Alternative approaches to improve preservation and energy behavior in Aosta Valley's traditional buildings.

Nowadays it is necessary to consider building energy behavior improvement when dealing with existing buildings. Concerning historical heritage, this can be possible paying attention on conservative targets, above all, and carefully calibrating the re-use works. The structures here analyzed are the so-called greniers and raccards, ancient rural buildings of Valle d'Aosta used for the agricultural products conservation and cereal processing. Refurbishment and re-use are perhaps the only way to save these fabrics from decay and abandonment, even if some retrofitting and energy upgrading techniques commonly used risk to strongly and definitively alter their consistency. The paper presents the first results of the PhD research, which suggests to deal with the re-use of those buildings through alternative approaches to improve their energy behavior. Analyzing and enhancing the original climatic properties and characteristics of their construction technology, it is possible to design and regain specific solutions; considering their consistency inside the village "macro-area" permits to develop suggestions about differentiated and integrated new-uses. The approaches involve sustainability on the cultural point of view and consider also the economic and environmental aspects, which will be confirmed after the research results.