to Reinforce Concrete existing infilled frames are derived. The results show that a holistic incremental rehabilitation strategy can represent a good answer to the urgent need of sustainable renovation of Italian and European building stock.
The ambitious target of decarbonization requires a deep transformation of the construction sector and a systematic renovation of the existing building stock. Such a transition requires the adoption of new technologies conceived with a Life Cycle Thinking approach and implementing digital tools, maximizing performances, while enabling reduction of impacts and costs along the building life cycle. In the paper, a wooden construction technology for the deep renovation of existing buildings is presented. The solution is prefabricated off-site, made of a renewable bio-based material, and adopts innovative dry, standardized connections, enabling concentrating damage in case of earthquakes. The system is applied from the outside, without relocating inhabitants, that might otherwise hinder the renovation. An additional CLT engineered shell, coupled with an optimized thermal layer and new plants along the building perimeters, allow the combined energy and structural upgrade of the building. Finally, specific sensors are added for the continuous monitoring of structural health and environmental parameters. The proposed solution was developed within an industrial project integrating academic research and industrial leading-edge technologies and was applied to a typical post-WWII masonry building.
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