Architectural regeneration between innovative technologies and cultural heritage: adaptive reuse of school buildings

Although architectural heritage is the material expression of the cultures and societies that built it, in a present-day society heading towards an ecological and digital transition, it is essential to rethink its role, in the transition from a passive, contemplative nature to an active, functional one without distorting the structure’s identity. Architectural heritage, then, must be reinterpreted as a resource in transformation that changes over time and in space along with its context, gaining through reuse a new life capable of meeting the needs of society now and in the future. Currently in Italy, a large number of buildings with an important historical and architectural value and a strong cultural identity contain school institutions with decades-long roots in the territory: The national demographic crisis requires a functional rethinking of these buildings, currently oversized for their enrolment. Within this logical framework, the architectural and energy requalification of buildings designed for education through an adaptive reuse approach has emerged as a precious tool for giving school structures a central role as poles for socialization and innovation within urban fabrics. This approach implies a construction transformation that is adaptive in type, while maintaining the buildings’ historic, cultural, and architectural value. From this perspective, adaptive reuse must take account of future architectural changes. Inside this process of technological requalification and regeneration, the following elements take on central importance: Adoption of bioclimatic strategies; integration of digital tools for the monitoring and management of buildings; optimization of energy efficiency; user comfort and well-being; and minimization of the environmental impact derived from the intervention and from the materials used, all with a view to promoting flexibility and adaptability of the heritage. In this setting, this research, the result of work done within the Department of Planning, Design, and Technology of Architecture (PDTA) at Sapienza University of Rome presents a case study exemplifying a process of adaptive reuse of the scholastic architectural heritage located in an established urban setting. From a methodological standpoint, in the first phase, a territorial analysis was conducted employing the Geographic Information System (GIS) tool to plot the flows and the manmade and natural dynamics on a large scale, from which then to proceed on the urban district scale and to fully understand the social value of the construction. In a second phase, the GIS was accompanied by an analysis and check at the level of construction, managed through the use of a Digital Twin model developed in Building Information Modeling (BIM), which allowed data connected to the building’s well-being—mental, physical, environmental, and in terms of energy consumption—to be simulated. Lastly, from the work of fact-finding and methodological/instrumental exploration, a third, evaluational phase summarizing the possible intervention scenarios, administered through a Decision Support System (DSS), was hypothesized.