A new modular preassembled timber panel for the energy retrofit of the housing stock

This paper is focused on the design of a modular preassembled timber panel for the retrofit of pitched roofs. There are several benefits in substituting the existing roofs with preassembled timber modular panels: an optimization of the duration of the on-site work during the construction phase, a lower cost of on-site installation, a better control of the hygrometric performance of the elements, and, generally, a better quality of the built asset. The main objective of the work is to develop a solution which contains a high percentage of recycled materials and can be easily produced and assembled by non-skilled workers of social cooperatives. Appropriate studies of the technological details, as well as structural and economic analyses were carried out in order to optimize the manufacturing process and the onsite installation. Finally, in order to measure the affordability of the developed solution a multi-storey residential building located near Milan was considered as case study.