Energy savings in building restoration - an applicative case

Abstract

Italy has a historical and architectural heritage which consists mainly of buildings built in different historical period. These buildings are today characterized by some aspects of functional distribution and comfort, which need rehabilitation. This is related to the change thinking on a more comfortable distribution of spaces, and improving the sustainability of buildings. These issues have spurred the study of methods to improve the distribution of spaces, the performance of indoor comfort and the energy efficiency in the full respect of materiality and aesthetics of the building. Therefore, the aim of this rehabilitation is improving the indoor comfort, the energy efficiency and the environmental performance of existing buildings, but it is also to choose more carefully the most environmentally sustainable materials for the restructuring. In this work, a case study of rehabilitation of a historical school building sited in the city of Palermo in Italy is reported.