Keeping it modern, making it sustainable. Monitoring and energy retrofitting the Urbino University Colleges

Abstract

This paper presents a research to balance building conservation, users’ comfort and energy efficiency of a masterpiece of XX century architecture. The Urbino University Colleges were designed by architect Giancarlo de Carlo and built since 1962 to 1983 beside the Renaissance city. They host more than 1,000 students within 5 dormitories and 62,000 m2 surface. Authors discuss some outcomes from the “Keeping it modern” research program financed by the Getty Foundation in 2016, which aims at providing the Colleges with a sustainable conservation plan. The goal is to lower heating and operational costs to allow funds in conservation activities. Specific issues regard: the striking dimensions of the complex, the constructive features (brickwork walls, exposed concrete structures, single-glazed windows) and the lack of data about the hygrothermal performances.\ud The research thus includes a hygrothermal analysis, a proposal for the energy retrofitting, a building-HVAC model, a test on a pilot site. Authors have monitored surface temperatures, indoor air temperature and humidity for one year, even mapping their distribution through a digital psychrometer. Thermal imaging has been used to detect heat losses, thermal bridges and heat gains due to the solar radiation. Data have fed a building-HVAC model, which was a reference to design an appropriate strategy for retrofitting and improving the energy efficiency of the complex. Some solutions are being implemented on a pilot site. The building performances before and after retrofitting are compared.\ud Results provide indications to merge conservation and sustainability of a XX century heritage building.\ud In conclusion, the solid knowledge of each case confirms being required to support a retrofit proposal of a heritage building, moreover in case of a XX century building, as the cultural value of such a huge heritage is often disregarded to improve its energy performance

Up-To-Date Challenges for the Conservation, Rehabilitation and Energy Retrofitting of Higher Education Cultural Heritage Buildings

“…This cycle is part of the history of these buildings that must be preserved. However, to guarantee their use in the future, these buildings must also be adapted (adaptive reuse), repaired, rehabilitated and/or retrofitted to face current societal challenges and user expectations regarding thermal comfort and energy efficiency [5], as seen in the "new heritage" 20th-century architecture pieces, of the Urbino University Colleges, designed by architect Giancarlo de Carlo [6]. By definition, rehabilitation is the act of restoring a building to its original state; repair aims to bring back the architectural and functional shapes of the building so that all activities can resume; and energy retrofitting is the act of adding new features, materials, technologies and/or active systems that had not earlier been used in order to improve the thermal and energy performance of the building, improve indoor environmental quality (IEQ), save energy and reduce environmental emissions.…”

“…To draw a sustainable multidisciplinary intervention framework for education HBs, several areas of expertise have to be taken into account. For insta energy audits, building and systems monitoring assessment and energy efficienc ning [6]; (ii) cultural heritage and preventive conservation analysis, including co IEQ parameters, safeguarding of collections from a preventive conservation pers and proposing non-invasive measures aimed at mitigating the potential risks of the of increasing numbers of visitors [11]; (iii) the development and/or use of non-inv situ monitoring to measure the thermal and hygrothermal performance of histo struction elements [12]; (iv) using innovative materials and construction solution maintaining the identity of heritage constructions [13]; (v) using more efficien Soares et al [9] have highlighted the importance of the improvement of energy efficiency and the environmental performance of systems, the development of new technologies, increasing the use of renewable energy sources, the promotion of holistic and multidisciplinary studies [10] and the implementation of sustainable oriented policies at different scales. To draw a sustainable multidisciplinary intervention framework for higher-education HBs, several areas of expertise have to be taken into account.…”

“…To draw a sustainable multidisciplinary intervention framework for higher-education HBs, several areas of expertise have to be taken into account. For instance: (i) energy audits, building and systems monitoring assessment and energy efficiency planning [6]; (ii) cultural heritage and preventive conservation analysis, including control of IEQ parameters, safeguarding of collections from a preventive conservation perspective and proposing non-invasive measures aimed at mitigating the potential risks of the effects of increasing numbers of visitors [11]; (iii) the development and/or use of non-invasive in situ monitoring to measure the thermal and hygrothermal performance of historic con-struction elements [12]; (iv) using innovative materials and construction solutions while maintaining the identity of heritage constructions [13]; (v) using more efficient active systems to guarantee thermal comfort and IEQ [14]; (vi) the implementation of solutions and systems based on renewable energy sources [15]; (vii) building information modeling, design and the incorporation of energy efficiency concerns in the design of intervention plans [16,17]; (viii) dynamic simulation of energy in HBs and prediction of the energy performance of buildings in future climate change scenarios, including different tourism scenarios and future climatic data [15,18].…”