Thermal behaviour of buildings historical, materials and components: Methodological framework, calculation, results

The book is the result of a research that started in 2010, when the Rector of the University of Genoa decided to involve the Post-graduate School of Architectural Heritage and Landscape at the same university (directed by Prof. Stefano F. Musso) in the preliminary studies aimed at comprehensive reuse and restoration of the historical complex of Albergo dei Poveri in Genoa. The building was already undergoing a partial restoration and reuse programme, but was incomplete. Since that time, the building’s restoration has become an opportunity for various research investigations financed by university, ministerial, and regional funds.The book is divided into two parts: the first part deals with theoretical and methodological issues and the second one describes the results of applied research on a historical monumental building which, because of its size and complexity of the problems involved, may be considered a paradigmatic example. The theoretical and methodological approach is discussed from different points of view. In Chap. 2, Stefano F. Musso1 enucleates, in a contemporary framework, the fundamental questions inherent the discipline of architectural restoration, opening to the most pressing problems related to the theme of environmental sustainability and enhancement. The authors of Chap. 32, which in most experiences have already been working in multidisciplinary teams, address the issue of the new European legislation, and explain the content and structure of the Guide elaborated within the AiCARR activities. Chapter 43 is focused on the thermal behaviour of historical buildings, the calculation methods, and their reliability and on the results for typical traditional building elements and their possible insulation. The second part of the book discusses the methodology and research results applied to the case study, described in Chap. 5 in its general aspects and, in more detail in Chap. 64, as concerns materials and constructive characters. The Chaps. 7 and 8 constitute the core part of the feasibility study on energy efficiency, the results of which were included in the BIM parametric model. In particular in Chap. 7 are calculated the thermal behaviour of the building and energy needs for new uses, while in Chap. 8, the benefits induced by some insulating measures are calculated, and, moreover, the possible energy production through the installation microturbines (cogeneration) and of photovoltaic glasses on greenhouses in the valley behind the complex. These data are necessary to define the most suitable strategies to reach an energy balance or even to produce electricity to be placed on network systems. Finally, Chap. 9 deals with a topic of general, linked to the impacts on the historic heritage and landscape of solar technology and aimed at identifying factors that might qualify these delicate interventions.