Addition Strategy and Multi-Layered Envelopes in Building Adaptation: A Methodological Framework

This article proposes an approach to rehabilitation processes based on adaptation, focusing on the re-use of existing, obsolete and redundant building stocks in alternative to strategies that rely on demolition followed by construction, which have high energetic and environmental impacts. The proposed approach also defines an intervention strategy that relies mainly on the transformation of the building envelope. In particular, the implications of “addition strategies” - that consist in the introduction along the whole façade or part of it of a new multidimensional envelope (from very low depths till around 250 cm) – will be evaluated from several viewpoints: qualitative, spatial/functional, structural, constructive, energetic, environmental. Within this approach, the adoption of lightweight innovative materials - ensuring hi-performance in terms of structural efforts and thermal behavior - can play a significant role, maximizing the benefits of the refurbishment project, while at the same time it minimizes, when possible, the modifications to be carried out inside. The final goal of the article is to highlight how the crescent application of advanced materials in refurbishment projects can be a crucial resource for the sector of the transformation and building reuse.