From arazzo to textile based innovative system for energy efficiency of listed buildings

Improving energy efficiency of historic buildings has some critical points to consider. It has no sense obtaining better performances to the detriment of cultural values inherent in them. For this reason, what is important is to find the balance between sustainability and conservation needs. Recently the “Guidelines for improving energy efficiency in Cultural Heritage” has been issued by the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage, and in January 2017 the European standard “Conservation of cultural heritage - Guidelines for improving the energy performance of historic buildings” has been approved. Both emphasize the importance of avoiding unnecessary excesses of intervention and pose clearly the distinction between adaptation to standard and improvement. The historical buildings, in fact, can be improved obtaining a lower energy consumption, but without the pretence of a perfect adaptation to parameters that can be reached only when you are constructing ex novo. Given the significant percentage equal to 30% of construction considered as historical in the European Union, the possibility to intervene in this particular field, increasing the performances without altering the properties is certainly significant in its general impact. For those reasons, the authors have been designing innovative devices for improving the traditional solutions to mitigate the effects of climate.