Energy efficiency and preservation of 20th century architecture

This paper follows the discussion on the energy efficiency of heritage buildings by dealing with the task of preserving 20th century buildings and making them more sustainable. It is confirmed that a thorough analysis of each case is needed, since the cultural value of modern heritage risks being overwhelmed by the effort to improve its energy efficiency. The Urbino University Colleges are a masterpiece of the 20th century. They were designed by architect Giancarlo de Carlo, built between 1962 and 1983 and still host 1000 students. A conservation plan was outlined in 2016 with the aim of developing the long-term and sustainable preservation of such a huge complex. A specific goal in terms of sustainability was lowering the heating costs to save funds for conservation activities. The efforts were thus to balance building conservation, energy efficiency and users’ comfort. A thermal analysis, an energy retrofit design, a test on a pilot site, a comparison between before and after, are the tools that have been used to achieve this objective. Results provide some operational indications to merge conservation and sustainability in a 20th century heritage building.