Seismic–Energy Retrofit as Information-Value: Axiological Programming for the Ecological Transition

Abstract

The research deals with the issue of the seismic and energy retrofit of historic building fabrics having as reference a historic district of Syracuse (Italy). The prospect of the ecological transition on the one hand and the public support funding on the other claim for a valuation programming approach implying the creation of multiple scenarios, each of which is inspired by a different and complementary degree of “saliency and urgency”. These two dimensions of “being worth” by a building aggregation having an its own shape and belonging to a larger and more complex urban system need to be addressed according to some axiological reference, in this case, the concerns of the efficiency and fairness of public spending. This experience concerns the creation of a value-based programming pattern of the seismic–energy retrofit process framed in a Building Information Modelling (BIM) environment aimed at identifying the best intervention strategy among the several ones that can be generated in the logic of the parametric design. Both seismic and energy retrofit expected performances, in fact, can be scaled, complementing the extension and intensity of the interventions. This experiment takes advantage of the BIM multidimensional logic in line with the multiple scales and purposes implied by the relationships between individual/communal axiological profiles and present/future prospects. The experiment consists of the creation of an additive cost-oriented design platform based on which the different and progressive combinations of intensity and extension of the interventions can be compared and selected.