Introduction: The emerging of energy and environmental thread has fostered a new cultural design approach to Sustainable Architecture that aims to conceive and implement buildings with a low environmental impact. In this context the role of Building Information Modelling (BIM), as a support tool for sustainable integrated design, acquires great relevance. The purpose of this study is to investigate BIM potential in both addressing preliminary design choices and supporting complex analysis during the advanced design phase, within the whole sustainable design process. A technological rail building is assumed as a case study: the Operation Control Centre for the new Oman Railway, whose preliminary project was elaborated by the Italian engineering society Italferr s.p.a. Methods: The BIM approach is used to identify possible problems and deficiencies in the preliminary project, which may represent a good basis for a next design improvements proposal. The next phase consists in investigating and experimenting BIM tools potential in supporting the Conceptual Design, by using Autodesk® Revit® and IES VE® software suites, for the modelling and the energy analysis of different conceptual design solutions. Once the optimal building shape is established, the study focuses on the evaluation of sustainability effects brought by the structural building component, in particular for what concerns its materials environmental impact. Results and discussion: The analysis of the preliminary project shows the potential of BIM in the control of many performance parameters of a building in the design phase, revealing all the design problems associated to the lack of an integral multidisciplinary approach during the initial phases of the process. The possibility of looking into a series of solutions in a quick and in-depth manner permits an accurate assessment of the most adequate form for a building based on the place in which it is set, thus joining current technological design methods to traditional bio-climatic methods, reinstating the strong and inevitable link between site and building.

The major disruptive seismic events that have hit Italy in recent years (2009, 2012 and 2016) have started a disciplinary debate regarding the need to tighten up requirements for structural strengthening of structures in historic buildings, in order to avoid the loss of human lives and heritage. The preservation of materials resulting from an increased level of performance would positively affect structural systems, as well as the preservation of historic and cultural values and their transmission to future generations. This article explores the relationship between cultural sustainability and the structural rehabilitation of historic architectures, two key aspects contributing to the achievement of a wider sustainability goal during the restoration and renovation process of historic buildings. The contribution explores how GBC Historic Building®, the first and only rating system assessing and certifying the sustainability level of restoration, rehabilitation, and adaptation of historic constructions, addresses the topics of structural tests and monitoring, as well as reversibility and structural compatibility.

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