Keeping it modern, making it sustainable. Monitoring and energy retrofitting the Urbino University Colleges

This paper presents a research to balance building conservation, users’ comfort and energy efficiency of a masterpiece of XX century architecture. The Urbino University Colleges were designed by architect Giancarlo de Carlo and built since 1962 to 1983 beside the Renaissance city. They host more than 1,000 students within 5 dormitories and 62,000 m2 surface. Authors discuss some outcomes from the “Keeping it modern” research program financed by the Getty Foundation in 2016, which aims at providing the Colleges with a sustainable conservation plan. The goal is to lower heating and operational costs to allow funds in conservation activities. Specific issues regard: the striking dimensions of the complex, the constructive features (brickwork walls, exposed concrete structures, single-glazed windows) and the lack of data about the hygrothermal performances. The research thus includes a hygrothermal analysis, a proposal for the energy retrofitting, a building-HVAC model, a test on a pilot site. Authors have monitored surface temperatures, indoor air temperature and humidity for one year, even mapping their distribution through a digital psychrometer. Thermal imaging has been used to detect heat losses, thermal bridges and heat gains due to the solar radiation. Data have fed a building-HVAC model, which was a reference to design an appropriate strategy for retrofitting and improving the energy efficiency of the complex. Some solutions are being implemented on a pilot site. The building performances before and after retrofitting are compared. Results provide indications to merge conservation and sustainability of a XX century heritage building. In conclusion, the solid knowledge of each case confirms being required to support a retrofit proposal of a heritage building, moreover in case of a XX century building, as the cultural value of such a huge heritage is often disregarded to improve its energy performance.