Existing Building Transformation: Current Drivers, Issues, and Possibilities

Constructions account for a huge amount of energy and resources consumptions, affecting our indoor and outdoor living environment with pollutant emissions, for our planet and ourselves. Besides the climate change, the constant development of urban areas leads to an increasing demand for building spaces (most of all, with residential functions), and, therefore, to the urban densification phenomenon. All those different needs require to be addressed by a set of integrated and valuable design strategies for the sustainable transformation—versus demolition—of the built environment, by combining the energy retrofit of existing buildings and the definition of newer and healthier constructions, with the choice of the most proper technologies and materials to interact with existing structures and envelopes. The chapter introduces the concept of additive building transformation and proposes a different taxonomic approach to the construction layering, foreseeing a new possible paradigm of action towards a sustainable “palinsesto”.